This disclosure document is being offered to you by Opus Financial Solutions LLC (“Opus”, “Adviser,” “Our
Firm”,” Our” or “We”) about the investment advisory services we offer. It discloses information about the
services that we provide and the way those services are made available to you, the client.
Opus became registered as an Investment Adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in June
2021. Lisa Bayer is the principal owner and Chief Compliance Officer of the Firm.
Opus offers financial planning, tax, and investment advisory services to individuals, families, and businesses
under an Advisory Services Agreement or Financial Planning Agreement. Our Firm is committed to helping
clients build, manage, and preserve their wealth.
INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT & SUPERVISION SERVICES
We provide investment management services on a discretionary and non-discretionary basis. We will offer
initial complimentary meetings upon our discretion; however, investment advisory services are initiated only
after client and Opus execute an Advisory Services Agreement. We do not impose a minimum requirement to
open and maintain a managed account for advisory services.
During personal discussions with clients, we determine the client’s objectives, time horizons, risk tolerance, and
liquidity needs. As appropriate, we also review a client’s prior investment history, as well as financial situation
and background. Based on these factors, we develop a client’s personal profile and investment plan. We then
manage the client’s investments based on an agreed upon investment plan. It is the client’s obligation to notify
us immediately if circumstances have changed with respect to their goals or financial circumstance. Once we
have determined the types of investments to be included in a client’s portfolio and have allocated the assets,
we provide ongoing investment review and management services.
With our discretionary relationship, we will make changes to the portfolio, as we deem appropriate, to pursue
client financial objectives. We execute trades in client portfolios based on the combination of our market views
and client objectives, using our investment process. We make periodic portfolio adjustments as warranted,
including adjustments focused on rebalancing the portfolio to the target allocation, tax loss harvesting
strategies, addressing changes in a client’s financial circumstances, or securities changes based on evolving
market or economic circumstances and our ongoing due diligence. We tailor our advisory services to align with
the needs of our clients and seek to ensure that the client’s portfolio is managed in a manner consistent with
those needs and objectives. Clients have the ability to leave standing instructions with us to refrain from
investing in particular industries or invest in limited amounts of securities. We primarily allocate client assets
among Exchanged Traded Funds (“ETFs”), no-load, load-waived, or institutional shares of mutual funds, or other
equities in accordance with their stated investment objectives. Cash and cash equivalents and any margin debt
balances are included in the calculation of advisory fees. We may also utilize alternative investments in client
portfolios including structured products and registered or non-registered products including hedge funds,
interval funds, private equity, private credit, or real asset strategies. Many alternative products have limited
availability based on client net worth or income qualification, and all have unique risks which differ from
investments in publicly traded securities. Opus may rely on third party platforms to provide investment and
operational due diligence as well as access to strategies. Please see Alternative Investments under Risk of Loss
in Item 8.
If a non-discretionary relationship is in place, calls will be placed presenting the recommendation made and
only upon your authorization will any action be taken on your behalf. We have limited authority to direct the
Custodian to deduct our investment advisory fees from accounts, but only with the appropriate written
authorization from clients.
Clients may engage us to advise on certain investment products that are not maintained at our Firm’s
recommended custodian, such as variable life insurance, annuity contracts, and assets held in employer
sponsored retirement plans. Where appropriate, we may provide advice about any type of held-away account
that is part of a client portfolio.
You are advised and are expected to understand that our past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
Certain market and economic risks exist that can adversely affect an account’s performance and result in capital
losses in your account.
BYALLACCOUNTS PLATFORM
We make the “ByAllAccounts” platform available to all clients to provide periodic comprehensive planning and/or
reporting services, which can incorporate the client’s investment assets, including those investment assets that are
not part of the assets managed by our Firm (the “Excluded Assets”). Unless otherwise specifically agreed in writing,
our service relative to the Excluded Assets is limited to reporting and planning only. Therefore, we shall not be
responsible for the investment performance of the Excluded Assets. Rather, the client maintains supervision,
monitoring and trading authority for the Excluded Assets. If we are asked to make a recommendation as to any
Excluded Assets, the client is under absolutely no obligation to accept the recommendation, and we shall not be
responsible for any implementation error (timing, trading, etc.) relative to the Excluded Assets. In the event the client
desires that we provide investment advisory services for the Excluded Assets, the client may engage us to do so
pursuant the terms and conditions of an agreement between our Firm and the client.
