Firm Description Northstar Financial Planning, LLC ("Northstar Financial Planning") was founded in 1994 and is registered as an investment adviser. Northstar Financial Planning, LLC is an independent fee only investment adviser and we are not compensated in the form of commissions for selling any securities or insurance products.
We provide personalized Wealth Management Services including financial life planning and investment management. Advice is provided through consultation with the client and may generally include but may not be limited to: determination of financial objectives, review of current financial picture, cash flow management, tax planning, insurance review, asset allocation and investment management, transition planning, education planning, retirement planning, and estate planning.
We provide an initial complimentary consultation, either in person or via telephone, to discuss our services and the needs of the client. In the event you decide to engage us, we will enter into a written agreement for services which will detail the services provided.
Initial and periodic reviews of the clients situation are communicated throughout the course of the relationship to provide reminders of the specific courses of action that need to be taken. More frequent reviews occur but are not necessarily communicated to the client unless immediate changes are recommended.
We coordinate with other professionals (e.g., lawyers, accountants, insurance agents, etc.) who are engaged directly by the client on an as-needed basis.
We also provide pension consulting services to qualified retirement plans as described below.
Principal Owners Northstar Financial Planning, LLC is owned by Robin A. Young, Alexa Darbe, Rachel DeCarolis and Julie Fortin.
Assets Under Management As of January 2, 2024, we provide continuous management services for $201,000,000 in client assets on a discretionary basis, and $21,000,000 in client assets on a non-discretionary basis for a total of $222,000,000. Tailored Relationships Our advice is tailored according to each client's goals and objectives, tolerance for risk and other relevant criteria. We provide advice to clients based upon investment policy statements which we provide to each managed account client reflecting stated goals and objectives. Clients may impose restrictions on investing in certain securities or types of securities.
Advisory Services Wealth Management/Investment Management Services Northstar Financial Planning, LLC provides Wealth Management Services where all aspects of the client's financial affairs are reviewed. Such services generally include but may not be limited to: determination of financial objectives, review of current financial picture, cash flow management, tax planning, insurance review, asset allocation and investment management (including performance reporting) transition planning, education planning, retirement planning; and estate planning; as well as the implementation of recommendations within each area. 4 In some cases, we provide stand alone Investment Management Services. In these circumstances, we will not provide Financial Life Planning services unless clients execute a separate engagement agreement. We work with the client to define realistic and measurable goals and develop strategies to reach those goals. Once we construct an investment portfolio for the client, we will monitor the portfolio's performance on an ongoing basis. As goals and objectives change over time, we will adjust the portfolio, as necessary.
If you retain our firm for Wealth Management/Investment Management Services, you will grant our firm discretionary authority to manage your account through a limited power of attorney. Discretionary authorization will allow our firm to determine the specific securities, and the amount of securities, to be purchased or sold for your account without your approval prior to each transaction. For certain accounts which are held at custodians which we do not recommend (e.g. retirement accounts), we will make recommendations regarding the assets in such accounts but will not exercise discretionary authority over such assets. In such cases, it shall be your responsibility to implement recommendations which we provide. If we provide investment recommendations on assets held in your Employer Plans and include these assets on your performance reporting, you will be responsible for the execution of the investment recommendations. We will include these assets in our quarterly billing and charge a flat 0.50% per year on the total.
Financial Life Planning Services Financial Life Planning Services are designed to assist clients with financial planning needs who do not require ongoing investment management services.
The Financial Life Planning Services we may provide may include, but are not limited to: a net worth statement; a cash flow statement and spending plan; a review of investment accounts, including reviewing asset allocation; strategic tax planning; a review of retirement accounts and plans including recommendations; a review of insurance policies and recommendations for changes, if necessary; one or more retirement scenarios; estate planning review and recommendations; and education planning with funding recommendations.
Detailed investment advice and specific recommendations may be provided as part of the financial planning process; however clients are responsible for implementing any advice.
Financial plans are based on your financial situation at the time the plan is presented and are based on financial information disclosed by you to us. You are advised that certain assumptions may be made with respect to interest and inflation rates and the use of past trends and performance of the market and economy. Past performance of investments must not be assumed to be an indication of future performance. We cannot offer any guarantees or promises that your financial goals and objectives will be met. If and when your financial situation, goals, objectives, or needs change, you must notify us promptly.
