Firm Description and Principal Owners
Brilliant Advice is a registered investment adviser with an office in Cincinnati, Ohio. Brilliant
Advice was founded as a limited liability company on January 14, 2016 in the state of
Delaware. Cern Basher, CFA is Brilliant Advice’s Chief Investment Officer, and CCO. Brilliant
Advice is owned by Cern Basher, and Danya Karram. Brilliant Advice is registered with the
SEC as an investment adviser.
Brilliant Advice offers financial advice so that our clients can confidently live their lives.
To best serve clients, Brilliant Advice is committed to providing a great client experience by
utilizing a high-efficiency, technology driven service model, and providing transparent and
consistent pricing to all clients. Brilliant Advice only receives compensation – in one form –
directly from its clients. We desire to know our clients as individuals. We value regular
communication and contact with our clients.
Brilliant Advice provides unbiased wealth counseling and investment advisory services to its
clients based on their individual needs and circumstances. These services are provided to
individuals, families and their related entities, trusts and estates, and family businesses.
Brilliant Advice may also serve business entities, pension and profit sharing plans and
charitable organizations.
Assets under the direct management of Brilliant Advice are held by independent custodians,
including Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade Institutional, a division of TD Ameritrade, Inc.
Member FINRA/SIPC (“TD Ameritrade”), TIAA-CREF, and others, in the client’s name.
Brilliant Advice does not act as a custodian of client assets.
Types of Advisory Services
Initial meetings are held to determine if our services can benefit you. Before we provide any
advisory services, we must first enter into a written agreement with you, our Client
Engagement Agreement. Thereafter, discussion and analysis will be conducted to determine
such things as your financial needs, goals, values and beliefs, risk tolerance and capacity,
holdings, and other financial and non-financial information. It is important that the
information and/or financial statements you provide are accurate, as these form the basis
of advice we will provide you. Our firm is not obligated to verify the information provided,
which will then be used in the advisory process.
Wealth Counseling and Investment Advisory Services
Brilliant Advice’s Wealth Counseling services may include:
1. A discovery process that seeks to determine what is important to you and your
priorities, in an effort to help improve your financial decisions and outcomes. We
may consider factors such as your personal situation, income needs, time horizon,
liquidity needs, legal and tax constraints, risk tolerance, inter-generational issues,
and special needs.
2. A collaborative financial planning process that is designed to create a roadmap as
you seek to reach your priorities. The financial planning process may include a
review of your cash flow and expenses, income tax analysis, review and analysis
of employer benefits, life transitions and probability analysis, educational funding
analysis, estate planning analysis, risk management review and your unique
circumstances. Our models test how well your desired expenses match your
expected financial resources. Financial planning is a process not a product and
each client is unique. No additional fees are charged for this portion of the
process.
3. Financial data and documents into an online client portal that is accessible on any
device 24 hours per day, seven days per week. A portfolio position summary and
risk analysis.
4. Creating an investment plan that seeks to achieve your financial objectives.
5. On-demand reporting of investment results via your online client portal.
6. On-going review of progress towards goals and collaborating in making any
necessary adjustments.
Brilliant Advice’s Investment Advisory services may include:
1. Discretionary investment management of portfolios using a variety of asset
classes and investment vehicles that typically include mutual funds, exchange
traded funds (“ETFs”), equity securities, fixed income securities, and other types
of investment securities.
2. Implementation of the investment plan.
3. Continuous and active management of investment portfolios.
4. Apply discretion on the timing and the types of securities bought and sold, along
with the percentage allocation.
5. Reinvesting mutual fund capital gains distributions.
6. Directing trades to the custodial agent.
7. Rebalancing portfolios, as needed, to conform to the documented asset allocation
target in the Investment Strategy Statement.
8. Perform on-going research on financial markets and specific investments.
9. Tax aware management of portfolios where taxes are a consideration, including
harvesting “tax losses” with the goal of reducing future tax liabilities and asset
location (seeking to place assets in the optimal location to minimize income tax
implications and/or maximize estate tax effectiveness).
10. Periodically communicating thoughts and decisions regarding the financial
markets and/or individual investment selections.
Other services may include:
1. Interacting and coordinating with your other professionals.
2. Voting proxies on your behalf.
3. Providing account and transaction data to a third-party for Class Action
Settlements.
4. Deducting management fees directly from the appropriate accounts.
Not every client makes use of all Brilliant Advice’s services, as some are not requested,
not necessary or are being provided by other professionals. In performing its services,
Brilliant Advice is not required to verify any information received from you or from your
other professionals. Please be advised that it remains your responsibility to promptly
notify Brilliant Advice when there is any change in your financial situation and/or financial
objectives for the purpose of reviewing, evaluating, or revising Brilliant Advice’s previous
recommendations and/or services.
