A. Description of Our Firm. MCA is a Michigan limited liability company that was
formed in 2003 and has been in business continuously since then. Our office is located at 630
Kenmoor Ave. SE, Suite 206, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546. MCA is owned by Henry G. Swain,
Michael D. DeSmyter, Jack N. Tunge, Mark R. Satkoski and Jeffrey A. Gietzen. Michael DeSmyter,
Mark R. Satkoski, and Jack N. Tunge are principal owners.
B. Description of Investment Advisory Services We Offer.
General. We provide consulting and investment management services to our clients. We
do this through investment adviser representatives. Only our investment adviser
representatives are authorized to give investment advice to clients. Information about our
investment adviser representatives can be found in the Supplements that are included at the
end of this MCA GPS Brochure.
MCA GPS Program-Specific. We offer an automated investment program (the
“Program”) thorough which clients are invested in a range of investment strategies we have
constructed and manage, each consisting of a portfolio of exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) and
a cash allocation. A client’s portfolio is held in a brokerage account opened by the client at
Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“CS&Co.”). We use the Institutional Intelligent Portfolios® platform
(“Platform”) offered by Schwab Performance Technologies (“SPT”), a software provider to
independent investment advisors and an affiliate of CS&Co., to operate the Program. We are
independent of and not owned by, affiliated with or sponsored or supervised by SPT, CS&Co. or
their affiliates (together, “Schwab”). We, and not Schwab, are the client’s investment advisor
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 (including a
suitable investment strategy and portfolio for the client’s investment needs and goals, and
managing that portfolio on an ongoing basis) for clients. 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”). The System includes an online questionnaire (“Investor Profile
Questionnaire” or “IPQ”) that helps determine the client’s investment objectives and risk
tolerance and essentially selects an appropriate investment strategy and portfolio. The
Investor Profile Questionnaire will be used to recommend an investment portfolio for clients’
account using the portfolios we constructed within the IIP Program. Initially and at any time
when clients have updated their IPQ, the IIP Program will recommend an investment portfolio
for their account. Clients will be asked to confirm the recommended investment
portfolio. Clients must acknowledge that after they have confirmed the recommended
investment portfolio, we, as their adviser, will have the discretion to select a final investment
portfolio that is different from the investment portfolio they confirmed. However, we will not
exercise that discretion unless (i) you are a wealth management or financial planning client of
ours, (ii) an adjustment is necessary or recommended in light of your overall household
portfolio allocation, the assets of which are subject to our management, and (iii) we have
notified you of any changes we make to the investment portfolio you confirmed. The IIP
Program will promptly notify the client of the selection, modification or replacement of the
investment portfolio in which their account is invested. Our services are limited to facilitating
access to the IIP Program, constructing and maintaining portfolios within the IIP system and
recommending an investment portfolio based on your responses to the Investor Profile
Questionnaire.
Clients may indicate an interest in a portfolio that is one level less or more conservative
or aggressive than the recommended portfolio. Typically any such changes are approved, but
we 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).
We charge our clients a fee for our services as described below under Item 5 - Fees and
Compensation. Our fees are not set or supervised by Schwab. Clients do not pay brokerage
commissions or any other fees to CS&Co. as part of the Program. Schwab does, however, receive
other revenues in connection with the Program, including: fund fees; the profit earned by
Schwab on the cash portion (the Platform currently requires that be 4% of the total) of each
account enrolled in the Program; fees received by Schwab from third-party ETFs that are
available under the Program; and market centers where Schwab routes ETF trade orders for
execution.
We do not pay SPT fees for the Platform so long as we maintain $100 million in client
assets in accounts at CS&Co that are not enrolled in the Program. If we do not meet this
condition, then we pay SPT an annual licensing fee of 0.10% (10 basis points) on the value of
clients’ assets in the Program. This fee arrangement gives us an incentive to recommend or
require that our clients with accounts not enrolled in the Program be maintained with CS&Co.
Amounts we pay to SPT do not increase the amount of fees we charge to clients enrolled in the
Program. We do not receive a portion of a wrap fee for our services to clients through the
Program.
Unlike non-Program clients, we do not provide financial planning or related services to
clients as part of the investment management services that are offered through the Program.
Such services, if any, are provided for an additional fee pursuant to the terms of a separate
written agreement.
