This Disclosure document is being offered to you by Bonfire Financial, LLC (“Bonfire
Financial”) about the investment advisory services we provide. It discloses information
about the services that we provide and the way those services are made available to you,
the client.
We are an investment management firm located in Colorado. We specialize in investment
advisory services for individuals, high-net-worth individuals, small business owners,
pensions, trusts and retirement plans. The firm was established by Brian Colvert in 2017.
We are committed to helping clients build, manage, and preserve their wealth, and to
provide assistance that helps clients to achieve their stated financial goals. We will offer
an initial complimentary meeting upon our discretion; however, investment advisory
services are initiated only after you and Bonfire Financial execute an engagement letter or
client agreement.
Investment and Wealth Management and Supervision Services
We offer discretionary investment management and investment supervisory services for a
fee based on a percentage of your assets under management or on a dollar flat fee. These
services include investment analysis, allocation of investments, quarterly portfolio reports,
financial commentaries, and ongoing monitoring of client portfolios. We primarily allocate
client assets among various mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), and individual
debt (bonds) and equity securities in accordance with their stated investment objectives.
In some cases, our firm does utilize pre-built portfolios for clients based on their risk
tolerance and time horizon.
Clients have the ability to place reasonable restrictions on the types of investments that
may be purchased in an account, however our Firm retains the right to decline to enter into
a management agreement with any clients whose investment are contrary to the firm’s
investment strategies. (Please see Item 16, Investment Discretion for additional
information concerning discretionary authority.)
We will work with you to obtain necessary information regarding your financial condition,
investment objectives, liquidity requirements, risk tolerance, time horizons, and any
restrictions on investing. This information enables us to determine the portfolio or model
best suited for your investment objective and needs.
In performing our services, we shall not be required to verify any information received from
you or from other professionals. If you request, we will recommend you engage the
services of other professionals for implementation purposes. You have the right to decide
whether or not to engage the services of any such recommended professional.
Once we have determined the types of investments to be included in your portfolio and
allocated them, we will provide ongoing portfolio review and management services. This
approach requires us to review your portfolio at least quarterly.
We will rebalance the portfolio, as we deem appropriate, to meet your financial objectives.
We trade these portfolios and rebalance them based on the combination of our market
views and your objectives, using our investment process. We tailor our advisory services
to meet the needs of our clients and seek to ensure that your portfolio is managed in a
manner consistent with those needs and objectives. You will have the ability to leave
standing instructions with us to refrain from investing in particular industries or invest in
limited amounts of securities.
In all cases, you have a direct and beneficial interest in your securities, rather than an
undivided interest in a pool of securities. We do have limited authority to direct the
Custodian to deduct our investment advisory fees from your accounts, but only with the
appropriate written authorization from you.
Where appropriate, we provide advice about any type of legacy position or other
investment held in client portfolios. Clients will engage us to advise on certain investment
products that are not maintained at their primary custodian, such as variable life
insurance and annuity contracts and assets held in employer sponsored retirement plans
and qualified tuition plans (i.e., 529 plans).
You are advised and are expected to understand that our past performance is not a
guarantee of future results. Certain market and economic risks may exist that adversely
affect an account’s performance. This could result in capital losses in your account.
Held Away Discretionary Accounts Relationship with Pontera
Through our relationship with Pontera, our firm provides an additional service for accounts
not directly held with our recommended Custodian but where our firm does have
discretion and leverages an Order Management System to implement asset allocation or
rebalancing strategies on behalf of the client. These are primarily 401(k) accounts, 529
plans, variable annuities, and other assets not held with the recommended Custodian. Our
firm’s representatives regularly reviews the current holdings and available investment
options in these accounts, monitors the account, rebalances and implements our strategies
as necessary. The Firm is engaged with Pontera, an unaffiliated entity, to offer this service
to our clients.
Financial Planning
Through our Financial Planning process, we strive to engage our clients in conversations
around the family’s goals, objectives, priorities, vision, and legacy – both for the near term
as well as for future generations. With the unique goals and circumstances of each family
in mind, we offer financial planning ideas and strategies to address the client’s holistic
financial picture, including estate, income tax, charitable, cash flow, wealth transfer and
family legacy objectives. Our team partners with our client’s other advisors (CPA, Estate
Attorney, Insurance broker, etc.) to ensure a coordinated effort of all parties toward the
client’s stated goals. Such services include various reports on specific goals and objectives
or general investment and/or planning recommendations, guidance to outside assets and
periodic updates.
Our specific services in preparing your plan may include:
• Review and clarification of your financial goals.
• Assessment of your overall financial position including cash flow, balance sheet,
investment strategy, risk management and estate planning.
• Creation of a unique plan for each goal you have including personal and business
real estate, education, retirement or financial independence, charitable giving,
estate planning, business succession and other personal goals.
