Peak Investment Advisors, Inc. (Peak) has been in operation in Colorado since 1993.
Peak and its predecessor firm have been in the investment management business since
1988. The firm is primarily owned by Richard A. Mueller, while Lisa A. Mueller owns a
minority stake.
Peak Investment Advisors, Inc. filed its initial application to become registered as in
investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in May 2024.
Peak provides investment advisory and financial consulting services primarily to
individuals, families and businesses. Peak may also serve pension funds, banks, trusts,
endowments and estates. Tax planning services are also provided to both individuals and
small businesses. Investment and tax advisory services are tailored to meet the needs of
individual clients, as each client situation is unique with regard to risk tolerances and
return objectives. Investment strategies and policies are arrived at after meeting with
clients and determining their goals, objectives and risk tolerances. Clients may limit or
restrict investing in certain securities or types of securities.
If Client is currently receiving asset management services from Peak for an asset
management fee, Peak provides consulting services for no additional charge. It will be
incumbent upon Client to identify the issues for which you are seeking our advice or
consultation on.
Retirement Plan Rollover Recommendations
When Peak provides investment advice about your retirement plan account or individual
retirement account (“IRA”) including whether to maintain investments and/or proceeds in
the retirement plan account, roll over such investment/proceeds from the retirement plan
account to a IRA or make a distribution from the retirement plan account, we acknowledge
that {Investment Adviser Firm} is a “fiduciary” 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. The way Peak makes
money creates conflicts with your interests so Peak operates under a special rule that
requires Peak to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of you.
Under this special rule’s provisions, Peak must as a fiduciary to a retirement plan account
or IRA under ERISA/IRC:
• Meet a professional standard of care when making investment
recommendations (e.g., give prudent advice);
• Never put the financial interests of Peak ahead of you when making
recommendations (e.g., give loyal advice);
• Avoid misleading statements about conflicts of interest, fees, and
investments;
• Follow policies and procedures
designed to ensure that Peak gives advice that
is in your best interest;
• Charge no more than is reasonable for the services of Peak; and
• Give Client basic information about conflicts of interest.
To the extent we recommend you roll over your account from a current retirement plan
account to an individual retirement account managed by Peak, please know that Peak and
our investment adviser representatives have a conflict of interest.
We can earn increased investment advisory fees by recommending that you roll over your
account at the retirement plan to an IRA managed by Peak. We will earn fewer investment
advisory fees if you do not roll over the funds in the retirement plan to an IRA managed by
Peak.
Thus, our investment adviser representatives have an economic incentive to recommend a
rollover of funds from a retirement plan to an IRA which is a conflict of interest because
our recommendation that you open an IRA account to be managed by our firm can be
based on our economic incentive and not based exclusively on whether or not moving the
IRA to our management program is in your overall best interest.
We have taken steps to manage this conflict of interest. We have adopted an impartial
conduct standard whereby our investment adviser representatives will (i) provide
investment advice to a retirement plan participant regarding a rollover of funds from the
retirement plan in accordance with the fiduciary status described below, (ii) not
recommend investments which result in Peak receiving unreasonable compensation related
to the rollover of funds from the retirement plan to an IRA, and (iii) fully disclose
compensation received by Peak and our supervised persons and any material conflicts of
interest related to recommending the rollover of funds from the retirement plan to an IRA
and refrain from making any materially misleading statements regarding such rollover.
When providing advice to your regarding a retirement plan account or IRA, our investment
advisor representatives will act with the care, skill, prudence, and diligence under the
circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a like capacity and familiar
with such matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with
like aims, based on the investment objectives, risk, tolerance, financial circumstances, and
a client’s needs, without regard to the financial or other interests of Peak or our affiliated
personnel.
Client assets under management as of March 31, 2024, were $130,474,788 Of these assets
under management, $96,165,831 were managed on a discretionary basis and $34,308,957
were managed on a non-discretionary basis.