Our Firm and the platform providers are non-affiliated companies. We are charged an annual fee for subscriptions
to the providers. Please note that the fee charged to the client will not increase due to any subscription fees paid
by our Firm.
PONTERA
Our Firm is engaged with Pontera, an unaffiliated third-party service provider, for Client accounts not directly
held with our recommended Custodian; but where our team has 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, 403(b) accounts, 529 plans, variable annuities, and other assets not held with the
recommended Custodian. We regularly review the current holdings and available investment options in these
accounts, monitor the account, rebalance, and implement our Firm’s strategies as necessary.
The platform allows us to avoid being considered to have custody of Client funds since we do not have direct
access to Client log-in credentials to affect trades. We are not affiliated with the platform in any way and receive
no compensation from them for using their platform. A link will be provided to the Client, allowing them to
connect an account(s) to the platform. Once the Client account(s) is connected to the platform, Adviser will
review the current account allocations and investment options. When we are authorized with discretionary
management, we will rebalance the account, considering Client investment goals and risk tolerance, and any
change in allocations will consider current economic and market trends. The goal is to improve account
performance over time, minimize loss during complex markets, and manage internal fees that harm account
performance. Client account(s) will be reviewed quarterly, and allocation changes will be made as necessary.
FINANCIAL PLANNING SERVICES
Our clients face ongoing financial decisions that require them to make choices about how they allocate their
resources. Our financial planning services are intended to help organize these choices by creating personalized
analyses and recommendations that address our clients’ goals, concerns and needs. In order to develop a plan
and recommendations, we undertake a process of discovery to understand our clients’ financial position, goals,
challenges, concerns, and requirements. With the unique goals and circumstances of each family in mind, we
may offer financial planning recommendations and strategies relating to the client’s budget, savings plan, risk
assessment, portfolio analysis, retirement plan, insurance needs analysis, education savings strategy, tax
strategy and estate plan. This may include preparing a specific asset allocation strategy and an investment plan
that
includes the recommended securities in the overall portfolio.
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 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; and
• Other specific areas you have hired us to review and advise you on.
RETIREMENT PLANNING
Proactive retirement planning should begin early in life and serve as a fundamental component of one’s future
financial security. Our focus with our clients is to help them understand if and when they can comfortably retire
in the lifestyle they choose; how and how much to save; how to structure their portfolios at different periods
of their lives; how to avoid outliving their resources; how to minimize taxes throughout their lives; how to
optimize social security and pension accounts; ideal, tax efficient withdrawal strategies, and increase their
protection in the event of unanticipated health crises.
We may look at a variety of potential “scenarios” that reflect optimistic and pessimistic or conservative inputs,
and we may provide our clients with detailed cash flow scenarios based on these varying assumptions so that
they are more informed about the impact of their choices.
Disclosure Regarding Rollover Recommendations
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 (ERISA) and/or the Internal Revenue Code,
as applicable, which are laws governing retirement accounts. We have adopted certain policies and procedures
to comply with the Department of Labor’s PTE 2020-02, Improving Investment Advice for Workers & Retirees.
Under this special rule’s provisions, we understand that Investment Advisory Representatives of our firm must:
• Meet a professional standard of care when making investment recommendations (give prudent
advice);
• Never put our financial interests ahead of yours when making recommendations (give loyal advice);
• Avoid misleading statements about conflicts of interest, fees, and investments;
• Follow policies and procedures designed to ensure that we give advice that is in your best interest;
• Charge no more than is reasonable for our services; and
• Give you basic information about conflicts of interest (provided below)
We have to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours. At the same time, the way we earn
compensation creates some conflicts with your interests.