• Development of a goal-oriented investment plan, with input from various advisors
to our clients around tax suggestions, asset allocation, expenses, risk and liquidity
factors for each goal. This includes IRA and qualified plans, taxable and trust
accounts that require special attention.
• Design of a risk management plan including risk tolerance, risk avoidance,
mitigation and transfer, including liquidity as well as various insurance and
possible company benefits.
• Crafting and implementation of, in conjunction with your estate and/or corporate
attorneys as tax advisor, an estate plan to provide for you and/or your heirs in the
event of an incapacity or death.
A written evaluation of each client's initial situation or Financial Plan is provided to the
client. An annual review will be provided by the Adviser, if indicated by the Client and
Advisor per the Financial Planning Agreement. More frequent reviews occur but are not
necessarily communicated to the client unless immediate changes are recommended.
Retirement Plan Advisory Services
For employer-sponsored retirement plans with participant-directed investments, we
provide advisory services as an investment advisor as defined under Section 3(21) and
3(38) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”).
When serving as an ERISA 3(21) investment advisor, the plan sponsor and our firm share
fiduciary responsibility. The plan sponsor retains ultimate decision-making authority for
the investments and may accept or reject the recommendations in accordance with the
terms of a separate ERISA 3(21) Investment Advisor Agreement between our firm and the
plan sponsor. We provide the following services to the plan sponsor:
• Screen investments and make recommendations.
• Monitor the investments and suggests replacement investments when
appropriate.
• Provide a quarterly monitoring report.
When serving as an ERISA 3(38) investment manager, the plan sponsor is relieved of all
fiduciary responsibility for the investment decisions made by our firm. We are the
discretionary investment manager in accordance with the terms of a separate ERISA 3(38)
Investment Management Agreement between our firm and the plan sponsor. Our
investment management is limited in that it has the discretion solely to replace funds in
plan fund lineups and initiate the transfer of existing balances to the replacements without
prior approval from the client.
We provide the following services to the plan sponsor:
• Select the investments.
• Monitor the investments and replace investments when appropriate.
• Provide a quarterly monitoring report.
• Develop a customized IPS.
Our goal in identifying the plan’s investment options is to provide a range of options that
will enable
plan participants to invest according to varying risk tolerances, savings time
horizons or other financial goals. The plan's investment options may consist of ETFs, CITs,
mutual funds, model portfolios, or other similar investment funds. The investment funds
from which our Firm will select from will be those that are available on the plan record-
keeper’s investment platform.
Retirement Plan Advisory Services consists of helping employer plan sponsors to establish,
monitor and review their company's retirement plan. As the needs of the plan sponsor
dictate, areas of advising could include: investment selection and monitoring, plan
structure, and participant education.
We will provide quarterly recommendations for the plan’s investment allocation. Upon
receipt we will review the investment options and provide positions for accounts in
accordance with the management style chosen by the client. Analysis is provided for each
fund held by the Plan. A report shows historical performance, asset allocation, and the
performance of each fund, including its performance in comparison to its appropriate
benchmark. The report also contains information regarding each Fund’s managers,
capitalization, investment style, expenses, portfolio composition and other qualitative
factors relevant to the Fund’s performance and adherence to the Plan’s Investment Policy
Statement. Clients are responsible for making the fund changes within the account.
Participant Level Education
We can also be engaged to provide financial education to plan participants. The scope of
education provided to participants will not constitute “investment advice” within the
meaning of ERISA and participant education will relate to general principles for investing
and information about the investment options currently in the plan. We may also
participate in initial enrollment meetings and periodic workshops and enrollment meetings
for new participants. We may meet with plan participants on a regular basis (quarterly,
semi-annually or annually) as agreed upon at the Client’s discretion to discuss the reports
and investment recommendations.
We provide Plan consulting services separately or combined with our 3(21) services. Clients
may choose to use any or all of these services as indicated on the Plan Sponsor Investment
Advisory Agreement with our Firm.
Betterment Institutional Platform
Bonfire Financial may recommend that certain Clients implement their investment
portfolios through Betterment Institutional, a division of Betterment LLC (herein
“Betterment Institutional” or the “Investment Platform”). Betterment Institutional is what
is often termed a “robo-advisor”, an online wealth management service that provides
automated, algorithm-based portfolio management advice. Robo-advisors use technology
to deliver similar services as traditional advisors, but generally only offer portfolio
management and do not get involved in a Client’s personal situation, such as taxes and
retirement or estate planning. Bonfire Financial chose to affiliate with Betterment
Institutional due to the Investment Platform’s customized portfolio allocations, automated
rebalancing, and competitive fees. Bonfire Financial utilizes Betterment Institutional as a
complement to its comprehensive financial planning services to provide cost effective
investing coupled with personalized financial planning.
