Firm Description:
EmergingWealth Investment Management, Inc. ® (“EmergingWealth” “the Firm”) is an investment
adviser registered with the U.S. U.S. Securities Exchange Commission located in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. The Company was founded in July, 2009. The Company began offering Investment
Management Services initially. On May 1, 2015, The Company began offering Investment
Management Consulting Services. On January 1, 2019, The Company began offering Hourly
Financial Planning Services.
As of February 2022, James Jude Holtzman and Christopher Kail are each 50% shareholders. James
Holtzman is the Firm’s Chief Compliance Officer.
Types of Advisory Services:
The Firm offers a large variety of services, including portfolio management, financial planning, and general
financial consulting to individuals, high net worth individuals, trusts, estates, non-profit organizations, businesses
and medical practices. The Firm offers these services to clients or potential clients (“clients”).
The following section describes Firm services in detail. Refer to the description of each investment advisory
services listed below for information on how EmergingWealth personalizes and tailors advisory services to
advisory clients’ individual needs.
Upon retention and depending upon the Client’s situation and needs, advice will be provided but is
not limited to one or more of the following services:
1. Financial objective determination;
2. Financial problem identification;
3. Cash flow consulting;
4. Income tax planning;
5. Insurance coverages review;
6. Investment management/consulting;
7. Education planning;
8. Retirement planning;
9. Estate planning;
10. Other potential services.
Portfolios and the underlying investments are generally reviewed at the Firm’s discretion depending
upon, but not limited to, client circumstances, cash inflows and outflows, if material, and political and
economic conditions as well as investment and financial market conditions and movements.
Financial Planning Services:
The Firm offers, at times, financial planning services to individuals and families on an hourly basis at
the Firm’s stated billing rates. Financial planning services are generally not offered without the
retention of the firm for investment management or investment consulting services.
An analysis of the client’s current family, financial, long-term objectives and the preparation of
recommendations will be made.
Financial planning includes one or more of the following topics:
1. Analysis of overall financial well-being
2. Current cash flow analysis
3. Income tax planning, projections and tax reduction strategies
4. Education projections, funding and counseling for other educational issues
5. Retirement projections, withdrawals from retirement accounts and counseling for other retirement
issues
6. Estate document review, estate and inheritance tax reduction strategies, beneficiary coordination and
asset retitling
7. Insurance policy type reviews including survivor needs analysis and liability assessments
8. Review of all employee benefits
9. Advise clients where possible as to how to manage their debts
10. General recommendations with regard to investments
Recommendations will be provided in all the above areas mentioned when retained by the client to do
so. Our financial planning recommendations are reviewed and updated periodically based on the
client’s needs and reasonable requests for such reviews. Implementation of the recommendations is at
the discretion of the client.
Investment Advisory Services / Portfolio Management:
EmergingWealth offers the following investment services to individuals and families on a discretionary
basis.
An analysis of the client’s current family, financial, long-term objectives and the preparation of
recommendations will be made by EmergingWealth. EmergingWealth will attempt, on a best-efforts
basis, to minimize income tax events on a yearly or multi-year basis to the best of its ability if
appropriate. Margin transactions, although not used for investment purposes, can be used when
requested by clients to access cash from their account. Our recommendations to investment advisory
clients are reviewed and updated periodically based on the client’s needs and reasonable requests for
such reviews.
Discretionary Investment Management Services:
The Firm has engaged Legend Financial Advisors, Inc.® (hereafter “Legend” or the “Sub-Advisor”), a
registered investment advisor related to EmergingWealth through common ownership and control, to
directly manage all client portfolio assets as Sub-Advisor. All investment professionals of
EmergingWealth are also associated persons of Legend.
Alternatively, EmergingWealth may manage securities portfolios directly as opposed to utilizing any
Sub-Advisor.
EmergingWealth and/or the Sub-Advisor will manage each client’s securities portfolio (each has its
own strategy) on an ongoing discretionary basis. After an initial discussion about the client’s comfort
with risk, their individual financial goals and objectives as well as the client’s income tax situation to a
degree, EmergingWealth will develop an initial investment strategy to address the client’s needs. The
recommended investment strategy will incorporate a portfolio of investments appropriate for the
clients’ circumstances. Upon mutual agreement with the client regarding the recommended
investment strategy, a portfolio will be implemented. Thereafter, the Firm/Sub-Advisor will provide
ongoing management of the investment assets at its sole discretion without first consulting the client.
However, should the client circumstances and/or wishes change after the initial recommendations are
developed, the client will need to notify the Firm. The Firm will notify the Sub-Advisor of any changes.
The Firm will then consult with the client to develop a new investment strategy or modify the existing
investment strategy.
Most portfolios can include open-end and closed-end mutual funds and Exchange-Traded products,
but some portfolios in certain cases could include individual securities such as bonds, stocks and other
types of investments unless the client has otherwise restricted their usage in writing. Investment
securities will be selected on the basis of any or all of the following criteria: the investment's
performance history; the industry/sector; country and/or region it is located in; statistical measures;
valuation of the investment or asset class as are applicable; the mutual fund/investment manager; the
mutual fund/investment manager’s style and philosophy; and the mutual fund/investment manager’s
fee structure among other criteria as well as their income tax-efficiency, if applicable.
Investment position weightings within a portfolio managed with discretion by the Firm will be based
upon the criteria mentioned above in addition to the client’s income tax circumstances, if applicable, as
well as the type of portfolio they select.
EmergingWealth assesses clients’ current holdings and ensures alignment with both short- and long-
term goals. The Firm performs ongoing reviews of investment performance and portfolio exposure to
market conditions. Accordingly, the Firm is authorized to perform various functions without further
approval from the client, such as the determination of securities to be purchased or sold without prior
permission from the client for each transaction. Any and all trades are made in the best interest of the
client as part of EmergingWealth’s fiduciary duty. However, risk is inherent to any investing strategy
and model. Therefore, EmergingWealth does not guarantee any results or returns.
