Our Advisory Business
Starship Securities is a registered investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (“SEC”) and is notice filed in all fifty states. Starship was formed on October
2, 2019. Additional information about Starship is available on the SEC’s website at
www.adviserinfo.sec.gov. You can search this site by using a unique identifying number,
known as a CRD number. The CRD number for Starship is 306945. The SEC’s website
also provides information about any persons affiliated with Starship who are registered, or
are required to be registered, as investment adviser representatives of Starship. Starship is
a registered investment adviser (“RIA”) that offers a wrap fee program to its advisory
clients (each a “Client,” and collectively, “Clients”) through an online web-based
application.
Starship is a privately held company headquartered in New York, New York. In August
2022, the Firm’s parent company, Brighter Financial, was purchased by Optum Financial,
Inc. Information about Starship’s organizational and ownership structure is provided on Part
1 of Starship’s Form ADV, which is available online at http://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.
Services
Starship provides web-based discretionary investment advisory services to separately
managed accounts of individuals in a program that bundles or “wraps” services together
and charges a single fee based on the value of assets under management (the “Program”).
The services included in the wrap are advisory, trade execution, clearance and custody and
reporting. Starship interacts with its Clients primarily through a software application that
is available through mobile platforms, which can be downloaded at
https://www.starshiphsa.com/ (the “Application”). The advisory services are delivered
solely through the Application. Starship does not provide investment advice in person or
over the phone or in any manner other than through the Application. Additional
information about Starship’s products and services is provided in Starship’s Form ADV
Part 1 available at http://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov. Starship encourages visiting its website,
https://www.starshiphsa.com/, for additional information.
Clients utilize the Application to access automated, discretionary investment advice from
Starship, which seeks to help them meet their financial goals, within their respective
investment risk and financial parameters. Each Client inputs their personal information,
including age, financial resources, and investment goals and objectives via an interactive
questionnaire within the Application. The client will be asked to answer the following
questions:
What is your investing experience?
When will you use your invested dollars?
How much investment risk can you handle?
What’s your annual income?
What’s your total net worth?
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What’s your liquid net worth?
What’s your employment status?
Starship’s algorithm will employ a scoring system using the above information to create a
total score for each client. That total score will be used to recommend a portfolio for the
client. If the client accepts this portfolio recommendation, the Application will then
automatically invest Client assets in the recommended portfolio. Starship offers three
different portfolios constructed using low cost, exchange traded funds (“ETFs”). Starship
offers three model portfolios - Conservative, Balanced and Growth. Starship provides
investment advice only with respect to a limited type of investment, ETFs. Clients should
understand the portfolios and software and rely upon the information provided by the Client
and Starship does not capture any additional information not covered in the questionnaire
in making its risk assessment and providing its investment advice.
Starship creates investment portfolios and directly manages accounts for Clients. Starship
has the authority to manage Client accounts on a discretionary basis. Clients should
understand the Starship Wrap Fee Program is a discretionary investment advisory program,
and not a self-directed brokerage service. Unlike self-directed brokerage accounts, Starship
Clients do not enter individual buy and sell orders for specific securities to be executed at
particular times. Rather, Starship places orders to buy and/or sell securities consistent with
the discretionary authority granted to it by Clients, which includes, among other things, the
authority to select which securities to buy and sell and when to place orders for the
execution of securities. If you want to control the specific time during the day that
securities are bought and sold in your account (e.g., you want the ability to “time the
market”), you should not use Starship’s service. Starship trades in Client accounts for any
number of reasons, including in response to Client actions such as deposits or withdrawals.
Starship also trades in order to rebalance Client accounts, to change investment options, or
otherwise to further the investment objectives that Clients specify via Starship’s
Application.
Clients are obligated to update their information through the Application promptly if there
are changes to their financial situation, goals, objectives, personal circumstances, time
horizon or if other relevant information changes or becomes available. The investments in
each Client’s account are held in a separate account, as explained further below, in the
name of the Client at an independent custodian, and not with Starship. All accounts
managed through the Application are required to use DriveWealth LLC (“DriveWealth”)
as the independent custodian, as well as for clearing and execution services.
The ETF shares purchased or sold on behalf of a Client and/or held in Client accounts may
be either whole shares or fractional shares. Starship enables dollar based investing,
whereby Starship can buy a fixed dollar amount rather than whole shares. Starship
aggregates all dollar based purchases and places whole share orders for executions.
Thereafter, Starship allocates the fractional shares to the individual Client accounts.
