A Our Firm. Retirement Planning Specialists is an Oregon corporation founded in 2014. The firm is registered as an investment advisor with the SEC. It is owned by Chad M. Smith and Christopher R. Patterson and maintains its sole offices in Ashland, Oregon. The information contained in this brochure describes our investment advisory services, practices, and fees. Please refer to the description of each investment advisory service listed below for information on how we tailor our services to the needs of our clients. As used throughout this firm brochure, the words “we,” “our,” “firm,” “RPS” and “us” refer to Retirement Planning Specialists, and the words “you,” “your,” and “client” refer to you as either a client or prospective client of our firm. B C Our Services. We offer a variety of investment advisory services to our clients. Prior to forming an investment advisor-client relationship with you, we may offer a complimentary general consultation to prospective clients to discuss the nature of the firm’s services and to determine the possibility of a potential advisory relationship. Investment advisory services begin only after the prospective client and RPS formalize their relationship in a signed written advisory agreement. A description of the investment advisory services offered by our firm is set forth below. Comprehensive Investment Management Services. Our firm offers broad-based financial planning services coupled with ongoing portfolio management services that are tailored to the client’s unique financial circumstances and investor profile. Through periodic consultations with you and/or your completion of certain written questionnaires, we will gather information regarding your financial goals, investment objectives, risk tolerance, and the time horizon for your investments. The information we typically request in this process will include your current and expected income level, tax information, investment experience, current portfolio construction/asset allocation, and expected expenses, among other items. Based on our analysis of these factors we will develop, design, and implement a customized investment portfolio and prepare and periodically update a written financial plan that is intended to align with your unique financial circumstances. You must promptly notify us if your financial circumstances, goals, objectives or needs change at any time during the course of our engagement.
• Ongoing Financial Planning – Our financial planning services will encompass some or all of the following topics, depending on your needs: (1) financial, budgeting and cash management; (2) risk management, insurance planning, and analysis; (3) educational funding; (4) estate planning; (5) tax planning; (6) retirement planning; and (7) financial planning for small business. Following delivery of our initial written financial plan, we will meet with you periodically thereafter to (i) track our progress toward your financial goals (2) review the performance of your investments, and (iii) consider any updates to your written financial plan and investment portfolio as needed or appropriate, in consideration of current economic conditions, our market opinions and assumptions, and any changes in your individual financial circumstances and goals.
• Discretionary Portfolio Management – Following implementation of your initial investment portfolio, we will monitor the performance of your account on an ongoing basis and implement changes within your account as needed or appropriate, in consideration of current economic conditions, our market opinions and assumptions, and your individual financial circumstances and goals. Our investment strategies have generally been designed for investors with varying degrees of risk tolerance ranging from a more aggressive investment strategy to a more conservative approach. Client portfolios are typically constructed utilizing a diversified combination of open and closed end mutual funds, exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), individual bonds, stocks, fixed and variable annuities, and other instruments, as appropriate. In some circumstances, we may recommend the use of separately managed accounts managed by independent third-party sub-advisors. You authorize our use of such sub-advisors in our written advisory agreement and/or in the account opening documents provided by the independent qualified custodian (“Custodian”) of your account. Irrespective of the use of any sub- advisors, we always maintain the advisor-client relationship directly with you. Effective January 1, 2019, we now require that you grant us discretionary authority to implement our investment recommendations directly within your account. Stated plainly, this means that you grant us the authority to (i) select the securities to buy and sell; (ii) the amount of securities to buy and sell; (iii) determine when to buy and sell securities; (iv) to hire and fire sub-advisers; and (iv) take all other actions necessary or incidental to the execution of such transactions -- all for your account and risk -- and without obtaining your specific consent for each transaction. This authorization is provided to us in a written

advisory agreement you will enter with our firm and/or the account opening documents you will execute with the Custodian of your account. As a condition of participation in our Comprehensive Investment Management Services, clients are required to engage the brokerage and custody services of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., an unaffiliated SEC registered broker-dealer firm and member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (“SIPC”). Please see more information about our brokerage practices at Item 12 of this brochure. NOTE: Certain client accounts opened prior to January 1, 2018 may receive our Comprehensive Investment Management Services on a non-discretionary basis. Non-discretionary services are generally no longer offered by our firm. In a non- discretionary account, the client always maintains the sole discretion as to whether to implement any of our investment recommendations. In a non-discretionary account, we will not take any action within the client’s account without the client’s prior approval. You shall have the ability to impose reasonable restrictions on our management of your account, including the ability to instruct us not to purchase certain specific securities, industry sectors, and/or asset classes. All such requests must be provided to us in writing. While we generally attempt to accommodate your restrictions, we reserve the right to reject such requests if they would frustrate our management of your account, or for any other reason. Stand-Alone Financial Planning. Our firm offers Stand-Alone Financial Planning Services that, at the option of the client, may address some or all of the following topics: (1) financial, budgeting and cash management; (2) investment planning and portfolio management; (3) risk management, insurance planning, and analysis; (4) educational funding; (5) estate planning; (6) tax planning; (7) retirement planning; and (8) financial planning for small business. We will meet with you to assist you in identifying areas of potential financial concern and provide you with a discrete set of short and/or long-term financial goals and actions designed to address such concerns. Our recommendations will take the form of a written report delivered to you, designed to help you achieve your stated financial goals and objectives. Our Stand-Alone Financial Planning Services are provided exclusively on a non- discretionary basis. Stated plainly, this means that you always maintain the sole discretion to accept or reject any of our recommendations and to determine the manner and service providers to be used for implementation of the same. Implementation of our recommendations may be completed by our firm, at your option, subject to the payment of additional fees. You are never obligated to use our firm to implement any of our advice. Assuming that all the information and documents requested from the client are provided to us promptly, our stand-alone financial planning engagements are typically completed within 45-90 days of execution of our written advisory agreement. Once we have delivered our written financial plan to you, we will only update the same upon your specific request and upon your specific request, subsequent engagement of our firm, and payment of additional advisory fees. Our written financial plan is based on the financial information you provide to us during our consultation(s). You must promptly notify us if your financial circumstances, goals, objectives or needs change at any time during our engagement. As part of our Stand-Alone Financial Planning Services, we may recommend the use of certain third-party professionals including, without limitation, attorneys, certified public accountants, and insurance agents. You are advised that RPS is not a law firm, accounting firm or insurance agency, and further that no portion of our advice should be construed as legal, tax, or accounting advice. Clients may elect to engage such recommended third-party professionals at their own discretion and risk. We are not liable for the acts, errors or omissions of any recommended third-party providers. We do not receive any referral fees from recommended third-party professionals. D No Wrap Fee Program; Types of Investments Recommended. We do not offer or sponsor a wrap fee program. While we do not recommend one particular type of investment or asset class over any other, we primarily advise our clients regarding investments in equity securities, corporate debt securities (i.e., corporate bonds), mutual funds, ETFs and variable products (life insurance and annuities). Depending on the client’s financial circumstances, our investment advice may also concern other instruments not listed above including, without limitation, municipal securities, exchange traded notes, money market accounts, and U.S. government securities, among others. We may also provide advice on any type of investment held in the client’s portfolio at the inception of our advisory relationship (“Legacy Assets”). Please see Item 8 of this brochure or a description of the investment strategy(ies) we typically implement in client accounts. E As of December 31, 2023, we manage $268,430,220 of client assets on a discretionary basis.