A. Description of Advisory Firm
Physician Wealth Solutions Inc. (“PWS”) is a registered investment adviser with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission. PWS is a fee only investment advisory and
financial planning firm. PWS can do business as Physician Wealth Solutions. PWS has
been in business since September 2013. The principal owner of PWS is Setu
Mazumdar, MD, CFP®, RICP®, AIF®.
B. Types of Advisory Services
General Description of Primary Advisory Services
The following are brief descriptions of our advisory services. A detailed description of
each service is provided in Item 5 – Fees and Compensation so that you can review the
services and description of fees in a side-by-side manner.
PWS provides three services: Investment management for individuals and families,
financial planning for individuals and families, and qualified retirement plan consulting
services for qualified retirement plans.
Investment Management
Investment management includes managing an investment portfolio across all
accounts, including taxable, IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, and other investment and
retirement accounts mutually agreed upon by PWS and each client. For investment
management PWS specializes in managing investments through diversified index and
passively managed mutual funds and exchange traded funds. Index funds and passive
mutual funds are mutual funds that do not attempt to “beat” the market or engage in
market timing. Instead they provide broad diversification to each investment class in a
low-cost way and attempt to match the returns of an investment class.
Held-Away Asset Services
In an effort to provide comprehensive wealth management, we offer advice, as
requested by Clients, on held-away assets. This includes assets held outside PWS’
primary custodian, such as an employer-sponsored 401(k), 403(b) account, 529
account, separately managed accounts, as well as mutual funds or trusts.
Under this service we will provide ongoing monitoring and guidance and integrate held-
away assets into the client’s total portfolio. Held-away services include, but are not
limited to, guiding a client on security transactions and helping rebalance held-away
portfolios. The client is responsible for making the trades in held-away accounts.
Financial Planning
Financial planning services include reviewing personal and financial goals, reviewing
insurance needs, doing cash flow analysis, retirement planning, reviewing estate plans,
education planning, providing general financial advice on matters a client has questions
about, and coordination with other consultants.
Retirement Plan Services – Physician Wealth Solutions offers retirement plan services
to retirement plan sponsors and to individual participants in retirement plans. For a
corporate sponsor of a retirement plan, retirement plan services can include, but are not
limited to, the following services:
Fiduciary Consulting Services
Physician Wealth Solutions provides the following Fiduciary Retirement Plan Consulting
Services:
• Investment Policy Statement Preparation. Physician Wealth Solutions will help
you develop an investment policy statement. The investment policy statement
establishes the investment policies and objectives for the Plan. You will have the
ultimate responsibility and authority to establish such policies and objectives and
to adopt and amend the investment policy statement.
• Investment Selection Services. Physician Wealth Solutions will provide you with
recommendations of investment options consistent with ERISA section 404(c).
• Investment Monitoring. Physician Wealth Solutions will assist in monitoring
investment options in the following ways: the custodian will prepare periodic
investment reports that document investment performance, consistency of fund
management and conformation to the guidelines set forth in the investment policy
statement, and Physician Wealth Solutions will make recommendations to
maintain or remove and replace investment options.
• Non-Discretionary Investment Advice. Physician Wealth Solutions will provide
you with general, non-discretionary investment advice regarding assets classes
and investment options, consistent with the Plan’s investment policy statement.
• Default Investment Alternative Advice. Physician Wealth Solutions will provide
non-discretionary investment advice to assist you with the development of
qualified default investment alternative(s) (“QDIA”), as defined in DOL Reg.
Section 2550.404c-5(e)(4)(i), for participants who are automatically enrolled in
the Plan or who otherwise fail to make an investment election. You retain the
sole responsibility to provide all notices to participants required under ERISA
section 404(c)(5).
Physician Wealth Solutions acknowledges that in performing the Fiduciary Consulting
Services listed above that it is acting as a “fiduciary” as such term is defined under
Section 3(21)(A)(ii) of Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) for
purposes of providing non-discretionary investment advice only. Physician Wealth
Solutions will act in a manner consistent with the requirements of a fiduciary under
ERISA if, based upon the facts and circumstances, such services cause Physician
Wealth Solutions to be a fiduciary as a matter of law. However, in providing the
Fiduciary Consulting Services, Physician Wealth Solutions (a) has no responsibility and
will not (i) exercise any discretionary authority or discretionary control respecting
management of Client’s retirement plan, (ii) exercise any authority or control respecting
management or disposition of assets of Client’s retirement plan, or (iii) have any
discretionary authority or discretionary responsibility in the administration of Client’s
retirement plan or the interpretation of Client’s retirement plan documents, (b) is not an
“investment manager” as defined in Section 3(38) of ERISA and does not have the
power to manage, acquire or dispose of any plan assets, and (c) is not the
“Administrator” of Client’s retirement plan as defined in ERISA.
Non-Fiduciary Services
Physician Wealth Solutions provides clients with the following Non-Fiduciary Retirement
Plan Consulting Services:
• Participant Education. Physician Wealth Solutions will provide education
services to Plan participants about general investment principles and the
investment alternatives available under the Plan. PWS’s assistance in
participant investment education will be consistent with and within the scope of
DOL Interpretive Bulletin 96-1. Education presentations will not take into account
the individual circumstances of each participant and individual recommendations
will not be provided unless otherwise agreed upon. Plan participants are
responsible for implementing transactions in their own accounts.
• Participant Enrollment. Physician Wealth Solutions will assist you with group
enrollment meetings designed to increase retirement plan participation among
employees and investment and financial understanding by the employees.
