Fuse Partners, LLC (formerly VisionPoint Advisory Group, LLC), an investment adviser registered with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), is a limited liability company organized in the State of
Iowa.
The firm was formed in August 2013 by James Mars, Fuse Partners current Chief Executive Officer and
largest shareholder. Fuse Partners is currently owned by the Partners of the firm, each a minority
shareholder who ownership ranges from 45% to less than 5%. Fuse Partners is headquartered in Dallas,
Texas serving as its central supervisory and management location.
In February of 2023 VisionPoint Group, LLC (“VisionPoint”) and Castleview Partners, LLC (“Castleview”)
entered into an agreement to form Fuse Partners, LLC. Fuse Partners and Castleview are both
investment advisors registered with the SEC. Fuse Partners operates as a service provider to Castleview.
Fuse Partners leverages resources from Castleview to provide accounting, operations, trading, portfolio
reconciliation, compliance, human resources, marketing, and governance services for the benefit of its
clients. An expense sharing agreement between Fuse Partners and Castleview has been entered into
to facilitate these services. This structure allows Fuse Partners to utilize the strengths and capabilities
of each Registered Investment Adviser to better serve the clients of both firms.
Fuse Partners offers a wide range of advisory services to individual investors, high net worth individuals,
pension and profit-sharing plans, charitable organizations, trusts, small businesses, partnerships,
corporations, and other similar entities. Fuse Partners provides comprehensive wealth management
and financial planning services to its clients including personalized on-going money management
services, financial planning, and consultative services. Fuse Partners tailors its advisory services to the
individual needs of its clients by following a consistent process of goal setting, discovery, risk assessment,
financial planning, portfolio development, asset management, and monitoring. Fuse Partners also
provides discretionary fiduciary services to qualified retirement plans and pension plans as a codified
Investment Manager, as defined by ERISA.
Fuse Partner’s advisory services are described in detail within this Brochure. Clients, prospective clients,
and retirement plan trustees are encouraged to have their questions answered regarding Fuse Partners
and its services prior to entering into an agreement with Fuse Partners.
Fuse Partners serves as a fiduciary to Clients. As a fiduciary, the Fuse Partners upholds a duty of loyalty,
fairness and good faith towards each client and seeks to avoid or mitigate potential conflicts of interest.
Fuse Partners fiduciary commitment is further described in a Code of Ethics adopted by the firm. For
more information regarding the Code of Ethics, please see Item 11 – Code of Ethics, Participation or
Interest in Client Transactions and Personal Trading.
The services provided by Fuse Partners are broadly categorized as follows:
Comprehensive Wealth Management & Private Wealth Services
Discretionary Asset Management
Fuse Partners provides continuous, ongoing, active, and individualized investment management, asset
selection, asset allocation, rebalancing, and financial planning bundled as comprehensive wealth
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management services. The bundled fee Fuse Partners collects for its services contemplates a broad
range of wealth management services based on the standards of impartial conduct – that is, providing
advice in each client’s best interest, charging reasonable fees based on the scope and complexity of the
services provided, and making straightforward statements to each client about its recommendations. In
this regard, Fuse Partners should be viewed as a “level-fee” fiduciary whose bundled fees are based on
individualized ongoing comprehensive wealth management and financial planning services without the
bias and conflicts of commissions or variable compensation based upon its recommendations.
Over the course of the relationship, each client will have the opportunity to consult with Fuse Partners
and discuss personal financial opportunities, short and long term financial goals, tolerance for various
levels of risk, annual savings objectives, asset protection, college funding, retirement planning, projected
investment returns and projected income streams, cash-flow projections, tax planning, current and
future spending, retirement plan distribution options, pension, Social Security and Medicare election
decisions, estate planning, and charitable giving, along with other possible financial considerations, as
their personal situation dictates.
Fuse Partners provides ongoing discretionary portfolio management services based on the individual
goals, objectives, time horizon, and risk tolerance of each client. Fuse Partners seeks to design
investment strategies utilizing the client’s current financial situation to construct a portfolio designed to
match the client’s investment goals and financial plan. Fuse Partners regularly evaluates the current
investments of each client with respect to their risk tolerance levels and time horizon.