Brilliant Advice and its investment advisor representatives will use its best judgment and
good faith effort in rendering its services. Brilliant Advice cannot warrant or guarantee
the achievement of a planning goal or any particular level of account performance or that
your account will be profitable over time. Although Brilliant Advice generally
recommends long-term investment strategies, we may recommend various short-term
investment strategies to accommodate certain client goals or objectives. Past
performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
The Client Engagement Agreement you sign with our firm gives us discretionary authority
to manage your account(s). Discretionary authorization on your account(s) is also granted
by each account custodian, with your approval, by signing a limited power of attorney
and/or trading authorization forms. Discretionary authorization will allow our firm to
determine the specific securities, and the amount of securities, to be purchased and sold
for your account without your approval prior to each transaction. We are also authorized
to issue instructions to the account custodian(s) for operational matters of the account(s)
without your approval. You may limit our discretionary authority (for example, limiting
the types of securities that can be purchased for your account, or requesting the retention
or avoidance of specific securities) by providing our firm with your restrictions and
guidelines in writing, typically on the Investment Strategy Statement. In an effort to
efficiently and timely deliver our services to our clients we do not offer non-discretionary
services, except on specific accounts or for specific legacy or client selected assets as part
of an overall discretionary relationship. In such situations, we may reduce our cost of
services.
When Brilliant Advice provides investment advice to you regarding your retirement plan
account or individual retirement account, Brilliant Advice is a fiduciary 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. The way Brilliant
Advice makes money creates some conflicts with your interests, so Brilliant Advice
operates under a special rule that requires Brilliant Advice to act in your best interest and
not put our interest ahead of yours.
Limited Consulting/Implementation Services: To the extent specifically requested by the
client, Brilliant Advice may provide limited consultation services to its clients on
investment and non-investment related matters, such as estate planning, tax planning,
insurance, etc. Brilliant Advice shall not receive any separate or additional fee for any such
consultation services unless mutually agreed to prior to providing.
Brilliant Advice does not provide legal or tax advice, make loans, or offer accounting or
insurance services. Neither Brilliant Advice, nor any of its representatives, serves as an
attorney, accountant, or licensed insurance agent. Brilliant Advice may recommend other
professionals (e.g. lawyers, accountants, insurance agents, bankers, other advisors, etc.)
at your request. You are under no obligation to engage the services of any such
recommended professional. Please note that if you engage any such recommended
professional, and a dispute arises thereafter relative to such engagement, you agree to
seek recourse exclusively from and against the engaged professional. Where appropriate,
Brilliant Advice’s advisors will work with your other professionals to ensure effective
execution of suggested strategies. Brilliant Advice represents that there are no conflicts
of interest in this process, however, should any ever arise they will be disclosed to you
and managed in your best interest.
Client Obligations: In performing its services, Brilliant Advice shall not be required to
verify any information received from you or from your other professionals, and is
expressly authorized to rely upon the information so provided. Moreover, you are advised
that it remains your responsibility to promptly notify Brilliant Advice if there is ever any
change in your financial situation or investment objectives so that Brilliant Advice, if
necessary, can re-evaluate or revise any previous recommendations or services we
provided to you.
Disclosure Statement: A copy of this Brochure will be provided to you prior to, or at the
same time as, the execution of the Client Engagement Agreement.
Securities Class Actions and Proofs of Claim: Brilliant Advice is not obligated to file, nor
will it act in any legal capacity with respect to class action settlements or related proofs
of claim. If requested by you, Brilliant Advice will do its best to provide you with the
required documentation, if available. For clients that would like assistance to help
monitor and file class action litigation claims, Brilliant Advice uses the services of Chicago
Clearing Corporation (“CCC”), a company that specializes in the field of Class Action
Claims. For clients that request the service, Brilliant Advice periodically provides CCC with
the transaction history for the client’s accounts and CCC subsequently monitors for any
claims activity related to the securities that have been purchased in the client’s account.
CCC will monitor each claim that applies to the client, collect the applicable
documentation, interpret the terms of each settlement, file the appropriate claim form,
interact with the administrators and distributes any award due for the client’s benefit.
For their services, CCC charges a contingency fee of 20%, which is subtracted from the
client’s award when it is paid. When a claim develops, CCC communicates directly with
the claims administrator to file the claim on the client’s behalf. CCC warrants that any
specific client information they receive will be maintained as confidential and will not be
used or disclosed for any reason, except for the completion of the claim itself.
Customized Services
Brilliant Advice provides investment advisory services specific to the needs of each client.
The selection of investment vehicles may vary from one client to another. Prior to providing
investment advisory services, an investment adviser representative will ascertain each
client’s investment objective(s). Thereafter, Brilliant Advice shall allocate and/or
recommend that the client allocate investment assets consistent with the designated
investment objective(s). You may, at any time, impose reasonable restrictions, in writing, on
Brilliant Advice’s services.
Wrap Fee Program
Brilliant Advice does not participate in a wrap fee program. Under a typical wrap-fee
program, a client will pay the sponsor a single fee for management, brokerage, custody and
other services provided under the program.
Regulatory Assets Under Management
As of March 29, 2023, Brilliant Advice managed $83,278,339 million in regulatory assets
under management. Discretionary assets totaled $82,631,822 and non-discretionary assets
totaled $646,517.