FIRM BUSINESS FIRM MISSION STATEMENT FINANCIAL PLANNING SERVICES INVESTMENT ADVISORY SERVICES money market vehicles, and/or other security types. The design of the portfolio is dependent upon your needs, goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance. o FINANCIAL SUPERVISION: This is a service that compliments some clients’ total investment strategy and estate planning. This unique service allows you to have assets not managed by The Consulate, under our non- discretionary supervision. This allows you to manage a portion of your total portfolio as you choose but consolidate all investments for ease of transition in the case of a death or disability.
• RETIREMENT PLAN PARTICIPANT ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT: This service includes perpetual discretionary, non-discretionary investment management, and/or plan or participant account investment consultation. The Financial Consulate designs managed portfolios using a blend of individual stocks, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, bonds, alternative investments, certificates of deposit, money market vehicles, and/or other security types. The design of the portfolio is dependent upon the plan’s or participant’s needs, goals, time horizon, regulatory requirement, and risk tolerance. The Financial Consulate, Inc. can custom tailor a relationship to blend both management and supervision. This allows a client to maintain total control of a pre- determined portion of the portfolio. This also creates optimal flexibility and accountability.
• RETIREMENT PLAN MANAGEMENT: This service was developed to help guide our corporate clients in adopting and operating retirement plans for their employees. We work with employers to help identify the appropriate type of retirement plan, identify and retain other service providers, enroll employees as plan participants, and manage plan investments.
• CORPORATE SEMINARS: Members of The Consulate have been providing local and regional companies and municipalities with educational seminars for over 20 years. Each seminar is based on the Financial Physical® methodology and catered to each company’s specific employee benefits package and audience.
• GENERAL: The Consulate may provide a la carte analysis not included in the above referenced services for an hourly charge of $200. This is done at the discretion of management on a case-by-case basis. Services provided in this form will generally be an exception to our standard operating practices. SPECIALTY SERVICES
• RETIREMENT PLAN ROLLOVER RECOMMENDATIONS: When The Financial Consulate provides investment advice about your retirement plan account or individual retirement account (“IRA”) including whether to maintain investments and/or proceeds in the retirement plan account, roll over such investment/proceeds from the retirement plan account to a IRA or make a distribution from the retirement plan account, we acknowledge that The Financial Consulate is a “fiduciary” within the meaning of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) and/or the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) as applicable, which are laws governing retirement accounts. The way The Financial Consulate makes money creates conflicts with your interests so The Financial Consulate operates under a special rule that requires The Financial Consulate to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of you. Under this special rule’s provisions, The Financial Consulate must as a fiduciary to a retirement plan account or IRA under ERISA/IRC:
• Meet a professional standard of care when making investment recommendations (e.g., give prudent advice);
• Never put the financial interests of The Financial Consulate ahead of you when making recommendations (e.g., give loyal advice);
• Avoid misleading statements about conflicts of interest, fees, and investments;
• Follow policies and procedures designed to ensure that The Financial Consulate gives advice that is in your best interest;
• Charge no more than is reasonable for the services of The Financial Consulate; and
• Give Client basic information about conflicts of interest. To the extent we recommend you roll over your account from a current retirement plan account to an individual retirement account managed by The Financial Consulate, please know that The Financial Consulate and our investment adviser representatives have a conflict of interest. We can earn increased investment advisory fees by recommending that you roll over your account at the retirement plan to an IRA managed by The Financial Consulate. We will earn fewer investment advisory fees if you do not roll over the funds in the retirement plan to an IRA managed by The Financial Consulate. Therefore, our investment adviser representatives have an economic incentive to recommend a rollover of funds from a retirement plan to an IRA which is a conflict of interest because our recommendation that you open an IRA account to be managed by our firm can be based on our economic incentive and not based exclusively on whether or not moving the IRA to our management program is in your overall best interest. We have taken steps to manage this conflict of interest. We have adopted an impartial conduct standard whereby our investment adviser representatives will (i) provide investment advice to a retirement plan participant regarding a rollover of funds from the retirement plan in accordance with the fiduciary status described below, (ii) not recommend investments which result in The Financial Consulate receiving unreasonable compensation related to the rollover of funds from the retirement plan to an IRA, and (iii) fully disclose compensation received by The Financial Consulate and our supervised persons and any material conflicts of interest related to recommending the rollover of funds from the retirement plan to an IRA and refrain from making any materially misleading statements regarding such rollover. When providing advice to your regarding a retirement plan account or IRA, our investment advisor representatives will 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 The Financial Consulate or our affiliated personnel.