Based on the information provided by the client, Fuse Partners manages the investments in each Account
on the client’s behalf. Fuse Partners will supervise, monitor, provide ongoing active management, and
direct the investments of the Account with respect to the purchase, sale or continued holding of
securities, subject to any restrictions the client may impose.
Fuse Partners has established an Investment Committee to oversee and assist in the development and
monitoring of allocation models and client portfolios. The Fuse partners Investment Committee meets
frequently and many of the tactical allocations in client accounts will come from the topics and strategies
discussed at those meetings. As such, Fuse Partners clients benefit from a “team-approach” to asset
allocation and account rebalancing.
Under this program, the client grants limited discretionary authority over their Account to Fuse Partners.
This means that when Fuse Partners feels it is appropriate, and without further consultation with the
client, Fuse Partners may buy or sell securities in an attempt to achieve the objectives provided by the
client. The discretionary nature of the Account does not create a custody relationship between Fuse
Partners and any client. Each client retains every ownership right to the assets in their Accounts,
including the right to withdraw assets for an Account upon appropriate notice to Fuse Partners.
While Fuse Partners generally utilizes investment companies (mutual funds), exchange-traded funds
(ETF’s), cash equivalents, stocks, and bonds in its client accounts, it does not limit the types of
investments it might consider managing for a client. Fuse Partners believes that all asset classes –
equities, fixed income, alternatives, and cash – are valuable tools in implementing its investment
strategies. As such, Fees for services are based on each account’s total value including cash and cash
equivalents.
Clients who engage Fuse Partners for Discretionary Asset Management services will open a custodial
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account(s) with a Qualified Custodian, as that term is used in The Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the
Act) and in Investment Adviser Act Release No. 2176. Accounts will only be opened at Qualified
Custodians with the signed application of the client, thereby providing notice to each client as to their
custodial relationship. Each Qualified Custodian will send each client a statement detailing the balances
and activities in their Account over the previous quarter, including the advisory fees collected by Fuse
Partners from the Account during the previous period. Clients will receive Account statements directly
from the custodian according to the terms of their custodial contract. Clients are strongly urged to
review their account statements and the transaction confirmations they receive directly from their
custodian for any inaccuracies. Clients should IMMEDIATELY notify Fuse Partners and their custodian of
any inaccuracies.
Fuse Partners will contact each Client at least annually to review their Account(s) and to determine
whether there should be any changes to the Client profile and how each Account is being managed. The
Client may impose any reasonable restrictions on the management of their Account(s) or modify existing
restrictions at any time and with reasonable notice.
Fuse Partners offers a broad range of investment strategies and models to its clients:
Fuse Partners Managed Investment Models
Fuse Partners Investment Models are managed by Fuse Partners through its Investment Committee.
Investment Models are constructed, adopted, monitored, and supervised by the Investment Committee
utilizing third-party modeling, technology, and intellectual property contributions from selected
professional resources we engage. An allocation between Investment Models is recommended to each
client based on the unique investment goals, financial situation, and investment need of the client.
Tactical changes to the composition and focus of each Investment Model are made at the direction of the
Investment Committee without further consultation or approval of any client.
Custom Managed Investment Models
Custom Managed Investment Models are managed for each client’s unique circumstances, investment
constraints, holdings, or similar factors make them inappropriate candidates for the Fuse Partners Managed
Investment Models. Typically, these are larger portfolios that require the management of tax considerations
through the use of protected positions and position proxies to closely replicate the strategies employed by
the Investment Committee in its Fuse Partners Managed Investment Models.
