We offer the following types of services: asset management, financial planning and
consultations, and 401(k)/pension consulting.
We provide individuals with a wide array of investment advisory services. Our firm is a
corporation formed in the State of California in 2002. Our firm has been in business as
an investment advisor since 2010. The majority shareholder is Art Garcia.
(i) Asset Management:
We emphasize continuous and regular account supervision. As part of our asset
management service, we generally create a portfolio, consisting of individual bonds,
exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), and mutual funds. We may include individual stocks
and other public and private securities or investments, if appropriate for the client. The
client’s individual investment strategy is tailored to their specific needs and may include
some or all the previously mentioned securities. Each portfolio will be initially designed
to meet a particular investment goal, which we determine to be suitable to the client’s
circumstances. Once the appropriate portfolio has been determined, we review the
portfolio at least quarterly and if necessary, rebalance the portfolio based upon the
client’s individual needs, stated goals and objectives. Each client can place reasonable
restrictions on the types of investments to be held in the portfolio.
Other restrictions may be imposed by clients with respect to the (average or longest)
maturity or credit quality of fixed income investments. In either case, all restrictions must
be in writing.
(ii) Financial Planning and Consultations:
We provide a variety of financial planning and consultation services to individuals,
families, and other clients regarding the management of their financial resources based
upon an analysis of client’s current situation, goals, and objectives. Generally, such
financial planning services will involve preparing a financial plan or rendering a financial
consultation for clients based on the client’s financial goals and objectives.
This planning or consulting may encompass one or more of the following areas:
Investment Planning, Retirement Planning, Estate Planning, Charitable Planning,
Education Planning, Corporate and Personal Tax Planning, Cost Segregation Study,
Corporate Structure, Real Estate Analysis, Mortgage/Debt Analysis, Insurance Analysis,
Lines of Credit Evaluation, Business and Personal Financial Planning, and Life
Coaching.
Our written financial plans or financial consultations rendered to clients usually include
general recommendations for a course of activity or specific actions to be taken by the
clients. For example, recommendations may be made that the clients begin or revise
investment programs, create, or revise wills or trusts, obtain, or revise insurance
coverage, commence, or alter retirement savings, or establish education or charitable
giving programs. It should also be noted that we refer clients to an accountant, attorney,
or other specialist, as necessary for non-advisory related services. For written financial
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planning engagements, we provide our clients with a written summary of their financial
situation, observations, and recommendations. For financial consulting engagements,
we usually do not provide our clients with a written summary of our observations and
recommendations as the process is less formal than our planning service. Plans or
consultations are typically completed within six (6) months of the client signing a
contract with us, if all the information and documents we request from the client are
provided to us promptly. Implementation of the recommendations will be at the
discretion of the client.
(iii) 401(k)/Pension Consulting
Our Pension Consulting Service consists of assisting employer plan sponsors establish
monitor and review their company’s participant-directed retirement plan. We evaluate
the needs of the plan sponsor and generally advise on the following areas: investment
options, plan structure, and participant education.
Retirement Rollovers-No Obligation/Conflict
of Interest: A client leaving an
employer typically has four options (and may engage in a combination of these options):
1) leave the money in his former employer’s plan, if permitted, 2) roll over the assets to
his/her new employer’s plan, if one is available and rollovers are permitted, 3) rollover to
an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), or 4) cash out the account value (which could,
depending upon the client’s age, result in adverse tax consequences).
Pacific Financial Strategies may recommend an investor roll over plan assets to an IRA
managed by Pacific Financial Strategies. As a result, we may earn an asset-based fee;
however, a recommendation that a client or prospective client leave their plan assets
with their old employer will result in no compensation. Pacific Financial Strategies has
an economic incentive to encourage an investor to roll plan assets into an IRA that
Pacific Financial Strategies will manage.
There are various factors that Pacific Financial Strategies may consider before
recommending a rollover, including but not limited to: i) the investment options available
in the plan versus the investment options available in an IRA, ii) fees and expenses in
the plan versus the fees and expenses in an IRA, iii) the services and responsiveness of
the plan’s investment professionals versus those of Pacific Financial Strategies, iv)
required minimum distributions and age considerations, and vi) employer stock tax
consequences, if any. No client is under any obligation to roll over plan assets to an IRA
managed by Pacific Financial Strategies.
IRA Rollover Recommendations
When we provide investment advice to you regarding your retirement plan account or
individual retirement account, we are fiduciaries 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 we make money
creates some conflicts with your interests, so we operate under a special rule that requires
us to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours. Under this special
rule’s provisions, we must:
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ï Meet a professional standard of care when making investment recommendations
(give prudent advice).
ï Never put our financial interests ahead of yours when making recommendations
(give loyal advice).
ï Avoid misleading statements about conflicts of interest, fees, and investments.
ï Follow policies and procedures designed to ensure that we give advice that is in
your best interest.
ï Charge no more than is reasonable for our services; and
ï Give you basic information about conflicts of interest
We manage $117,988,403 on a discretionary basis as of December 31, 2022.
Workshops/Seminars
Pacific Financial Strategies offers financial seminars in several areas, including
retirement planning, social security, and Medicare. There is a materials fee of $40 for
the Retirement Planning and a $15 fee for the Social Security/Medicare class.
Individual Tailoring of Advice to Clients:
We offer individualized investment advice to clients utilizing the following services
offered by our firm: Asset Management. On the other hand, we offer general investment
advice to clients utilizing the following services offered by our firm: Financial Planning
and Consultations, and Pension Consulting.
Prior to providing investment advisory services, an investment adviser representative
will ascertain each client’s investment objective(s). We will allocate and/or recommend
that the client allocate investment assets consistent with the designated investment
objective(s).
We do not sponsor any wrap fee program. A wrap fee program is defined as any
advisory program under which a specified fee or fees not based directly upon
transactions in a client’s account is charged for investment supervisory services (which
may include portfolio management or advice concerning the selection of other
investment advisers) and the execution of client transactions.