• TAX PREPARATION: The Consulate provides tax services for Individuals, LLCs, Corporations, Partnerships, and Trusts & Estates.
• BOOKKEEPING & WRITE-UP SERVICES: The Consulate provides bookkeeping and financial write-up services.
• QUICKBOOKS® SERVICES: The Consulate provides QuickBooks® installation and support services. The Consulate tailors its advisory services to the individual needs of each client. Financial planning and investment management services are predicated on the values and goals of TAX & ACCOUNTING SERVICES FIRM PRACTICES each client. Also incorporated are the client’s tolerance and capacity for investment risk, specific investment objectives, and time horizons regarding distributions. As time progresses and clients provide feedback on financial planning recommendations and their investment portfolio’s response to various market and economic stimuli, The Consulate may adjust recommendations and/or investment strategy accordingly. Clients are also invited and encouraged to provide such feedback in annual Personal Financial Reviews. Clients may also place specific restrictions on the type and allocation of investments; such instructions must be given in writing. As of December 31, 2023, The Consulate had $782,269,600 under management on a discretionary basis. Individual Separately Managed Accounts by investment management companies that participate in Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. and/or Fidelity Investments’ managed account program. These accounts normally require large starting amounts with 100 thousand dollars being the minimum account size. Many companies require a 250 thousand dollar minimum. These types of managed accounts are best for clients with more than 1 million dollars of invested assets as the minimums are substantial and The Consulate desires ample diversification of managers. Use of Mutual and Exchange Traded Funds Most mutual funds and exchange traded funds are available directly to the public. Therefore, a prospective client can obtain many of the funds that may be utilized by The Consulate independent of engaging The Consulate as an investment advisor. However, if a prospective client determines to do so, he/she will not receive The Consulate’s initial and ongoing investment advisory services.

In addition to The Consulate’s investment advisory fee described below, and transaction and/or custodial fees discussed below, clients will also incur, relative to all mutual fund and exchange traded fund purchases, charges imposed at the fund level (e.g., management fees and other fund expenses). Independent Managers The Consulate may allocate a portion of the client’s investment assets among unaffiliated independent investment managers in accordance with the client’s designated investment objective(s). In such situations, the Independent Managers shall have day-to-day ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT OTHER INVESTMENTS AVAILABLE IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES responsibility for the active discretionary management of the allocated assets, including, to the extent applicable, proxy voting responsibility. The Consulate shall continue to render investment supervisory services to the client relative to the ongoing monitoring and review of account performance, asset allocation and client investment objectives. Factors that The Consulate shall consider in recommending Independent Managers include the client’s designated investment objective(s), management style, performance, reputation, financial strength, reporting, pricing, and research. The investment management fee charged by Independent Managers is separate from, and in addition to, The Consulate’s investment advisory fee disclosed at Item 5 below Interval Funds/Risks and Limitations Where appropriate, The Consulate may utilize interval funds (and other types of securities that could pose additional risks, including lack of liquidity and restrictions on withdrawals). An interval fund is a non-traditional type of closed-end mutual fund that periodically offers to buy back a percentage of outstanding shares from shareholders. Investments in an interval fund involve additional risk, including lack of liquidity and restrictions on withdrawals. During any time periods outside of the specified repurchase offer window(s), investors will be unable to sell their shares of the interval fund. There is no assurance that an investor will be able to tender shares when or in the amount desired. There can also be situations where an interval fund has a limited amount of capacity to repurchase shares and may not be able to fulfill all purchase orders. In addition, the eventual sale price for the interval fund could be less than the interval fund value on the date that the sale was requested. While an internal fund periodically offers to repurchase a portion of its securities, there is no guarantee that investors may sell their shares at any given time or in the desired amount. As interval funds can expose investors to liquidity risk, investors should consider interval fund shares to be an illiquid investment. Typically, the interval funds are not listed on any securities exchange and are not publicly traded. Therefore, there is no secondary market for the fund’s shares. Because these types of investments involve certain additional risk, these funds will only be utilized when consistent with a client’s investment objectives, individual situation, suitability, tolerance for risk and liquidity