Raffa Investment Advisers is an investment adviser registered with the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and a corporation formed under the laws of the State of Maryland and
domiciled in Washington, D.C. Raffa Investment Advisers has been registered with the SEC as an
investment adviser since July 2005.
Raffa Investment Advisers is owned by the following individuals:
Dennis Gogarty – Managing Member and Chief Compliance Officer
Thomas J. Raffa – Member
General Description of Primary Advisory Services
The following are brief descriptions of Raffa Investment Advisers’ primary services. A detailed description
of our services is provided in Item 5 – Fees and Compensation so that clients and prospective clients can
review the services and description of fees in a side-by-side manner.
Investment Supervisory Services - Raffa Investment Advisers provides advisory services in the form of
Investment Supervisory Services. Investment Supervisory Services involve providing clients with
comprehensive portfolio management and continuous and on-going supervision over client accounts.
This means we will continuously monitor a client’s account and make trades in client accounts when
necessary.
Qualified Plan Consulting Services - Raffa Investment Advisers provides several advisory services for
corporate retirement plans, separately or in combination. While the primary clients for these services will
be pension, profit sharing, and 401(k) plans, we will also offer these services, where appropriate, to
individuals and trusts, as well as charitable organizations.
Investment Consulting Services – Raffa Investment Advisers provides Investment Consulting
Services in several ways.
We provide investment consultations on accounts not managed or maintained by our Firm. This
service is similar to Investment Supervisory Services in that we will provide specific investment
recommendations to clients; however, unlike Investment Supervisory Services, we will not have
trading authorization or direct access to the accounts being reviewed under this service.
We provide investment consulting to the staff and volunteers at nonprofit organizations to support
their effort to meet their fiduciary responsibility related to the management and oversight of their
nonprofit’s investment reserves or endowments. These consulting engagements typically involve
a process to develop or make recommendation to change their investment policies and
procedures.
Other consulting engagements for nonprofits may involve presentations intending to educate
nonprofit staff or volunteers on a variety of investment management or policy topics as well as
providing assessments of an existing investment advisors performance, fees, or performance
evaluation reports.
In all cases where RWM is solely providing Investment Consulting Services, all trade implementation
under this service is the responsibility of the client.
Retirement Income Planning –
While RWM provides Retirement Income Planning services to clients
that are individuals or couples as part of the overall portfolio management process, RWM does not
charge separately for this service. The fee for this service, which is provided on a client-by-client basis, is
included in the fee related to RWM’s Investment Supervisory Services.
Limits Advice to Certain Types of Investments. Raffa Investment Advisers provides investment advice
on the following types of investments.
No-Load (i.e., no trading fee) and Load-Waived (i.e. trading fee waived) Mutual Fund Shares
Exchange-listed securities (i.e., stocks)
Fixed income securities (i.e., bonds)
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
Money market sweeps and funds
Certificates of deposit
Municipal securities
United States government securities
RWM’s advice is primarily focused on open-ended mutual funds and exchanged traded funds that invest
in the security types outlined above. We may utilize unaffiliated third-party investment managers when
managing client portfolios and therefore will provide advice on other investment managers.
We do not provide advice on foreign issue, warrants, commercial paper, variable life insurance products,
options, futures, and interests in partnerships investing in real estate or oil and gas interests.
Please refer to each program’s description at Item 5 – Fees for additional details regarding the types of
investments recommended specific to the program. Please also refer to Item 8 – Methods of Analysis,
Investment Strategies and Risk of Loss for more information.
Tailor Advisory Services to Individual Needs of Clients
Our services are always provided based on the individual needs of each client. This means, for example,
that you are given the ability to impose restrictions on the accounts we manage for you, including specific
investment selections and sectors. We work with each client on a one-on-one basis through interviews
and/or questionnaires to determine the client’s investment objectives and suitability information.
When managing client accounts through the Firm’s Investment Supervisory Services program, we may
manage a client’s account in accordance with one or more investment models. When client accounts are
managed using models, investment selections are based on the underlying model and we do not develop
customized (or individualized) portfolio holdings for each client. However, the determination to use a
particular model or models is always based on each client’s individual investment goals, objectives and
mandates.
Client Assets Managed by Raffa Investment Advisers
As disclosed on Form ADV Part 1A, Item 5.F., the amount of client’s assets managed by Raffa
Investment Advisers totaled $1,283,866,208 as of 12/31/2023. $1,132,622,810 is managed on a
discretionary basis and $151,243,398 is managed on a non-discretionary basis. In addition, we provide
reporting or consulting services on an additional approximately $412,050,354 in assets.