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):
• Leave the money in the former employer’s plan, if permitted
• Rollover the assets to the new employer’s plan, if one is available and rollovers are permitted
• Rollover to an Individual Retirement Account (“IRA”), or
• Cash out the account value (which could, depending upon the client’s age, result in adverse tax
consequences).
Opus may recommend an investor roll over assets from a qualified plan to an IRA, or transfer assets from an
externally held IRA to an IRA for which Opus provides investment advisory services. As a result, Opus 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 additional compensation to Opus. We therefore may have an economic
incentive to encourage a client to roll plan assets or transfer IRA assets into an IRA that Opus will manage, which
could present a conflict of interest. Some clients may pay Opus an asset-based fee for oversight of their qualified
plan assets, and that same fee may apply if assets are held in an IRA managed by Opus in which case there is no
conflict of interest created by differential fees.
To mitigate the conflict of interest, there are various factors that Opus will consider before recommending a
rollover, including but not limited to:
• The investment options available in the plan versus the investment options available in an IRA
• Fees and expenses in the plan versus the fees and expenses in an IRA
• The services and responsiveness of the plan’s investment professionals versus services provided by Opus
such as ongoing investment due diligence and portfolio rebalancing.
• Whether assets held in ERISA qualified plans offer protection of assets from creditors and legal judgments
beyond protections afforded to IRA account holders.
• Required minimum distributions and age considerations, and
• Employer stock tax consequences such as the ability to take advantage of capital gains treatment for net
unrealized appreciation on employer stock.
In general, if there is a significant financial planning reason to leave the assets at the prior plan, we will not
recommend a rollover. Your advisory representative likely will explain why they recommend leaving the assets
in the plan.
To fully evaluate expense differentials, Opus may ask you to research participant expenses and plan investment
options and expenses which are otherwise inaccessible by Opus. If you choose not to research and provide the
information to Opus and proceed to move your assets to a managed account with Opus, you understand that
an evaluation of expense differentials as a component to the decision to roll or transfer your assets cannot be
completed.
Acting in your best interest involves more than simply evaluating differences in fees. We also consider subjective
elements such as:
• How our portfolio management style and investment selection may benefit a client versus utilizing the
plan or account investments on a do-it-yourself basis or if your current plan does not provide investment
guidance or equivalent services based on our evaluation.
• Your investment experience and your ability to monitor your own investments.
• Whether consolidation of multiple financial accounts would be beneficial.
• The ability to implement strategies such as ROTH conversions, and more.
Many of these points of evaluation cannot be quantified prospectively and are derived from our professional
evaluation and opinion of a client’s financial circumstance.
If you choose to move forward with a rollover of qualified plan assets or a transfer of an IRA to an Opus managed
account, you acknowledge and accept that there are pros and cons to moving your assets and you are opting to
proceed with a rollover or transfer of your assets and have discussed the decision with your Opus Advisor.
Opus’s Chief Compliance Officer remains available to address any questions that a client or prospective client
has regarding the oversight.
TAX REDUCTION PLANNING
One component of wealth preservation and creation is minimizing taxes. At Opus, while we work closely with
some of our clients’ CPAs and are always open to coordinating with more, we have found that there is often a
need for a more streamlined, integrated solution between clients’ financial planners and their accountants. As
such, we offer a consolidated solution, providing financial planning that when applicable, also integrates tax
planning into our reviews and recommendations. As an Authorized IRS E-File Provider, we can proactively
strategize about our clients’ situations and determine, upon our client’s choosing, the proper preparation and
filing of their federal and state tax returns.
WRAP FEE PROGRAM
We do not offer a Wrap Fee Program.
ASSETS
As of December 31, 2023, Opus managed a total of $151,102,859 in regulatory assets under management.
$145,985,373 is managed on a discretionary basis and $5,117,486 is managed on a non-discretionary basis.