Compass Ion Advisors, LLC is a registered investment adviser with its principal place of business
located in Pennsylvania. Compass Ion Advisors, LLC began conducting business in 2008.
The Firm’s shareholders include Matthew D. Kane and Joshua S. Manifold.
Compass Ion offers the following advisory services to clients:
Financial Planning
Compass Ion provides financial planning services. Financial planning is an integrated evaluation
of a client’s current and projected future financial status using currently known data,
assumptions about future events, goals and variables to project future cash flows and asset
values. Compass Ion uses the results of these projections to create planning recommendations
in the context of the clients’ expressed mission, vision, values and goals. Through the financial
planning process, all material questions, information and analysis are considered as they affect
and are affected by the entire financial and life situation of the client. Clients receiving this
service receive a written report which provides the client with a financial plan designed to assist
the client achieve his or her financial goals and objectives.
Compass Ion gathers necessary information through in-depth personal interviews. Information
gathered includes the client’s current financial status, tax status, future goals, return objectives
and attitudes toward risk. All documentation and information supplied by client, or with the
client’s permission, are carefully reviewed prior to the preparation of a written report. Should
the client choose to implement the recommendations contained in the plan, Compass Ion
encourages the client, when necessary, to work closely with his or her attorney, accountant or
other appropriate professional. Implementation of financial plan recommendations is entirely
at the client’s discretion.
Compass Ion also provides general non-securities advice on topics that may include tax and
budgetary planning, estate planning and business planning.
Typically, the financial plan is presented to the client within three months of the beginning of
the process, provided that all information needed to prepare the financial plan has been
promptly provided.
Financial Planning recommendations are not limited to any specific product or service offered
by a broker-dealer or insurance company. All recommendations are of a generic nature.
Investment Advisory Services
Generally, Compass Ion provides financial planning and investment advisory services as part of
an integrated service, it being a goal of Compass Ion to provide investment advisory services
within the context of a full understanding of a client’s overall financial situation. Compass Ion
provides investment advisory services to individual and family clients based on the individual
mission, vision, values and goals of each family. Compass Ion uses a team-driven approach to
design diversified, long-term portfolios to meet clients’ personal investment goals and
objectives. Compass Ion develops strategic and tactical asset allocations for clients. Compass
Ion conducts interviews with clients to determine each client’s risk profile and seek other
personal information during such interviews to enable the Firm to construct an appropriate
investment program.
Compass Ion provides investment advisory services to colleges, schools, other charitable
organizations and for-profit businesses based on the entity’s mission, vision, values and goals.
The Firm conducts interviews of key officials at such entitles to discover necessary information
and develop a risk profile and a strategic asset allocation. Compass Ion uses a team-driven
approach to design diversified, long-term-focused portfolios to meet the entity’s investment
goals and objectives, and in a manner designed to connect the entity’s stated mission with the
management of the investment portfolio.
Compass Ion manages investment advisory accounts on a discretionary basis or non-
discretionary basis. Account supervision is guided by the client’s stated objectives as well as tax
considerations. Clients may impose reasonable restrictions on investing in certain securities,
types of securities, or industry sectors. Compass Ion’s investment recommendations are not
limited to any specific product or service and generally will include mutual fund shares,
structured notes and exchange traded funds or notes.
As part of the Firm’s investment advisory services, Compass Ion monitors the performance of
client portfolios against certain agreed upon benchmarks, assess the performance of securities,
and report results to clients through periodic meetings, teleconferences, reports or web
portals.
Consulting Services to Retirement Plan Sponsors
Compass
Ion provides investment advisory services to plan sponsors of certain qualified
retirement plans which meet the Internal Revenue Code requirements and the Employee
Retirement Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), such as profit-sharing plans, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans,
and 457 plans. The Firm provides recommendations as to the appropriate, limited array of
investment options to be chosen from the mutual funds available through the plan’s third-party
administrator investment platform. At the client’s desires, Compass Ion also provides
informational and educational services to plan participants through seminars, employee
meetings, and other manners of communication to assist the participants in learning how to
properly utilize the plan and the investment options therein. Compass Ion does not have
custody, control, discretionary authority, responsibility for execution and does not take
responsibility for valuation, recordkeeping, or proxy voting.
Structured Note Buying Program
Compass Ion designs and implements Structured Notes for its clients, working with Keel Point
Capital LLC and the broker-dealer Advisors Asset Management, Inc. Structured notes are hybrid
securities that have components of both debt instruments and other underlying securities, such
as equities, commodities, options, etc. Certain types of structured notes have the ability to
enhance upside return while protecting a portion of downside risk. Compass Ion typically
employs these investments for clients as a complement to traditional long-only equity
strategies.
Sub-Advisors
Compass Ion may subcontract some or all of its investment advisory services with other
registered investment advisers (sub-advisors) and delegate all or a portion of advisory
responsibilities to the sub-advisor. Sub-advisors are not affiliated or controlled by Compass Ion.
Tailored Relationships
Compass Ion tailors investment advisory services to the individual needs of the client. Compass
Ion clients are allowed to impose restrictions on the investments in their account. All limitations
and restrictions placed on accounts must be presented to Compass Ion in writing. Clients will
retain individual ownership of all securities.
Fiduciary Statement
We are fiduciaries under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and when we provide investment
advice to you regarding your retirement plan account or individual retirement account, we are
also fiduciaries within the meaning of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act,
(“ERISA”) and/or the Internal Revenue Code, (“IRC”), as applicable, which are laws governing
retirement accounts.
We have to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours. At the same time,
the way we make money creates some conflicts with your interests. We must take into
consideration each client’s objectives and act in the best interests of the client. We are
prohibited from engaging in any activity that is in conflict with the interests of the client. We
have the following responsibilities when working with a client:
• To render impartial advice;
• To make appropriate recommendations based on the client’s needs, financial
circumstances, and investment objectives;
• To exercise a high degree of care and diligence to ensure that information is presented
in an accurate manner and not in a way to mislead;
• To have a reasonable basis, information, and understanding of the facts in order to
provide appropriate recommendations and representations;
• Disclose any material conflict of interest in writing; and
• Treat clients fairly and equitably.
Regulations prohibit us from:
• Employing any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud a client;
• Making any untrue statement of a material fact to a client or omitting to state a material
fact when communicating with a client;
• Engaging in any act, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as
fraud or deceit upon a client; or
• Engaging in any manipulative act or practice with a client.
We will act with competence, dignity, integrity, and in an ethical manner, when working with
clients. We will use reasonable care and exercise independent professional judgement when
conducting investment analysis, making investment recommendations, trading, promoting our
services, and engaging in other professional activities.
Wrap Fee Programs
Compass Ion does not sponsor or recommend Wrap Fee Programs.
Assets Under Management
As of December 31, 2023, Compass Ion manages $1,089,630,152 in assets under management,
of which $1,004,357,6882 is managed on a discretionary basis and $85,272,464 is managed on
a non-discretionary basis.