EmergingWealth offers
ongoing portfolio management offerings tailored to the goals, objectives, time
horizon and risk tolerance for each client. The investment offerings include active allocation, and
management of assets through a series of equity income, equity growth, tax-efficient portfolios and
environment/social/governance (ESG) portfolios.
Prior to engaging EmergingWealth to provide any investment advisory services, EmergingWealth
requires a written investment advisory agreement signed by the client prior to the engagement of any
services. The agreement will outline services to which the client is entitled and fees the client will incur.
EmergingWealth is an asset-based fee investment management firm. The Firm does not receive
commissions for purchasing or selling stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate investment trusts, or
other commissioned products for clients. The firm is not affiliated with entities that sell financial products
or securities. No commissions in any form are accepted.
EmergingWealth does not act as a custodian of client assets. The client always maintains asset control.
EmergingWealth places trades for clients under a limited power of attorney through qualified
custodian/broker.
Investment Management Consulting / General Consulting Services:
This service may or may not involve more complex assets and/or accounts to manage. This service could
include accounts and/or investments that are difficult to value except for once per year, such as retirement plan
balances of the individual client(s) and/or variable annuities, or could possibly be aggregated with accounts not
held at one of the Firm’s recommended custodians and/or with family member accounts. Furthermore,
EmergingWealth will not have trading authority over held-away assets. EmergingWealth will advise the client as
to how these assets are to be positioned.
EmergingWealth and or/ the Sub-Advisor manages securities portfolios for this investment service similar to the
Firm’s discretionary investment management services mentioned above. If the assets are held at custodians not
recommended by the Firm, EmergingWealth will advise the client as to how to position those assets. Upon
direction by EmergingWealth trade executions of such securities will need to be traded directly by the client or in
conjunction with the client and EmergingWealth. It is solely the responsibility of the Client to reposition these
assets in this type of situation although; the client can request EmergingWealth’s assistance.
If the client opts to do so, the Firm may offer advice on held away assets that are reported by client to the Firm.
To enable the Firm to provide advice accurately, the client must utilize additional software allowing held away
asset valuation to be disclosed to the Firm in order for the Firm to provide the most informed advice to client.
Under this arrangement, the advice given to the client is based on a point in time for which the information is
provided to the Firm. The Client is responsible for placing trades in held away accounts for which we provide
investment advice, but do not maintain trading authority. EmergingWealth will not provide portfolio management
or execution services on these accounts.
Pontera
EmergingWealth uses a third-party platform to facilitate management of held away assets such as defined
contribution plan participant accounts, with discretion. The platform allows EmergingWealth to avoid being
considered to have custody of Client funds since EmergingWealth does not have direct access to Client log-in
credentials to affect trades. EmergingWealth is 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 Client account(s) is connected to the platform, EmergingWealth will review the
current account allocations. When deemed necessary, EmergingWealth 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 difficult markets, and
manage internal fees that harm account performance. Client account(s) will be reviewed at least quarterly, and
allocation changes will be made as deemed necessary.
Services Tailored to Clients’ Needs
Services are provided based on a client’s specific needs within the scope of the services provided as discussed
above. A review of the information provided by the client regarding the client’s current financial situation, goals,
and risk tolerances will be performed and advice will be provided that is in line with available information.
Services include management of fixed income, balanced and equity portfolios. Depending on the client’s financial
situation and goals, we may offer active, passive and tailor hybrid portfolio combinations. We may recommend
portfolios that include common stocks, corporate, government and municipal bonds, preferred stocks,
government agency obligations, money market instruments, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and such
other securities that we may select, unless expressly limited by the client’s written direction or guidelines.
The advice is tailored to the individual needs of the client based on the investment objective chosen by the client
in order to help assist them to meet their financial goals. Accounts are reviewed on a regular basis and
rebalanced as necessary according to each client’s investment profile. If the client engages us for portfolio
management services, we will generally accept discretionary authority to make determinations regarding the
securities that are to be bought and sold, as well as the quantities of such securities. This means the client will
not be asked in advance to review or approve each transaction. Such authority is subject to mutual agreement
and must be granted by the client, in writing. In other instances, such as when clients engages us for consulting
services, we may accept non-discretionary authority. In these instances, clients would need to sign off on any
account activity prior to execution. Clients may impose restrictions on investing in certain securities or types of
securities. Clients should notify EmergingWealth in writing, in advance, of any restrictions about their investment
portfolios. Within client’s guidelines, our portfolio managers will make decisions as to the nature and quantity of
securities to be bought or sold. EmergingWealth reserves the right to not accept and/or terminate a client’s
account if it feels that the client-imposed restrictions would limit or prevent the Firm and/or the client from
meeting and/or maintaining its objectives.
EmergingWealth will not assume any responsibility for the accuracy of the information provided by the client. The
Firm is not obligated to verify any information received from the client or from the client’s other professionals
(e.g., attorney, accountant, etc.) and is expressly authorized to rely on such information. Under all
circumstances, clients are responsible for promptly notifying the Firm in writing of any material changes to the
client’s financial situation, investment objectives, time horizon, tax status, risk tolerance or other material
information that we may have relied upon in rendering our services.
Wrap Fee Programs:
EmergingWealth does not participate in any wrap fee programs.
Assets Under Management and Advisement:
As of December 31, 2022, the Firm manages approximately $22,240,416 in discretionary assets and
$0 in non-discretionary assets. Additionally, as of December 31, 2022, the Firm consults upon
approximately $574,420 (assets under advisement).