Our firm is dedicated to providing individuals and other types of clients with a wide array of investment advisory services. Our firm is a corporation formed under the laws of the State of California in 2006. Our firm is wholly owned by John Simon and Richard Toscano. The purpose of this Brochure is to disclose the conflicts of interest associated with the investment transactions, compensation and any other matters related to investment decisions made by our firm or its representatives. As a fiduciary, it is our duty to always act in the client’s best interest. This is accomplished in part by knowing our client. Our firm has established a service-oriented advisory practice with open lines of communication for many different types of clients to help meet their financial goals while remaining sensitive to risk tolerance and time horizons. Working with clients to understand their investment objectives while educating them about our process, facilitates the kind of working relationship we value. Types of Advisory Services Offered Comprehensive Portfolio Management: As part of our Comprehensive Portfolio Management service clients will be provided asset management and financial planning or consulting services. This service is designed to assist clients in meeting their financial goals through the use of a financial plan or consultation. Our firm conducts client meetings to understand their current financial situation, existing resources, financial goals, and tolerance for risk. Based on what is learned, an investment approach is presented to the client, consisting of individual stocks, bonds, ETFs, options, mutual funds and other public and private securities or investments. Once the appropriate portfolio has been determined, portfolios are continuously and regularly monitored, and if necessary, rebalanced based upon the client’s individual needs, stated goals and objectives. Upon client request, our firm provides a summary of observations and recommendations for the planning or consulting aspects of this service. Financial Planning & Consulting: Our firm provides a variety of standalone financial planning and consulting services to clients for the management of financial resources based upon an analysis of current situation, goals, and objectives. Financial planning services will typically involve preparing a financial plan or rendering a financial consultation for clients based on the client’s financial goals and objectives. This planning or consulting may encompass Investment Planning, Retirement Planning, Estate Planning, Charitable Planning, Education Planning, Corporate and Personal Tax Planning, Cost Segregation Study, Corporate Structure, Real Estate Analysis, Mortgage/Debt Analysis, Insurance Analysis, Lines of Credit Evaluation, or Business and Personal Financial Planning. Written financial plans or financial consultations rendered to clients usually include general recommendations for a course of activity or specific actions to be taken by the clients. Implementation of the recommendations will be at the discretion of the client. Our firm provides clients with a summary of their financial situation, and observations for financial planning engagements. Financial consultations are not typically accompanied by a written summary of observations and recommendations, as the process is less formal than the planning service. Assuming ADV Part 2A – Firm Brochure Page 5 Pacific Capital Associates, Inc. that all the information and documents requested from the client are provided promptly, plans or consultations are typically completed within 6 months of the client signing a contract with our firm. Retirement Plan Consulting: Our firm provides retirement plan consulting services to employer plan sponsors on an ongoing basis. Generally, such consulting services consist of assisting employer plan sponsors in establishing, monitoring and reviewing their company's participant-directed retirement plan. As the needs of the plan sponsor dictate, areas of advising could include: investment options, plan structure and participant education. Retirement Plan Consulting services typically include:
• Establishing an Investment Policy Statement – Our firm will assist in the development of a statement that summarizes the investment goals and objectives along with the broad strategies to be employed to meet the objectives.
• Investment Options – Our firm will work with the Plan Sponsor to evaluate existing investment options and make recommendations for appropriate changes.
• Asset Allocation and Portfolio Construction – Our firm will develop strategic asset allocation models to aid Participants in developing strategies to meet their investment objectives, time horizon, financial situation and tolerance for risk.