Fuse Partners Intelligent Portfolios
Fuse Partners offers a technology-enabled investment program providing clients automated invest
opportunities. This is a “robo-advisor” solution that builds, monitors, and automatically rebalances a
diversified portfolio of mutual funds, ETF’s, and cash based on the client’s goals. Client accounts are
held in a custodial account, opened by the client, at Charles Schwab & Co. This program uses the
Institutional Intelligent Portfolios® platform offered by Schwab Performance Technologies (“SPT”), a
software provider to independent investment advisers and an affiliate of CS&Co. Fuse Partners is
independent of and not owned by, affiliated with, or sponsored or supervised by SPT, CS&Co., or their
affiliates (together, “Schwab”). Fuse Partners, and not Schwab, are the client’s investment adviser and
primary point of contact with respect to the program. We are solely responsible, and Schwab is not
responsible, for determining the appropriateness of the program for the client, choosing a suitable
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investment strategy and portfolio for the client’s investment needs and goals, and managing that
portfolio on an ongoing basis. We have contracted with SPT to provide us with the platform, which
consists of technology and related trading and account management services for the program. The
platform enables us to make the program available to clients online and includes a system that
automates certain key parts of our investment process. The system includes an online questionnaire
that can help us determine the client’s investment objectives and risk tolerance and select an
appropriate investment strategy and portfolio. Clients should note that, if we use the online
questionnaire, we will recommend a portfolio via the system in response to the client’s answers to the
online questionnaire. The client may then indicate an interest in a portfolio that is one level less or
more conservative or aggressive than the recommended portfolio, but we then make the final decision
and select a portfolio based on all the information we have about the client. The system also includes
an automated investment engine through which we manage the client’s portfolio on an ongoing basis
through automatic rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting (if the client is eligible and elects). The client
may instruct us to exclude up to three Funds from their portfolio.
Adviser Managed Accounts
Adviser Managed Accounts are managed by the Fuse Partners Private Wealth Advisor entrusted to your
accounts. These accounts are supervised by the Fuse Partner compliance staff and are not managed by or
reviewed by the Investment Committee. Advisor Managed Accounts are not invested in any other Fuse
Partners strategies or models.
Selection of Sub-Advisors
Fuse Partners may recommend that a client engage one or more unaffiliated Sub-Advisor to manage
all or a portion of a client’s investment portfolio. Each Sub-Advisor has been reviewed, approved, and
selected by the Fuse Partners Investment Committee. When a client elects to engage a Sub-Advisor, it
is the Sub-Advisor who provides discretionary investment management services to the portfolio assets
for which the Sub-Advisor is assigned.
Fuse Partners is the main point of contact with each Sub-Advisor
and the client grants Fuse Partners the authority to negotiate all terms, fees, and services to be
provided on the client’s behalf. Fuse Partners retains the sole discretionary authority to hire, fire, or
replace Sub-Advisors, and to reallocate client portfolio assets between Sub-Advisors, as it sees fit to
adapt to change in the market, Sub-Advisor performance, and changes in the client’s goals.
Fuse Partners will assist in the development of the initial recommendations of investment strategies
to be pursued by each Sub-Advisor and the ongoing care obligation to the client. Fuse Partners will
perform initial and ongoing due diligence and oversight of the recommended Sub-Advisor to ensure the
Sub-Advisor’s strategies and target allocations remain aligned with the client’s investment objectives
and overall best interests.
Selection of Mutual Funds and ETFs
Fuse Partners selects mutual funds and ETFs for client portfolios. Due to specific custodial and/or
mutual fund company constraints, or material tax considerations, Fuse Partners may utilize an ETF or
mutual fund share class at the lowest cost that the client qualifies for, which may not be the overall
lowest cost share class available in the marketplace. Fuse Partners routinely reviews client share class
holdings in an effort to provide the lowest cost of ownership available.
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Financial Planning Services
Financial Planning Services are available to clients who need financial advice or analyses typically
involving regarding a business opportunity, business sale or acquisition, an existing investment
portfolios, investment choices in qualified plans, insurance and asset protection strategies, risk
management, retirement projections, business plans, education savings, trust services, retirement
planning, estate planning, corporate and small business planning, or similar financial situation or
condition. Financial Planning Services are separate and unique from Fuse Partners Comprehensive
Wealth Management services. Some clients will engage Fuse Partners for both services
contemporaneously and pay a separate fee for each.
Financial Planning Services generally include data gathering related to the client’s unique planning
opportunity including the client’s financial goals, tolerance to risk, time horizon, tax status, family, and
similar information. Once the requested information is assembled, the Fuse Partners Financial Planning
Team will make a thorough analyses of the opportunity and options available and formulate
recommendations. After consultation with the client, a plan is developed to assist the client in achieving
their desired outcome. The plan may then be implemented at the client’s discretion in any manner or
degree that the client chooses. In other words, the client is free to follow the plan, in whole, in part, or
not at all, and may do so with any advisor or investment firm he or she chooses to use.
