A. Brown Wealth Management (the “Firm”) is a limited liability company formed on January
15, 2003 in the State of Minnesota. The Firm became registered as an investment adviser
on August 15, 2002 with the Minnesota Department of Commerce and has been registered
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since March 26, 2018. The Firm is
owned entirely by Timothy B. Brown, who is also the Firm’s Chief Compliance Officer.
B. As discussed below, the Firm offers to its clients (generally, individuals, high net worth
individuals, pension and profit-sharing plans) investment advisory services, financial
planning and related consulting services, and retirement plan consulting services.
INVESTMENT ADVISORY SERVICES
The Firm provides fee-only financial planning and investment counseling services to
individuals, corporations, small business, 401(k), pensions and profit-sharing plans, estates
and trusts. The firm makes available financial planning to clients. This includes the five
areas of financial planning which are Protection, Estate Planning, Income Tax Planning,
Retirement income Planning and Investment Planning. The firm offers discretionary
investment advisory services on advisory accounts.
This service is generally available for clients who have $750,000 or more in investable
assets.
For most clients, the Firm’s compensation derives from investment advisory fees on assets
that are managed by the Firm, on behalf of the client. Clients pay the Firm a management
fee, also called an investment advisory fee, calculated as a percentage of the market value
of the account.
HERITAGE DESIGN WEALTH MANAGEMENT
The Heritage Design Wealth Management (HDWM) service is designed to help families
survive and thrive for generations. HDWM is intended to educate and prepare children and
grandchildren to grow, manage and protect the wealth they stand to inherit. HDWM is
intended to assist high net worth families with traditional wealth management with a focus
on education, estate planning, asset transfers, wealth preservation, and maintaining families
for generations. The fee for this service is separately negotiated and dependent on the level
of assets, the number of family members, and complexity.
RETIREMENT PLAN CONSULTING SERVICES
The Firm also offers non-discretionary retirement plan consulting services, pursuant to
which it assists sponsors of self-directed retirement plans and defined benefit plans with
the selection and/or monitoring of investment alternatives from which plan participants
may choose in self-directing the investments for their individual plan retirement accounts.
In addition, to the extent requested by the plan sponsor, the Firm may also provide
participant education designed to assist participants in identifying the appropriate
investment strategy for their retirement plan accounts. The terms and conditions of the
engagement between the Firm and the plan sponsor shall be set forth in a Retirement Plan
Consulting Agreement.
MISCELLANEOUS
Non-Discretionary Service Limitations. Clients that engage the Firm on a non-
discretionary basis must be willing to accept that the Firm cannot effect any account
transactions without obtaining prior consent to any such transaction(s) from the client. For
example, if securities markets experience significant volatility, and the client is unavailable
to provide to consent to the Firm’s recommended transactions, the Firm will be unable to
effect such transactions as it would for its discretionary clients.
Limitations of Non-Investment Consulting/Implementation Services. To the extent
requested by the client, the Firm may provide consulting services regarding non-investment
related matters, such as estate planning, tax planning, insurance, etc. The Firm does not
serve as a law firm, accounting firm, or insurance agency, and no portion of the Firm’s
services should be construed as legal, accounting, or insurance implementation services.
Accordingly, the Firm does not prepare estate planning documents, tax returns, or sell
insurance products. To the extent requested by a client, the Firm may recommend the
services of other professionals for certain non-investment implementation purposes (i.e.
attorneys, accountants, insurance, etc.). The client is under no obligation to engage the
services of any such recommended professional. The client retains absolute discretion over
all such implementation decisions and is free to accept or reject any recommendation from
the Firm. If the client engages any such recommended professional, and a dispute arises
thereafter relative to such engagement, the client agrees to seek recourse exclusively from
and against the engaged professional.
Client Obligations. In performing its services, the Firm shall
not be required to verify any
information received from the client or from the client’s other professionals and is
expressly authorized to rely thereon. Each client is advised that it remains their
responsibility to promptly notify the Firm if there is ever any change in their financial
situation or investment objectives for the purpose of reviewing, and if necessary, revising
its previous recommendations.
Account Aggregators. The Firm may provide its clients with access to online platforms
that allow a client to view their complete asset allocation, including those assets that the
Firm does not manage (the “Excluded Assets”). The Firm does not provide investment
management, monitoring, or implementation services for the Excluded Assets. Therefore,
the Firm shall not be responsible for the investment performance of the Excluded Assets.
Rather, the client and their other advisor(s) that maintain management authority for the
Excluded Assets, and not Firm, shall be exclusively responsible for such investment
performance. The client may choose to engage the Firm to manage some or all of the
Excluded Assets pursuant to the terms and conditions of an Investment Advisory
Agreement between the Firm and the client. Finally, the Firm shall not be held responsible
for any adverse results a client may experience if the client engages in other functions on
any online platform without the Firm’ assistance or oversight.
Trade Error Policy. The Firm shall reimburse accounts for losses resulting from Firm’s
trade errors.
Retirement Plan Rollovers. A client or prospective client 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).
If the Firm recommends that a client roll over their retirement plan assets into an account
to be managed by the Firm, such a recommendation creates a conflict of interest if the Firm
will earn a new (or increase its current) advisory fee as a result of the rollover. To the
extent that the Firm recommends that clients roll over assets from their retirement plan to
an IRA managed by the Firm, then the Firm represents that it and its investment adviser
representatives are fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of
1974 (“ERISA”), or the Internal Revenue Code, or both. No client is under any obligation
to roll over retirement plan assets to an account managed by the Firm.
Use of Mutual Funds. While the Firm may recommend allocating investment assets to
mutual funds that are not available directly to the public, the Firm may also recommend
that clients allocate investment assets to publicly-available mutual funds that the client
could obtain without engaging Firm as an investment adviser. However, if a client or
prospective client determines to allocate investment assets to publicly-available mutual
funds without engaging Firm as an investment adviser, the client or prospective client
would not receive the benefit of Firm’s initial and ongoing investment advisory services.
Other mutual funds, such as those issued by Dimensional Fund Advisors (“DFA”), are
generally only available through registered investment advisers. Firm may allocate client
investment assets to DFA mutual funds. Therefore, upon the termination of Firm’s services
to a client, restrictions regarding transferability and/or additional purchases of, or
reallocation among DFA funds will apply. Clients that determine to sell such mutual funds
could experience tax consequences. Firm is not responsible for any tax consequences
incurred by clients because of their decision to sell mutual funds held in their account
following the termination of the Firm’s services.
C. The Firm shall provide investment advisory services specific to the needs of each client.
Prior to providing investment advisory services, an investment adviser representative will
ascertain each client’s investment objective(s). Thereafter, Firm shall allocate and/or
recommend that the client allocate investment assets consistent with the designated
investment objective(s). The client may, at any time, impose reasonable restrictions, in
writing, on Firm’s services.
D. The Firm does not participate in a wrap fee program.
E. As of January 25, 2024, the Firm had $173,270,000 in assets under management, of which
$151,850,000 was managed on a discretionary basis and $21,420,000 was managed on a
non-discretionary basis.