Firm Description and Principal Owners
Clutinger, Williams & Verhoye, Inc., (“CWV”) was founded in 1970. The
Principal Owners are: Scott B. Williams, CFA, CFP an 82% stockholder and
Kent Stone an 18% stockholder.
CWV is strictly a fee-only investment management firm. The firm does not
receive commissions for purchasing or selling annuities, insurance, stocks,
bonds, mutual funds, limited partnerships, or other commissioned products.
The firm is not affiliated with entities that sell financial products or securities.
No commissions in any form are accepted. No finder’s fees are accepted.
CWV does not act as a custodian of client assets. The client always
maintains asset control. CWV places trades for discretionary clients under a
limited power of attorney. Non-discretionary clients are responsible for placing
their own trades.
The initial meeting, which may be by telephone, is free of charge and is
considered an exploratory interview to determine the extent that investment
management may be beneficial to the client.
Fiduciary Duty to Act in Clients’ Best Interest
CWV is an independent Registered Investment Advisor (“RIA”), and under
federal and state law, CWV is a fiduciary. As a fiduciary, CWV has the legal
obligation to act in the client’s best interest, to seek to avoid conflicts of
interest, and to provide full disclosure of all material facts between CWV and
its clients that could affect the advisory relationship.
Website
Our website address is www.cwvinvestmentadvisors.com. The website only
provides general information for clients and prospects. It is in no way attached
to our internal server and therefore does not provide access to client
information in any way.
Types of Advisory Services
Investment Advisory Services
CWV provides personalized confidential investment management to
individuals, pension and profit-sharing plans, trusts, estates, charitable
organizations and small businesses.
CWV will furnish clients with continuous advisory supervision and
recommendations concerning their portfolio. This is done for each client
taking into consideration such relevant factors as: goals, obligations, other
assets, suitability, and tolerance for risk as determined by the client and CWV
in light of prevailing market and economic conditions.
CWV will, on occasion, but not as a regular course of its business, do a one-
time analysis of an individual’s portfolio. The service would be for individuals
who do not desire continuous “investment advisory services” but who wish
their portfolio analyzed. CWV will undertake such a one-time analysis taking
into consideration all relevant factors known about the client at the time. An
example of this would be when CWV is asked by a Probate Attorney to assist
an Executor in a portfolio analysis to determine which securities should be
sold to raise cash needed for the estate expenses. This service produces less
than 1% of our revenues.
Assets Under Management
As of June 30th 2023 CWV manages approximately $126,895,900 in assets
for approximately 263 accounts covering 136 clients. Approximately
$118,466,011 is managed on a discretionary basis, and $8,429,889 is
managed on a non-discretionary basis.
Tailored Relationships
The goals and objectives for each client are documented in our client
relationship management system. Clients may impose restrictions on
investing in certain securities or types of securities.
Agreements may not be assigned without client consent.
Types of Agreements
The only type of agreement we enter into is an Investment Management
Agreement.
Investment Management Agreement
An Investment Management Agreement will be executed before the start of a
client relationship. This can be discretionary, where we are granted limited
trading authority, or non-discretionary, where the client approves all changes
to the portfolio and contacts the custodian to execute those changes.
Management fees will be listed in the Fees & Compensation section below.
Hourly Planning Engagements
CWV rarely, but on occasion as mentioned in the
Advisory Services Offered
section, provides hourly planning services for clients who need advice on a
limited scope of work. The hourly rate for limited-scope engagements is $400
per hour.
Asset Management
Assets are invested primarily in stocks, bonds, exchange traded funds
(ETFs), and closed end funds.
Investments may also include: warrants, commercial paper, certificates of
deposit, municipal securities, U. S. government securities, options contracts,
futures contracts, and interests in partnerships.
Compensation for Investment Advisory Services
Fees
CWV bases its investment management fees on a percentage of assets
under management. Usual compensation to CWV per account is a continuing
annual fee based on the following schedule.
The fee schedule is:
1% on the first $500,000 of managed assets
0.75% on the next $500,000 of managed assets
0.60% on the next $2,000,000 of managed assets
0.50% on the next $2,000,000 of managed assets
0.40% on the next $2,000,000 of managed assets
0.35% on the next $3,000,000 of managed assets
Negotiable above $10,000,000 of managed assets
The minimum annualized fee is $3,000 or 1.5% of the account value,
whichever is less. The fee is calculated at the end of each quarter by applying
¼ of the annualized rate to the market value of the portfolio as displayed on
the CWV Portfolio Appraisal at the end of each quarter.
CWV, in its sole discretion, may waive its minimum fee and/or charge a lesser
investment advisory fee based upon certain criteria (e.g., historical
relationship, type of assets, anticipated future earning capacity, anticipated
future additional assets, dollar amounts of assets to be managed, related
accounts, account composition, negotiations with clients, etc.).
Billing
Investment management fees are billed quarterly, in advance, meaning that
we invoice the client at the beginning of the three-month billing period.
Payment in full is expected upon invoice presentation. Fees are paid in one
of two ways. The client can send a check directly to CWV or sign an
authorization to have fees deducted from their account. An invoice will still be
sent in either circumstance. We want the client to be fully aware of how much
they are being charged for our service, and we feel this method achieves that
goal.
Termination
A client may terminate the investment management agreement at any time by
notifying CWV in writing. When the client has made an advance payment,
CWV will refund any unearned portion of the advance payment.
CWV may terminate the aforementioned agreement at any time by notifying
the client in writing. When the client has made an advance payment, CWV will
refund any unearned portion of the advance payment.
In either case, the refund will be based on the quarterly fee being divided by a
ninety-day quarter and then multiplied by the days remaining in the quarter.
Other Fees
The client is responsible for commissions and fees charged by a custodian or
broker. For example, Charles Schwab & Co. charges our clients $0.00 for
most online stock, ETF, and closed-end fund trades. Client selected
custodians will have different commission fees that may be more. On bond
trades the commission is built into the difference between the buy & sell price
at Charles Schwab & Co or their selected broker. Other client selected
custodians may or may not charge an additional handling fee. CWV does not
receive any compensation, in any form, from Charles Schwab & Co. or any
other custodian.
These transaction charges are usually small and incidental to the purchase or
sale of a security. The selection of the security is more important than the
nominal fee that the custodian charges to buy or sell the security.
Performance-Based Fees
Sharing of Capital Gains
Fees are not based on a share of the capital gains or capital appreciation of
managed securities.
CWV does not use a performance-based fee structure because of the
potential conflict of interest. Performance-based compensation may create
an incentive for the adviser to recommend an investment that may carry a
higher degree of risk to the client.