Individuals. We assist individuals with the management of their retirement (e.g., IRAs)
and non-retirement investment assets. The Investor Profile Questionnaire (“IPQ”) that each
client is required to complete (initially as part of the account set-up process and later as and
when a client’s circumstances, objectives, time horizons or risk tolerance change) provides
assistance and tools that will enable them to formulate an appropriate risk-balanced
allocation
that fits their indicated needs, resources and risk tolerance. The IPQ is the primary Program
planning tool. The client’s responses to the IPQ result in a recommended portfolio that Program
algorithms indicate are most suitable for the client. Each such portfolio is one of an MCA-
created risk-managed model allocations, which are combination of equity (e.g., stock
investments) and fixed income (e.g., bond investments, cash) ranging from very conservative
(substantially all fixed income) to very aggressive (substantially all equity).
Tailoring Advisory Services to Client Needs. Before entering into an investment
management relationship with a client, we will explain the System and our then-current
investment philosophies and strategies, and we encourage each prospective client and client to
ask questions. We may change our investment strategies. While we generally advise our clients
when these changes are made, we reserve the right to make and implement changes without
prior notice or client approval.
Each client is required to sign an investment management, financial planning or other
agreement that governs the terms of our relationship. Investment management agreements
generally give us broad discretionary management authority. See Item 16 - Investment
Discretion below for more information on our discretionary authority.
Investment management agreements remain in effect until terminated by either us or
the client. Either we or the client may terminate the investment management agreement upon
fifteen (15) days’ prior written notice to the other. In the event of a termination we will charge
a prorated fee based on the number of days that services were rendered during the partial
billing period based on the value of the account at the normal month-end closest to the
termination date. Upon termination we will have no further responsibilities with respect to the
client’s investments. If clients choose to change custodians they will be responsible for paying
any transfer fees and charges imposed by the client’s custodian.
Each client will open an investment management account by depositing cash (or, if and
when permitted by the Program, securities) into a brokerage or other custodial account with
CS&Co. Cash (including proceeds of the sale of any permitted securities) will be invested in the
recommended portfolio. We are not responsible for any investment losses or tax consequences
incurred with respect to the sale of any securities that clients place into their accounts.
Clients enrolled in the Program are generally not able to place limitations on what kinds
of securities (for example, excluding a specific company’s securities) that may be held in a
Program account.
Making sure that a strategy is appropriate for and agreed to by a client is a requirement
of opening and maintaining an investment account with us. Clients must update their Investor
Profile Questionnaire as and when their circumstances change because we and the System do
not have any other way of knowing this information. This is important because we and the
System need to be able to evaluate if and to what extent the current strategy is still appropriate.
We and the System will rely solely upon the information clients provide in the initial and any
updated Investor Profile Questionnaire; we will not independently verify the accuracy or
completeness of information clients provide. It is the client’s responsibility to complete and
submit a new IPQ if and when their financial needs, circumstances or objectives change.
Clients will be notified by email of certain changes made to their account, including (a)
completion of the portfolio review and selection process for a new account; (b) completion of
the portfolio review and selection process in response to a client updating his or her answers
to the IPQ; and (c) any changes we make to a client’s existing portfolio.
Each client’s portfolio will represent a balance of risk and potential return and have an
appropriate amount of asset diversification that is consistent with the client’s objectives and
ability to tolerate risk. The Program periodically re-allocates and “re-balances” investment
portfolios in light of our then-current investment strategies, market conditions and other
factors. A Program client’s portfolio will not necessarily follow the same investment strategy
or be made up of the same investments as other clients. There will also be differences between
the portfolios of Program clients with similar circumstances and investment objectives due to
availability of some investments, when a client becomes a client, when purchases and sales are
made and the size of the portfolio.
Our investment decisions are driven largely by our applicable strategies rather than the
timing of a client’s particular investment or how long a client has held a particular investment.
While there are can be exceptions, we generally will purchase, sell and hold securities in a
client’s portfolio without specifically considering a client’s other investments and without
regard to the specific tax consequences to the client resulting from the sale of an investment.
C. Description of Financial Planning Services We Offer. There are no separate
financial planning services offered under the MCA GPS Program. Additional financial planning
services, if any, are provided and charged for pursuant to the terms of a separate financial
planning and consulting agreement that has been signed by the client. The specific nature,
extent, timing and other terms of such services and the fees we charge for them are agreed to
by each client and are specifically set forth in that agreement. See Item 5 – Fees and
Compensation below for more information on fees for financial planning services. Only our
investment adviser representatives are authorized to provide financial planning services to
clients.
D. Wrap Fee Programs. We do not currently participate in any so-called “wrap fee
programs.” More information about our practices with respect to brokerages can be found in
Item 12 - Brokerage Practices below.
E. Discretionary Assets Managed. As of December 31, 2023, the amount of client
assets we manage was approximately $778,827,245 on a discretionary basis and approximately
$168,476,821 on a non-discretionary basis, for a total of approximately $947,304,066. The
amount of client assets we managed under the MCA GPS Program was approximately $
7,064,814.