Silicon Valley Wealth Advisors, LLC (“SVWA”), is an independent, fee-only wealth
management and financial planning firm. With locations in San Jose and Half Moon Bay,
California. Our professional financial advisors and investment specialists help wealthy
individuals and families manage their investments and make sound financial decisions. Based on
your needs, our team skillfully builds and manages comprehensive financial solutions for your
life.
SVWA is an SEC-registered investment advisory firm that provides financial planning and
investment advisory services to individual clients, as well as trusts, endowments,
qualified retirement plan sponsors, and business entities. We are a fee-only firm.
When SVWA provides investment advice to you regarding your investment accounts, including your
retirement plan account or individual retirement account, we are fiduciaries within the meaning of
certain state and federal laws such as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and/or the Internal
Revenue Code and the regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as applicable.
These regulations require us to act in your best interest and not put our interests ahead of yours.
We actively seek to avoid, or at least minimize, conflicts of interest which exist between our firm
and you. We sell no products. We accept no commissions. However, all investment advisory
firms will likely possess some unavoidable conflicts of interest. In those instances when conflicts
of interest arise, we have adopted policies which seek to keep your best interests paramount at all
times. See Items 5, 11 and 12 of this Brochure, and other items, which explore in further detail
how we act to keep your best interests first at all times during the course of our relationship with
you.
Other professionals (e.g., lawyers, accountants, insurance agents, etc.) are engaged directly by you
on an as-needed basis. Conflicts of interest will be disclosed to you in the unlikely event they
should occur.
Our Principal Owner
Lasecke Enterprises, LLC, Tracy Lasecke, Owner and Managing Member
Assets under Management
As of December 31, 2022, we managed approximately $326,602,241 in assets on a discretionary basis
and approximately $2,547,794 on a non-discretionary basis.
Types of Advisory Services
Asset Management
At SVWA, we create investment portfolios that are customized to you. We don’t believe in
offering our clients “one-size-fits-all” financial solutions. Instead, we focus on learning about you
and your financial life—your values, experience, and goals — so that we have a clear idea of what
we need to do to achieve your financial objectives. Then, we allocate your assets in a way that
balances risk and reward so that you are positioned to reach your goals. In this way, we are able to
deliver the correct customized portfolio allocation and associated risk necessary for you to
achieve your goals.
Advice is provided through client consultations and may include: setting financial goals &
objectives, setting an investment strategy to meet those goals and objectives, selecting other
advisors, where appropriate, cash flow management, tax planning, insurance review, investment
management, education funding, retirement planning, and estate planning.
We generally recommend institutional-class stock mutual funds with low annual expense ratios,
and extremely low internal transaction costs. At times we may recommend other low-cost
investment solutions, such as ETFs, low-cost bond funds, individual fixed income securities, and
other products. For more on our investment philosophies, and the risks of our strategies and/or
specific investments recommended, please refer to Item 8.
We do not sponsor wrap fee programs or manage assets for any wrap fee accounts.
We do not act as the physical custodian of your assets. You always maintain asset control with
your designated custodian. We place trades for you under a limited power of attorney that grants
us the authority to determine, without obtaining your specific consent, the securities to be bought
or sold.
Our Fees
We base our fees on a percentage of assets under management, hourly charges, or fixed fees.
Investment management fees are billed quarterly, in advance, meaning that we invoice you before the
three-month billing period has begun. The minimum annual fee is $2,500. Our standard fee
schedule for investment management services is as follows:
Assets Under Management Annual Fee
$0 to $3,000,000 0.95%
$3,000,001 to $5,000,000 0.80%
$5,000,001 to $10,000,000 0.70%
Above $10,000,000 0.50%
Services provided for the above fees are for investment advice and quarterly reporting of asset
holdings, valuations and performance reviews. The client’s investment management fee to the Firm
is determined in accordance with the above standard fee structure, with exceptions negotiated on a
case-by-case basis at our discretion. Any deviations from the fee structure are based on a number of
factors including the nature and length of the client relationship, the services requested, account
composition, the amount of work involved, the amount of assets placed under management and the
attention needed to manage the account.
Our investment strategy generally does not encourage clients to use margin account trading. The
decision as to whether to employ margin is left to the sole discretion of each client. To the extent that
a client authorizes the use of margin, and margin is thereafter employed, the market value of the
client’s account and corresponding management fee payable to Advisor may be increased as any
margin balance will not be offset against the value of assets purchased on margin when Advisor
calculates its advisory fee.
Payment in full is expected upon invoice presentation. Fees are usually deducted from an account
designated by you to facilitate billing. You must consent in advance to direct debiting of your
investment account. We will send a statement to you (a) showing the amount of the fee, the value
of your assets upon which the fee was based, and the specific manner in which the fee was
calculated, (b) disclose to you that it is your responsibility to verify the accuracy of the fee
calculation and that the custodian will not determine whether the fee is properly calculated, and
(c) send a bill to the custodian indicating only the amount of the fee to be paid by the custodian.
Account Minimums
SVWA requires that prospective clients have a minimum of $500,000 (which may be waived at
our discretion) in investment assets exclusive of residence and personal property. Financial plans
are prepared subject to a minimum fee of $4,000 (for SVWA clients with more than $3,000,000 in
assets under management the fee is waived).
Financial Planning
Depending on your needs and interests, we will provide advice in the form of a Financial Plan.
The Financial Plan will assess the likelihood of your achieving various goals and objectives
dependent on various personal and financial assumptions, including portfolio design, lifestyle,
work and retirement plans, pursuit of charitable and/or family goals and normal savings and
consumption behavior. Depending on your needs, the Plan may also address elements of tax
planning, estate planning and insurance planning, including life, disability, health and long-term
care insurance. However, the Firm does not undertake to provide comprehensive legal, tax or
accounting
services and does not sell insurance products.