The projects encompassed within our Financial Planning Services are intentionally broad and tailored to
address the material issues of each client’s financial goals. The fees paid for Financial Planning Services,
if any, are exhausted by those services and an additional fee would be required for the ongoing
monitoring or management of client assets. Financial Planning Services may be contracted on a flat fee
or as a percentage of the assets for which the services are being performed. Flat fees for basic projects
can start as low as $500 but can be significantly higher depending upon the scope and duration of the
services provided. A written estimate of the negotiated fees for services will be provided to the client in
their Financial Planning Agreement prior to the initiation of any services. Fuse Partners may require an
advance deposit equal to as much as 100% of the estimated fee. Any remainder of the fee is due to Fuse
Partners at the time the services are completed, and the financial plan or other report is delivered to the
client. Once the fees are paid in full, the Financial Planning Agreement will be terminated, and any
additional services will require a new advisory Agreement. Fuse Partners will not collect any fee in excess
of $1,200 for services to be performed six (6) months or more in the future. Should the contract
terminate, any prepaid and unearned fee will be returned to the Client.
Tailored Relationships
Fuse Partners tailors its advisor services to the individual needs of each of its clients. Each client is relied
upon to provide Fuse Partners with accurate information regarding their investment portfolio and
financial situation. Information Fuse Partners considers in tailoring individual advisory services include
the client’s financial condition, investment objectives, tolerance to risk, investment timeframe, liquidity
needs, and tax status. All of our recommendations will be made in reliance of the information provided
by the client, and the client is responsible for ensuring that the information provided is complete and
accurate. Client information is maintained and protected in electronic files and is updated whenever the
client informs of us of changes. Fuse Partners performs advisory services for other clients, and it will
give advice or take actions in other client’s accounts, that will likely differ from the timing or nature of
actions it takes in another client’s account(s). Contracts for advisory services cannot be assigned by Fuse
Partners without the client’s affirmative consent.
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Corporate Solutions
Fuse Partners provides advisory services to retirement plans (“Plans”), generally covered by the
Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). In doing so, Fuse Partners represents that
it is registered as an investment advisor under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and acknowledges
that, with respect to each client, if it is a covered employee plan, Fuse Partners is a "Fiduciary" and
"Investment Manager" as defined in sections 3(21)(A) and/or 3(38) of ERISA. Trustees of each Plan are
required to enter into an investment advisory agreement describing the services that Fuse Partners will
perform for the Plan and its participants.
Fuse Partners will provide participants in each Plan with information about the Plan features and
investment alternatives that is sufficient to enable participants to make informed investment decisions.
Fuse Partners may also provide additional services in concert with the Plan including assisting in
establishing the investment policy for the Plan, the investment objectives of the Plan, the asset types
and classes to be offered under the Plan, the number of investment options to be offered under each
class of investment, the criteria and benchmarks for the selection and monitoring of the specific
investments to be offered under the Plan, monitoring the investments in the Plan and suggesting
replacements as appropriate, providing participant education, and advising the Plan Sponsor in following
a fiduciary process. Additionally, Fuse Partners may offer to conduct in-person group sessions and
provide educational materials to participants in the Plan, advising them of features, benefits, and
investment options under the Plan. Fuse Partners may also offer participants one-on-one meetings and
individual advice to create model portfolios where the participant elects not to make his or her own
asset allocation decisions. Participants maintain the sole responsibility to act upon the advice, unless
they individually enter into a separate advisory contract under which Fuse Partners would take on
discretionary control and ongoing management for the participants account(s). Fuse Partners does not
charge a commission within any Plan beyond the nominal and disclosed trading and administrative
charges incurred by the Plan Custodian. Fuse Partners does not participate in any trading or
administrative charges to Plan assets by custodians, nor does it receive any Rule 12b-1 commissions
(“trail commissions”) or other similar compensation for Plans covered by ERISA. Fuse Partners does not
have any arrangements with broker-dealers under which it will benefit from money managers placing
trades for any client or Plan. Fuse Partners acknowledges in writing that it owes a fiduciary obligation to
each Plan within its Code of Ethics.