Fractional shares, however, are typically not transferrable outside of a Client’s investing
account because the financial system in the United States currently is structured only to
accommodate transfers of full shares. As a result, fractional shares may not be marketable
Starship Securities ADV Part 2A March 2023 Page 6 of 7
or transferrable to another brokerage account. In the event of a liquidation or transfer of
the assets in a Client’s Investing Account to another account, Starship may convert such
fractional shares to cash.
Clients will receive Starship’s Advisory Agreement, which further details the services
Clients will receive, fees charged to Clients, and the conditions of the Starship-Client
relationship.
Importantly, Starship does not provide overall financial planning services, nor does it
provide legal or tax advice.
Brighter Financial Inc. offers a Health Savings Account (“HSA”), which enables its Clients
to save, spend and invest in their healthcare. Brighter Financial Inc. aims to maximize the
growth of its Client funds by providing higher interest rates and automatic investing by
Starship in low cost, and reputable ETFs. A Client that wishes to open an investment
account (as defined below) with Starship, must select the investment option in the
Application. Every Client that selects the investment option in the Application has two
accounts with Brighter Financial Inc. - one for savings (the “spending account”) and one
for investing (the “investment account”). Funds from a Client’s spending account that meet
a designated overflow threshold are added to their investment account and are
automatically invested in portfolios of ETFs.
Wrap Fee
The Adviser sponsors and acts as the portfolio manager for its wrap fee program. Starship
exercises discretion over Client accounts or Client assets. Starship automatically invests
Client assets in ETF portfolios for clearing and execution through DriveWealth.
The Program offers three model portfolios. The Application will suggest a model portfolio
for each Client based upon responses to Starship’s investor questionnaire, which includes
questions regarding a Client’s investment objectives and risk and financial parameters. For
example, more conservative risk scores are typically associated with a portfolio that has a
greater percentage of assets allocated to fixed-income and cash asset classes, rather than to
the equity asset class.
However, more aggressive risk scores are typically associated with a portfolio that has a
greater percentage of assets allocated to the equity asset class, rather than to fixed-income
and cash asset classes.
A Client may select an alternate model and adjust their model selection once per month
based on their investment objectives and risk and financial parameters. If a Client wishes
to select an alternate model, the Application will generate a prompt to inform them that the
portfolio chosen was not recommended based upon their responses to the investor
questionnaire in the Application.
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A Client is required to acknowledge the risk of selecting an alternate model before the
change is affected in the Application. If Starship recommends a Conservative portfolio to
a Client, and the Client selects the Growth portfolio, they will receive a prompt which
indicates that the selected portfolio has greater risk than the portfolio that was
recommended based on the Client’s investment objectives and risk and financial
parameters. The Client will be prompted to review and amend their response to the investor
questionnaire in order to select the Conservative portfolio. If a Client amends their
responses to the investor questionnaire, then their risk tolerance and model
recommendation will be recalculated. If the newly recommended portfolio is the Balanced
or Growth portfolio, then the Client’s requested change will be processed. However, if the
Conservative portfolio remains the recommended portfolio, then the Client’s selection will
not be processed.
The ETFs that comprise Client portfolios are selected via Starship’s internal selection
criteria and the model portfolios are rebalanced no less than quarterly by Starship. The
securities included in each Client portfolio have been researched and approved by
Starship’s Investment Committee. As of the date of this Brochure, Starship’s Investment
Committee is comprised of Scott Resnick, Adam Pruden, Andy Germann, Claire Hames,
and Michael Koch. Starship has engaged Hubbell Strickland Wealth Management, LLC
(HSW) to provide investment consulting services to the Firm’s Investment Committee.
HSW’s services include reviewing, assessing, and monitoring the investment options
offered in the Application. HSW will only offer advice on the investment plan level and
no investment advisory services will be offered by HSW to the individual participants. All
investment decisions are solely the responsibility of the Committee. Starship’s internal
selection criteria includes, but is not limited to, assessing an ETF’s exposure to a given
asset class or sector, its performance relative to peer(s), its tracking differential relative to
any applicable benchmark(s), its management fee, and its liquidity characteristics. ETFs
themselves are managed by the relevant fund manager/sponsor. Starship does not manage,
control or receive compensation from ETF or other managers. Rebalancing and initial
investments are only performed during specific hours each day. There are inherent risks
to the use of model portfolios which may result in loss of capital. Each Client’s account
performance will be calculated through a time-weighted return.
The Firm does not offer accounts that are not managed in a non-wrap program.
Assets Under Management
As of December 31, 2022, Starship had $1,050,795 assets under management all of which
are managed on a discretionary basis.