The financial plan may include, but is not limited to: a net worth statement; a cash flow statement;
a review of investment accounts, including reviewing asset allocation and providing repositioning
recommendations; 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. Implementation of the financial plan recommendations
is at your discretion.
Our Fees for Financial Planning
The fee for a financial plan is predicated upon the facts known at the start of the engagement.
Since financial planning is a discovery process, situations occur wherein you are unaware of
certain financial exposures or predicaments.
In the event that your situation is substantially different than disclosed at the initial meeting, a
revised fee will be provided for mutual agreement. You must approve the change of scope in
advance of the additional work being performed when a fee increase is necessary.
After delivery of a financial plan, future face-to-face meetings may be scheduled as necessary for
up to 12 months and lifetime if we manage your portfolio.
Management of Conflicts of Interest between Clients
Our relationship with you is non-exclusive; in other words, we provide investment advisory
services and financial planning services to multiple clients. We seek to avoid situations in which
one client’s interest conflicts with the interest of another of our clients. More information about
this policy is found in your Client Agreement.
How Fees are Calculated
Billing amounts are based upon the value (market value or fair market value in the absence of
market value) of the client's account(s) (including both securities and cash) at the end of the
previous quarter (or, for new clients, upon a date agreed to by us and you). Valuations are derived
from recognized and independent pricing sources, such as Charles Schwab & Co. Institutional and
TD Ameritrade Institutional.
Return of Unearned Fees upon Termination
Should you terminate your engagement of our firm during a quarter, for any reason, the fee for
such quarter is prorated and any pro rata unearned amount will be refunded.
Other Fees or Expenses Paid in Connection with Our Services
All fees paid to us for investment advisory and financial planning services are separate and
distinct from the fees and expenses charged by mutual funds to their shareholders. Mutual fund
expenses are generally described in each fund's prospectus. These expenses will generally include
a management fee, other fund expenses, and possibly a distribution fee. In addition, mutual funds
incur transaction costs and opportunity costs, which are disclosed in the fund’s prospectus or
Statement of Additional Information, but which may be estimated.
You will incur transaction fees or commissions in connection with trading of certain non-
stock/ETF purchase and sale transactions, i.e. certain mutual fund and bonds transactions (and/or
principal mark-ups and mark-downs for principal trades), which are charged by the executing
broker. Mutual fund transaction fees charged by our recommended custodians, primarily Charles
Schwab & Co. Institutional, Fidelity Institutional Asset Manager and TD Ameritrade Institutional,
generally varies from $0 to $50 for each transactions. The transaction costs for stock and bond
trades vary. Accordingly, you should review both the fees charged by the funds (including
transaction and opportunity costs within funds which are not included in a fund’s annual expense
ratio), the transaction fees charged by the custodian, as well as the fees charged by us, to fully
understand the total amount of fees and costs paid by you, in connection with any recommended
transaction. For a discussion of our practice in recommending brokers (custodians) to you and
negotiating brokerage fees on your behalf, please see Item 12.
You may also incur “account termination fees” upon the transfer of an account from one
brokerage firm (custodian) to another. The range for these account termination fees is believed to
range generally from $0 to $200 at present, but at times may be much higher. You should contact
your custodians (brokerage firms, bank or trust company, etc.) to determine the amount of account
termination fees which may be charged and deducted from your accounts for any existing
accounts which may be transferred.
Comparable Services
We believe that the charges and fees offered are competitive with alternative programs available
through other firms offering a similar range of services; however, lower fees for comparable
services could be available from other sources.
Management of Conflicts of Interest Relating to the Fees We Receive, and
Receipt of Percentage-Based Compensation.
The vast majority of our clients pay us fees based upon a percentage of the assets we advise upon.
This is a very common form of compensation for registered investment advisory firms and avoids
the multiple inherent conflicts of interest associated with commission-based compensation (we do
not accept commission-based compensation of any nature, nor do we accept 12b-1 fees). Asset-
advised-upon percentage method of compensation can still at times lead to conflicts of interest
between our firm and you as to the advice we provide. For example, conflicts of interest often
arise relating to the following financial decisions in life: incur or pay down debt; gift funds to
charities or to individuals; purchases of a (larger) home or cars or other non-investment assets; the
purchase of a lifetime immediate annuity; personal expenditures; investment in private equity
investments, and the amount of funds to place in non-managed cash reserve accounts. We have
adopted internal policies to properly manage these and other potential conflicts of interest. Our
goal is that our advice to you remains at all times in your best interests, disregarding any impact
of the decision upon our firm. Each time such a potential conflict arises, we will give you notice
of the conflict in that given situation if our advice regarding the proposed transaction would
impact our compensation
Our Services are Tailored to Meet Your Needs and Investment Restrictions.
In general, our advisory services are tailored to meet your needs. While model portfolios may be
utilized for some clients. For most clients each investment portfolio is individually designed.
Additionally, financial planning, estate planning, tax planning, and risk management planning
services are generally delivered upon your engaging us for such services. As appropriate you will
have a conference with your advisor at least annually to review any changes to your financial
situation, your investment portfolio, and planning issues.
After consultation with us, you may impose restrictions on investing in certain securities or types
of securities. This most often occurs when you request certain social investing needs be addressed,
such as through the use of mutual funds which avoid investments in certain companies. Other
restrictions may be imposed by you with respect to the (average or longest) maturity or credit
quality of fixed income investments. Our Agreement with you may not be assigned without your
consent.