Types of Investments We primarily provide advice on insurance, no-load mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. Mutual funds and exchange traded funds are professionally managed collective investment systems that pool money from many investors and invest in stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, other mutual funds, other securities or any combination thereof. The fund will have a manager that trades the fund's investments in accordance with the fund's investment objective. While mutual funds and ETFs generally provide diversification, risks can be significantly increased if the fund is concentrated in a 5 particular sector of the market, primarily invests in small cap or speculative companies, uses leverage (i.e., borrows money) to a significant degree, or concentrates in a particular type of security (i.e., equities) rather than balancing the fund with different types of securities. Exchange traded funds differ from mutual funds since they can be bought and sold throughout the day like stock and their price can fluctuate throughout the day. The returns on mutual funds and ETFs can be reduced by the costs to manage the funds. Also, while some mutual funds are "no load" and charge no fee to buy into, or sell out of the fund, other types of mutual funds do charge such fees which can also reduce returns.
You may request that we refrain from investing in particular securities or certain types of securities. You must provide these restrictions to our firm in writing.
Initial public offerings (IPOs) are not available through Northstar Financial Planning, LLC Termination of Agreement Clients may terminate the Wealth Management/Investment Management agreement and the Financial Life Planning agreement by providing us with written notice. In the event of termination, if you have pre-paid any fees which we have not yet earned, we will provide you with a refund as follows: (1) For ongoing Financial Life Planning Services, we will refund a pro-rata amount representing the percentage of your most recent quarterly fee for services that have not been performed; (2) For one time Financial Life Planning Services we will refund a pro-rata amount representing the percentage of your initial fee for services that have not been performed (you will also be responsible for payment for any services on a pro-rata basis representing the percentage of work performed not covered by the initial fee); and (3) For Wealth Management/Investment Management Services, you will be charged pro rata based on the number of days in the quarter for which you are a client.
Betterment for Advisors Betterment for Advisors is a digital wealth management platform generally serving independent investment advisory firms and advisors (such advisors, "you" or "Advisor"). Betterment LLC ("Betterment"), a registered investment advisor, serves as sub-advisor to Advisor's clients ("Clients"). MTG LLC, dba Betterment Securities ("Betterment Securities"), a registered broker-dealer

and member of FINRA and SIPC, serves as broker-dealer and custodian. Betterment and Betterment Securities are not a "Related Person" of any Advisor on the Betterment for Advisors platform.
The services provided by Betterment include:
•Goal-Based Investment Management: Betterment's goal-based investment platform allows Advisors and Clients to identify multiple investment goals for each Client, each with specific portfolio allocations;
•Portfolio Construction Tools: Advisor and Advisor's Clients have access to a set of Betterment constructed portfolio strategies, third-party model portfolio strategies, or, if applicable, Advisor constructed custom portfolio strategies (described below), each of which is comprised of low cost, index-tracking exchange-traded funds or mutual funds (the latter only for advisors who are approved to construct portfolios with Dimensional Fund Advisors mutual funds), and are able to customize the risk-level for each investment goal (collectively "traditional securities portfolios");
•Automated Investment Management Services: Betterment's algorithms automate back-office tasks such as trading, portfolio management, and account rebalancing;
•Website and Mobile Application: Betterment's website and mobile application provide a platform for account access and monitoring and delivery of account documentation and notices; and
•Advisor Dashboard: Advisors have access to a dashboard for purposes of monitoring and 6 managing Client accounts. We have chosen to offer our Clients custom portfolio strategies ("Custom Portfolios") through Betterment's platform. Our Custom Portfolios are designed using our own investment methodologies, and our Clients are able to use Betterment's automated advice features, including automatic rebalancing, dividend reinvestment, tax loss harvesting, and asset location services. We, and not Betterment, are responsible for managing any goal for which a Custom Portfolio is elected on the basis of a Client's financial situation and investment objectives. Betterment will not evaluate whether any Custom Portfolio is suitable for any Client's individual investment objectives, either at the time of election or on an ongoing basis. Betterment for Advisors offers several account types to Advisors and their Clients, such as taxable investing accounts, individual retirement accounts (IRAs), and cash management accounts (Cash Reserve). If Advisor's Client also is employed by a company that utilizes Betterment's 401(k) offering, Betterment at Work, Advisor may also manage Client's Betterment 401(k) account if Client delegates investment management authority of their 401(k) to Advisor. Advisors can view Clients' Betterment checking account in their Advisor Dashboard, and Advisors can also view Clients' health savings accounts (HSAs), if the Client has a Betterment HSA through their employer.