• Investment Monitoring – Our firm will monitor the performance of the investments and notify the client in the event of over/underperformance and in times of market volatility. In providing services for retirement plan consulting, our firm does not provide any advisory services with respect to the following types of assets: employer securities, real estate (excluding real estate funds and publicly traded REITS), participant loans, non-publicly traded securities or assets, other illiquid investments, or brokerage window programs (collectively, “Excluded Assets”). All retirement plan consulting services shall be in compliance with the applicable state laws regulating retirement consulting services. This applies to client accounts that are retirement or other employee benefit plans (“Plan”) governed by the Employee Retirement Income

Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”). If the client accounts are part of a Plan, and our firm accepts appointment to provide services to such accounts, our firm acknowledges its fiduciary standard within the meaning of Section 3(21) or 3(38) of ERISA as designated by the Retirement Plan Consulting Agreement with respect to the provision of services described therein. Institutional Intelligent PortfoliosTM Our firm provides portfolio management services through Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™, an automated, online investment management platform for use by independent investment advisers and sponsored by Schwab Wealth Investment Advisory, Inc. (the “Program” and “SWIA,” respectively). Through the Program, our firm offers clients a range of investment strategies we have constructed and manage, each consisting of a portfolio of exchange traded funds (“ETFs”) and a cash allocation. The client may instruct our firm to exclude up to three ETFs from their portfolio. The client’s portfolio is held in a brokerage account opened by the client at SWIA’s affiliate, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. Our firm is independent of and not owned by, affiliated with, or sponsored or supervised by SWIA, Schwab or their affiliates (together, “Schwab”). The Program is described in the Schwab Wealth Investment Advisory, Inc. Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ Disclosure Brochure (the “Program Disclosure Brochure”), which is delivered to clients by SWIA during the online enrollment process. The minimum investment required to open an account in the Program is $5,000. Our firm, and not Schwab, is the client’s investment adviser and primary point of contact with respect to the Program. Our firm is solely responsible, and Schwab is not responsible, for determining the ADV Part 2A – Firm Brochure Page 6 Pacific Capital Associates, Inc. appropriateness of the Program for the client, choosing a suitable investment strategy and portfolio for the client’s investment needs and goals, and managing that portfolio on an ongoing basis. SWIA’s role is limited to delivering the Program Disclosure Brochure to clients and administering the Program so that it operates as described in the Program Disclosure Brochure. Our firm has contracted with SWIA to provide the technology platform and related trading and account management services for the Program. This platform enables our firm to make the Program available to clients online and includes a system that automates certain key parts of the investment process (the “System”). The System includes an online questionnaire that helps our firm determine client investment objectives and risk tolerance and select an appropriate investment strategy and portfolio. Clients should note that our firm 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 our firm will make the final decision and select a portfolio based on all the information made available about the client. The System also includes an automated investment engine through which our firm manages the client’s portfolio on an ongoing basis through automatic rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting (if the client is eligible and elects). Investment Management for Direct Mutual Fund Accounts: Our firm may also provide investment management services with respect to allocations of previously purchased direct mutual fund accounts. If applicable and if client decides to engage in this type of service, client will sign a separate agreement and/or an additional addendum authorizing our firm on a discretionary basis without prior consultant to buy, sell, and exchange account allocations within their direct mutual fund accounts (pursuant to the predetermined investment objective guidelines). Before any action is taken, our firm shall obtain the necessary financial circumstances, investment objectives and any special instruction or limits from the client. Account Monitoring: Our firm provides account monitoring services in which we provide only for the housekeeping of Client assets. Our firm will not manage the assets nor will our firm provide investment recommendations. Clients are responsible to execute trades on their own. We may execute trades only under the following circumstances: (1) under the Client’s specific instruction and direction; and/or (2) to sell in order to raise cash to pay our firm’s advisory fee. Unless the Client requests otherwise, our firm will sell the Client’s largest position in the event we need to raise cash to pay our firm’s advisory fee. Tailoring of Advisory Services Our firm offers individualized investment advice to our Comprehensive Portfolio Management, Institutional Intelligent PortfoliosTM, and Direct Mutual Fund Account clients. General investment advice will be offered to our Financial Planning & Consulting, and Retirement Plan Consulting clients. No advice will be offered to Account Monitoring clients. Each Comprehensive Portfolio Management client has the opportunity to place reasonable restrictions on the types of investments to be held in the portfolio. Restrictions on investments in certain securities or types of securities may not be possible due to the level of difficulty this would entail in managing the account. ADV Part 2A – Firm Brochure Page 7 Pacific Capital Associates, Inc. Participation in Wrap Fee Programs Our firm does not offer or sponsor a wrap fee program. Regulatory Assets Under Management As of December 31, 2023, our firm manages $228,057,952 on a discretionary basis and $371,170 on a non-discretionary basis.