Discretionary Services
Fuse Partners provides services to Plans on a discretionary basis as an Investment Manager under
ERISA § 3(38). In that capacity, the investment decisions of Fuse Partners are made in its sole discretion
without prior consultation or approval of the Plan. Fuse Partners Discretionary Services include
developing and implementing an investment policy statement, selecting a broad range of investment
options consistent with ERISA § 404(c), making decisions about the selection, retention, removal and
addition of investment options, ongoing investment monitoring, selection of a qualified default
investment alternative (“QDIA”) for participants who fail to make an investment election, performance
reports, education, enrollment, and analysis.
Non-Discretionary Services
Fuse Partners also provides services to Plans on a non-discretionary basis under ERISA § 3(21). In that
capacity the Plan retains and exercises all final decision-making authority and responsibility for the
Page 10 of 26 ADV Part 2A – Confidential V.03012024.MMO.01
implementation (or rejection) of advisory recommendations. Fuse Partners non-discretionary services
include assisting the Plan in developing and implementing an investment policy statement, assisting
the Plan in selecting a broad range of investment options consistent with ERISA § 404(c), assisting the
Plan in making decisions about the selection, retention, removal and addition of investment options,
selection of a qualified default investment alternative (“QDIA”) for participants who fail to make an
investment election, performance reports, education, enrollment, and analysis.
Retirement Accounts and Rollover Recommendations
Fuse Partners is a fiduciary under ERISA with respect to investment management services and
investment advice provided to ERISA Clients, including ERISA plan participants. Fuse Partners is also a
fiduciary under the Internal Revenue Code (the “IRC”) with respect to investment management services
and investment advice provided to ERISA plans, ERISA plan participants, IRA owners, and IRAs
(collectively, “Retirement Account Clients”). As such, Fuse Partners is subject to specific duties and
obligations under ERISA and the IRC that include, among other things, prohibited transaction rules
which are intended to prohibit fiduciaries from acting on conflicts of interest. For the transaction to
be exempted from the prohibited transaction rules, we must (i) meet a professional standard of care
when making investment recommendations (give prudent advice); (ii) never put our financial interests
ahead of yours when making recommendations (give loyal advice); (iii) avoid misleading statements
about conflicts of interest, fees, and investments; (iv) follow policies and procedures designed to
ensure that we give advice that is in each client’s best interest; (v) charge no more than is reasonable
for our services; and (vi) provide you basic information about our conflicts of interest.
An individual leaving an employer typically has four options regarding an existing retirement plan (and
may engage in a combination of these options): (i) leave the money in the former employer’s plan, if
permitted, (ii) roll over the assets to the new employer’s plan, if one is available and rollovers are
permitted, (iii) roll over to an Individual Retirement Account (“IRA”), or (iv) cash out the account value
(which could, depending upon the client’s age, result in adverse tax consequences). When Fuse
Partners recommends that a client roll over their retirement plan assets into an account to be managed
by Fuse Partners, that recommendation creates a conflict of interest because Fuse Partners will earn
an advisory fee on the assets being rolled over. Fuse Partners will mitigate this conflict by acting in the
best interest of the Client. No client is under any obligation to rollover retirement plan assets to an
account managed by Fuse Partners.
Regulatory Assets Under Management and Assets Under Advisement
Fuse Partners has the following assets under management or advisement as of February 29, 2024:
2 Assets Not Reportable on ADV Part I are assets that Fuse Partners advises on, but do not meet the SEC definition of Regulatory Assets Under
Management and thus are not reportable on Form ADV. Total Assets Under Advisement is inclusive of Regulatory Assets Under Management.
Discretionary
Assets Under
Management
Non-Discretionary
Assets Under
Management
Total Regulatory
Assets Under
Management
Assets Not
Included on Form
ADV Part 12
Total Assets Under
Advisement
$903,235,125.00 $0 $903,235,112.00
$1,500,683,677
$2,403,918,789.00
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