TAILORED SERVICES AND INVESTMENT RESTRICTIONS To use Betterment for Advisors' services, Clients and/or their Advisors must inform Betterment of their financial situation and preferences through Betterment's online application. To set up an investing account through the Betterment platform, Advisors and/or their Clients must select an investment goal, select a portfolio strategy (or follow the Advisor's pre-set default portfolio strategy), and set an allocation (the risk level of the portfolio which corresponds to a ratio of stock to bonds), and may provide additional details about the Client's investment objectives within Betterment's interface.
Guidance provided by Betterment is available in the online application, but we are ultimately responsible for ensuring that our Clients are placed in suitable investments. We are also responsible for ensuring that the information we provide to Betterment about our Clients is accurate and up-to-date.
We can also restrict the securities purchased for Client accounts by electing Betterment's Flexible portfolio strategy or Advisor's Custom Portfolio strategy to choose our own asset classes and adjust allocation weights. Clients and/or their Advisors can influence Betterment's discretionary management of their account by turning on or off several of Betterment automated portfolio management features.
WRAP PROGRAM Betterment for Advisors offers its investment sub-advisory services for traditional securities portfolios through a wrap fee program that includes custody and trading services provided by its affiliate, Betterment Securities.
Pension Consulting Services We offer pension consulting services to employee benefit plans and their fiduciaries based upon the needs of the Plan and the services requested by the Plan sponsor or named fiduciary. In general, these services may include periodic monitoring of investment managers, fund selection and periodic monitoring, assistance in understanding investment reports, assisting the Plan sponsor with its duties in providing Plan participants with information, assisting the sponsor with Plan fee analysis, assistance with selecting and monitoring Plan service providers, annual meetings and assisting the Plan sponsor 7 in carrying out the Plan sponsor's fiduciary duties. These pension consulting services will generally be non-discretionary and advisory in nature. The ultimate decision to act on behalf of the Plan shall remain with the Plan sponsor or other named fiduciary.
We also assist with participant enrollment meetings and provide investment-related educational seminars to plan participants on such topics as:
•Diversification
•Asset allocation
•Risk tolerance
•Time horizon We may also provide additional types of pension consulting services to Plans on an individually negotiated basis. All services, whether discussed above or customized for the Plan based upon requirements from the Plan fiduciaries (which may include additional plan-level or participant-level services) shall be detailed in a written agreement and be consistent with the parameters set forth in the Plan documents.
Advisory Services to Retirement Plans As disclosed above, we offer various levels of advisory and consulting services to employee benefit plans ("Plan") and to the participants of such Plans ("Participants"). The services are designed to assist Plan sponsors in meeting their management and fiduciary obligations to Participants under the Employee Retirement Income Securities Act ("ERISA"). Pursuant to adopted regulations of the U.S. Department of Labor under ERISA Section 408(b)(2), we are required to provide the Plan's responsible plan fiduciary (the person who has the authority to engage us as an investment adviser to the Plan) with a written statement of the services we provide to the Plan, the compensation we receive for providing those services, and our status (which is described below). The services we provide to your Plan are described above, and in the service agreement that you have previously signed with our firm. Our compensation for these services is described below, at Item 5, and also in the service agreement. We may, with consent of the Plan, and in accordance with Plan documents, bill out-of-pocket expenses (such as overnight mailings, messenger, translation fees, etc.) at cost. We do not reasonably expect to receive any other compensation, direct or indirect, for the services we provide to the Plan or Participants. In performing fiduciary services, we are acting as a non-discretionary fiduciary of the Plan as defined in Section 3(21)(A)(ii). In some cases, when rendering stand alone Investment Management Services, we may act as a discretionary "investment manager" of the Plan as defined in Section 3(38) under ERISA. IRA Rollover Recommendations Effective December 20, 2021 (or such later date as the US Department of Labor ("DOL") Field Assistance Bulletin 2018-02 ceases to be in effect), for purposes of complying with the DOL's Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02 ("PTE 2020-02") where applicable, we are providing the following acknowledgment to you. When we provide investment advice to you regarding your retirement plan account or individual retirement account, we are fiduciaries within the meaning of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and/or the Internal Revenue Code, as applicable, which are laws governing retirement accounts. The way we make money creates some conflicts with your interests, so we operate under a special rule that requires us to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours. Under this special rule's provisions, we must:
•Meet a professional standard of care when making investment recommendations (give prudent 8 advice);
•Never put our financial interests ahead of yours when making recommendations (give loyal advice);
•Avoid misleading statements about conflicts of interest, fees, and investments;
•Follow policies and procedures designed to ensure that we give advice that is in your best interest;
•Charge no more than is reasonable for our services; and
•Give you basic information about conflicts of interest.