To establish accounts with Betterment Institutional, the Client will also enter into one or
more agreements with Betterment that provides the authority for discretionary
investment management by the Investment Platform. Bonfire Financial remains the
Client’s primary advisor and relationship contact and will select or construct a portfolio of
ETFs and/or cash equivalents from the universe of investments included on the Investment
Platform.
Bonfire Financial will have the discretionary authority to instruct Betterment Institutional
with respect to portfolio construction, asset allocation and other investment decisions,
subject to the limitations described herein. Betterment Institutional will implement the
portfolio and be responsible for the discretionary trading of the ETFs in the Client’s
portfolio, including the purchase and sale of investments and the automatic rebalancing
back to targets.
Bonfire Financial will work with each Client to construct a portfolio to meets the needs of
the Client. The Client has limited ability to put restrictions on its accounts. The account[s]
cannot contain investments that are not included in the Betterment Institutional universe
of ETFs and cash equivalents.
Betterment Institutional, under its discretionary authority, will automatically adjust and
rebalance the Client’s accounts daily based on the drift tolerance established for the
positions in the investment portfolio. The Advisor’s investment philosophy is long-term,
but Bonfire may make such tactical overrides to take advantage of market pricing
anomalies or strong market sectors. Bonfire does not actively trade in the Client’s
account[s] and is also limited to a enter one allocation change per account per trading day
through Betterment Institutional, the Client should be aware of these potential
disadvantages.
Prior to engaging Bonfire Financial to provide investment advisory services, each Client is
required to enter into an agreement with Bonfire that defines the terms, conditions,
authority and responsibilities. These services may include:
• Establishing an Investment Strategy – Bonfire Financial in connection with the
Client, will develop a strategy that seeks to achieve the Client’s goals and
objectives.
• Asset Allocation – Bonfire Financial will develop a strategic asset allocation that is
targeted to meet the investment objectives, time horizon, financial situation and
tolerance for risk for each Client.
• Portfolio Construction – Bonfire Financial will develop a portfolio for the Client
that is intended to meet the stated goals and objectives of the Client.
• Investment Management and Supervision – Bonfire Financial will provide
investment management and ongoing oversight of the Client’s investment
portfolio.
Disclosure Regarding Rollover Recommendations
A client or prospect leaving an employer typically has four options regarding an existing
retirement plan (and may engage in a combination of these options): (i) leave the money in
the former employer’s plan, if permitted, (ii) roll over the assets to the new employer’s plan,
if one is available and rollovers are permitted, (iii) rollover to an Individual Retirement Account
(“IRA”), or (iv) cash out the account value (which could, depending upon the client’s age,
result in adverse tax consequences). Our Firm may recommend an investor roll over plan
assets to an IRA for which our Firm provides investment advisory services. As a result, our
Firm and its representatives may earn an asset-based fee. In contrast, a recommendation that
a client or prospective client leave their plan assets with their previous employer or roll over
the assets to a plan sponsored by a new employer will generally result in no compensation to
our Firm. Our Firm therefore has an economic incentive to encourage a client to roll plan
assets into an IRA that our Firm will manage, which presents a conflict of interest. To mitigate
the conflict of interest, there are various factors that our Firm will consider before
recommending a rollover, including but not limited to: (i) the investment options available in
the plan versus the investment options available in an IRA, (ii) fees and expenses in the plan
versus the fees and expenses in an IRA, (iii) the services and responsiveness of the plan’s
investment professionals versus those of our Firm, (iv) protection of assets from creditors and
legal judgments, (v) required minimum distributions and age considerations, and (vi)
employer stock tax consequences, if any. All rollover recommendations are reviewed by our
Firm’s Chief Compliance Officer and remains available to address any questions that a client
or prospective client has regarding the oversight.
We are fiduciaries under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and when we provide
investment advice to you regarding your retirement plan account or individual retirement
account, we are also fiduciaries within the meaning of Title I of the Employee Retirement
Income Security Act and/or the Internal Revenue Code, as applicable, which are laws
governing retirement accounts. We have to act in your best interest and not put our interest
ahead of yours. At the same time, the way we make money creates some conflicts with your
interests.
Consulting Services
We also provide clients investment advice on a more-limited basis on one-or-more isolated
areas of concern such as estate planning, real estate, retirement planning, or any other
specific topic. Additionally, we provide advice on non-securities matters about the
rendering of estate planning, insurance, real estate, and/or annuity advice or any other
business advisory / consulting services for equity or debt investments in privately held
businesses.
Assets
As of December 31, 2022, our Firm manages a total of $142,133,301 in regulatory assets
under management. Our Firm manages $136,810,263 in discretionary assets and
$5,323,038 in non-discretionary assets.