needs. Investment should be avoided where an investor has a short-term investing horizon and/or cannot bear the loss of some, or all, of the investment. There can be no assurance that an interval fund investment will prove profitable or successful. In light of these enhanced risks, a client may direct The Consulate, in writing, not to purchase interval funds for the client’s account Portfolio Activity The Consulate has a fiduciary duty to provide services consistent with the client’s best interest. As part of its investment advisory services, The Consulate will review client portfolios on an ongoing basis to determine if any changes are necessary based upon various factors, including, but not limited to, investment performance, fund manager tenure, style drift, account additions/withdrawals, and/or a change in the client’s investment objective. Based upon these factors, there may be extended periods of time when The Consulate determines that changes to a client’s portfolio are neither necessary nor prudent. Clients nonetheless remain subject to the fees described in Item 5 below during periods of account inactivity. Cash Positions The Consulate treats cash as an asset class. As such, unless determined to the contrary by The Consulate, all cash positions (money markets, etc.) shall be included as part of assets under management for purposes of calculating The Consulate’s advisory fee. In addition, while assets are maintained in cash, such amounts could miss market advances. Depending upon current yields, at any point in time, The Consulate’s advisory fee could exceed the interest paid by the client’s cash positions. Cash Sweep Accounts Certain account custodians can require that cash proceeds from account transactions or new deposits, be swept to and/or initially maintained in a specific custodian designated sweep account. The yield on the sweep account will generally be lower than those available for other money market accounts. When this occurs, to help mitigate the corresponding yield dispersion The Consulate shall (usually within 30 days thereafter) generally (with exceptions) purchase a higher yielding money market fund (or other type security) available on the custodian’s platform, unless The Consulate reasonably anticipates that it will utilize the cash proceeds during the subsequent 30-day period to purchase additional investments for the client’s account. Exceptions and/or modifications can and will occur with respect to all or a portion of the cash balances for various reasons, including, but not limited to the amount of dispersion between the sweep account and a money market fund, the size of the cash balance, an indication from the client of an imminent need for such cash, or the client has a demonstrated history of writing checks from the account. The above does not apply to the cash component maintained within a The Consulate actively managed investment strategy (the cash balances for which shall generally remain in the custodian designated cash sweep account), an indication from the client of a need for access to such cash, assets allocated to an unaffiliated investment manager and cash balances maintained for fee billing purposes. The client shall remain exclusively responsible for yield dispersion/cash balance decisions and corresponding transactions for cash balances maintained in any The Consulate unmanaged accounts. Client Obligations In performing its services, The Consulate 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. Moreover, each client is advised that it remains their responsibility to promptly notify The Consulate if there is ever any change in their financial situation or investment objectives for the purpose of reviewing, evaluating or revising The Consulate’s previous recommendations and/or services. Cybersecurity Risk The information technology systems and networks that The Consulate and its third-party service providers use to provide services to The Consulate’s clients employ various controls, which are designed to prevent cybersecurity incidents stemming from intentional or unintentional actions that could cause significant interruptions in The Consulate’s operations and result in the unauthorized acquisition or use of clients’ confidential or non- public personal information. Clients and The Consulate are nonetheless subject to the risk of cybersecurity incidents that could ultimately cause them to incur losses, including for example: financial losses, cost and reputational damage to respond to regulatory obligations, other costs associated with corrective measures, and loss from damage or interruption to systems. Although The Consulate has established procedures to reduce the risk of cybersecurity incidents, there is no guarantee that these efforts will always be successful, especially considering that The Consulate does not directly control the cybersecurity measures and policies employed by third-party service providers. Clients could incur similar adverse consequences resulting from cybersecurity incidents that more directly affect issuers of securities in which those clients invest, broker-dealers, qualified custodians, governmental and other regulatory authorities, exchange and other financial market operators, or other financial institutions. o Financial Physical®: $5,000 Clients who engage the Financial Consulate for Financial Management, Supervision, or a combination thereof will receive a billing credit towards those services in the amount of the financial planning fee paid.