Although an investment adviser is considered a fiduciary under the Investment Advisers
Act of 1940 and required to meet the fiduciary duties as defined by the Advisers Act, the
services listed here as non-fiduciary should not be considered
fiduciary services for the
purposes of ERISA since Advisor is not acting as a fiduciary to the Plan as the term
“fiduciary” is defined in Section 3(21)(A)(ii) of ERISA.
The exact suite of services provided to a client will be listed and detailed in the Qualified
Retirement Plan Agreement.
All recommendations of investment options and portfolios will be submitted to the client
for the client’s ultimate approval or rejection. Therefore, it is always the client’s
responsibility to accept investment recommendations of Physician Wealth Solutions and
then physically make changes to the plan itself.
In the event a client contracts with Physician Wealth Solutions for one-on-one
consulting services with plan participants, such services are consultative in nature and
do not involve Physician Wealth Solutions implementing recommendations in individual
participant accounts. It will be the responsibility of each participant to implement
changes in the participant’s individual accounts.
PWS can also meet with individual participants to discuss their specific investment risk
tolerance, investment time frame and investment selections.
Retirement plan consulting services are not management services, and Physician
Wealth Solutions does not serve as administrator or trustee of the plan. Physician
Wealth Solutions does not act as custodian for any client account or have access to
client funds or securities (with the exception of, some accounts, having written
authorization from the client to deduct PWS’s fees). In addition, PWS does not
implement any transactions in a retirement plan or participant’s account. For retirement
plan consulting services, the retirement plan or the plan participant who elects to
implement any recommendations made by PWS is solely responsible for implementing
all transactions.
Physician Wealth Solutions will disclose, to the extent required by ERISA Regulation
Section 2550.408b-2(c), to you any change to the information that PWS is required to
disclose under ERISA Regulation Section 2550.408b-2(c)(1)(iv) as soon as practicable,
but no later than sixty (60) days from the date on which PWS is informed of the change
(unless such disclosure is precluded due to extraordinary circumstances beyond PWS’s
control, in which case the information will be disclose as soon as practicable).
In accordance with ERISA Regulation Section 2550.408b-2(c)(vi)(A), PWS will disclose
within thirty (30) days following receipt of a written request from the responsible plan
fiduciary or Plan Administrator (unless such disclose is precluded due to extraordinary
circumstances beyond PWS’s control, in which case the information will be disclosed as
soon as practicable) all information related to the Qualified Retirement Plan Agreement
and any compensation or fees received in connection with the Agreement that is
required for the Plan to comply with the reporting and disclosure requirements of Title 1
of ERISA and the regulations, forms and schedules issued thereunder.
If PWS makes an unintentional error or omission in disclosing the information required
under ERISA Regulation Section 2550.408b-2(c)(1)(iv) or (vi), PWS will disclose to you
the correct information as soon as practicable, but no later than thirty (30) days from the
date on which PWS learns of such error or omission.
IRA Rollovers - When recommending that a client rollover his or her account from
current retirement plan to an IRA, Physician Wealth Solutions and its investment adviser
representatives have a conflict of interest. Physician Wealth Solutions and its
representatives can earn investment advisory fees by recommending that a client
rollover his or her account at the retirement plan to an IRA; however, Physician Wealth
Solutions and its investment adviser representatives will not earn any investment
advisory fee if client does not rollover the funds in the retirement plan (unless a client
retained Physician Wealth Solutions to provide advice about the client’s retirement plan
account). Thus, Physician Wealth Solutions and its investment adviser representatives
have an economic incentive to recommend a rollover of the retirement plan account,
which is a conflict of interest. Physician Wealth Solutions has taken steps to manage
this conflict of interest arising from rolling over funds from an ERISA covered retirement
plan to an IRA and has adopted an impartial conduct standard through its code of ethics
whereby Physician Wealth Solutions and its investment adviser representatives will (i)
provide investment advice to ERISA covered retirement plan participant regarding a
rollover of funds from the ERISA covered retirement plan in accordance with the
fiduciary status described below, (ii) not recommend investments which result in
Physician Wealth Solutions receiving unreasonable compensation related to the rollover
of funds from the ERISA covered retirement plan to an IRA, and (iii) fully disclose
compensation received by Physician Wealth Solutions and its supervised persons and
any material conflicts of interest related to Physician Wealth Solutions recommending
the rollover of funds from the ERISA covered retirement plan to an IRA and refrain from
making any materially misleading statements regarding such rollover.
To the extent Physician Wealth Solutions provides investment advice to a participant in
a retirement plan under Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 as amended
("ERISA") regarding whether to maintain investments and/or proceeds in an ERISA
retirement plan, rollover such investment/proceeds from the ERISA retirement plan to
an individual retirement account (“Rollover IRA account”) or make a distribution from the
ERISA retirement plan, Physician Wealth Solutions hereby acknowledges its fiduciary
obligations with regard to its investment advice about whether to maintain, rollover or
distribute proceeds from those ERISA retirement plans, and as such a fiduciary with
respect to its investment advice about whether to maintain, rollover or distribute
proceeds from those ERISA retirement plans, Physician Wealth Solutions and its
representatives shall 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 Physician
Wealth Solutions or its affiliates.
C. Tailor Advisory Services to Individual Needs of Clients
Our services are provided based on the individual needs of each client. This means, for
example, that the client is given the ability to impose restrictions on their accounts,
including restricting specific investment selections and sectors. We work with you on a
one-on-one basis through interviews and questionnaires to determine your investment
objectives and suitability information.
D. Participation in Wrap Fee Programs
PWS does not participate in wrap fee programs.
E. Client Assets Managed by Physician Wealth Solutions, Inc.
As of 12/31/22 PWS manages $201,158,690 in total assets. Of that total PWS manages
$201,158,690 in discretionary assets and $0 in nondiscretionary assets.