Kemp Financial Management, LLC. (“Kemp Financial”) is a registered investment adviser
that has provided investment advisory services since 1996. The owner of and principal
investment adviser representative for Kemp Financial is Robert J. Kemp. Kemp Financial
has been in business since 1988 and has approximately $229,965,525 million in non-
discretionary regulatory assets under management as of December 31, 2023.
At Kemp Financial our mission is to provide our clients with the potential for greater
investment success through the application of investment strategies that are designed to
ultimately lead to financial independence, security, and peace of mind. Our intent is to
understand our clients’ current financial situation and to provide investment solutions that
are consistent with their stated goals and risk tolerance.
Kemp Financial provides complete, personalized advice so that our clients can make solid,
well-informed decisions about their investments and retirement plans. Our strategies are
based on the concepts of the Nobel Prize-winning Modern Portfolio Theory, which seeks to
identify the most efficient combination of assets to establish a growth or income portfolio
that preserves those assets with a risk level appropriate for each individual investor. Once
the asset mix has been determined, Kemp Financial implements the allocation strategy on a
non-discretionary basis. For clients maintaining certain legacy retirement and non-
retirement accounts, Kemp Financial continues to recommend one or more third party
money managers that it had previously recommended to such clients (each, a “Third-Party
Adviser”) to help implement the allocation strategy. Kemp Financial does not manage
assets on a discretionary basis. While Kemp Financial’s goal is to help our clients achieve
investment success, we offer no guarantee that our advice will result in profit or protection
from loss.
All our clients come to us through introductions from existing clients or from relationships
with other professionals like Certified Public Accountants, estate planning attorneys and
insurance professionals. When Kemp Financial receives introductions from other financial
professionals, there is no compensation or “referral fee” paid to those other professionals
and they do not participate or share in any revenue earned by Kemp Financial. Kemp
Financial provides a number of other services, usually in conjunction with our advisory
services discussed above. We often coordinate our planning and advice with attorneys,
insurance representatives and accountants to help our clients with various aspects of
financial, tax and estate planning. We have no attorneys or accountants on staff, so we do
not provide either legal or tax advice, but we are happy to work with our clients' attorneys
and accountants, and we do so periodically.
Kemp Financial concentrates on asset class allocation and provides continuous investment
supervision of client assets based on individual client needs. In some cases, clients may
elect to hold a portion of their existing holdings due to tax consequences; such existing
holdings will be used as part of our recommended asset allocation model.
The details of how a specific client’s account will be managed are set forth in the client’s
investment advisory agreement and other account opening documentation. In general,
client accounts are managed in accordance with the client’s individual needs, risk
tolerance, objectives and reasonable investment restrictions by purchasing and/or selling
securities set forth in their personal Investment Policy Statement.
A client or prospective client leaving an employer typically has four options regarding an
existing retirement plan (and may engage in a combination of these options): (i) leave the
assets in the former employer’s plan, if permitted, (ii) roll over the assets to the new
employer’s plan, if one is available and rollovers are permitted, (iii) roll over to an
individual retirement account (“IRA”), or (iv) cash out the account value (which could,
depending upon the client’s age, result in adverse tax consequences). If Kemp Financial
recommends that a client roll over his or her retirement plan assets into an account to be
managed by Kemp Financial, such a recommendation creates a conflict of interest if Kemp
Financial will earn an advisory fee on the rolled over assets. Kemp Financial will typically
recommend rolling over assets into an IRA so that the client can gain access to the types of
investments recommended, which allows the client to maintain a portfolio that is
consistent with his or her investment policy. Kemp Financial addresses this conflict of
interest by seeking to obtain the current fees clients are paying along with past
performance data within their retirement plan, in conjunction with an analysis of other
comparable information, so that clients can compare their options and make informed
decisions about their options with their existing retirement plans. No client is under any
obligation to roll over retirement plan assets to an account managed by Kemp Financial.
Kemp Financial generally recommends that clients establish brokerage accounts with the
Schwab Institutional division of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”), a FINRA-member
broker-dealer, member SIPC, to maintain custody of clients’ assets and to effect trades for
their accounts. Although Kemp Financial generally recommends that clients establish
accounts at Schwab, it is the client’s decision to open one or more brokerage accounts with
Schwab. Kemp Financial is independently owned and operated and not affiliated with
Schwab.
Schwab provides Kemp Financial with access to its institutional
trading and custody
services, which are typically not available to Schwab retail investors. These services
generally are available to independent investment advisers on an unsolicited basis, at no
charge to them so long as a total of at least $10 million of the adviser’s clients’ assets are
maintained in accounts at Schwab Institutional. These services are not contingent upon
Kemp Financial committing to Schwab any specific amount of business (assets in custody
or trading commissions). Schwab’s brokerage services include the execution of securities
transactions, custody, research, and access to mutual funds and other investments that are
otherwise generally available only to institutional investors or would require a significantly
higher minimum initial investment.
For Kemp Financial client accounts maintained in Schwab’s custody, Schwab generally does
not charge separately for custody but is compensated by account holders through
commissions or other transaction-related fees for securities trades that are executed
through Schwab or that settle into Schwab accounts.
Kemp Financial reserves the right to recommend alternative custodial broker-dealer
options should the need arise.
All existing and prospective clients go through our four-step process prior to becoming a
client. Our process includes, but is not limited to:
1) Get to know you
2) Client data gathering and education
3) Investment Policy Statement (IPS) presentation
4) Engage Kemp Financial
Our goal is to help our clients manage their financial assets and resources to support their
current and future lifestyle objectives. Every client has a different set of values, financial
resources, time horizon and lifestyle objective. These four factors are utilized to design a
Legacy Action Plan or Client Action Plan as well as an Investment Policy Statement (IPS)
personalized to their unique set of circumstances. Before becoming a client, each individual
must go through our four-step process before engaging Kemp Financial. Implementation is
completed after an IPS has been created and approved by each client. This document
covers a client’s resources, short, mid and long-range financial desires as well as tolerances
for risk. In addition, each IPS contains a policy framework for investing a client’s assets
through our advisory service. Our process for asset allocation involves creating a portfolio
based on the three primary asset classes: stocks, bonds and cash. Within these broad-based
asset classes, we create a diversified portfolio by purchasing mutual funds and occasionally
exchange traded funds (“ETF”) that represent a wide range of sub-asset classes. For
example, the stock portion of the portfolio may in part consist of US Large Cap, US Small
Cap along with International Large and International Small cap stocks. Our management of
these accounts and each client’s underlying objectives is an ongoing process. We work to
keep the client portfolios in alignment with their associated IPS. In addition, we seek to
meet with our clients regularly to ensure or adjust to any changes in their desires, financial
resources or life events that might lead towards a change in their IPS. Clients may from
time to time impose restrictions on investing in certain types of securities or asset classes
so long as such restrictions may reasonably be implemented by Kemp Financial.
For a minority of legacy client accounts, certain Third-Party Advisers have been engaged
for the provision of select investment advisory services, such as retirement plan advisory
services. This practice has been sunsetted for new clients and the majority of Kemp
Financial’s current clients. Recommendations for or selections of a particular Third-Party
Adviser are typically made after gathering pertinent information from the client about the
client’s financial situation and investment objectives and are generally based upon the
following factors: i) the individual preference of Kemp Financial’s investment adviser
representatives; ii) the client’s risk tolerance, goals and objectives, as well as investment
experience; and iii) the size of client assets available for investment. Any securities
transactions executed through the Third-Party Adviser is in conjunction with the client’s
selected custodial broker-dealer. Third-Party Advisers generally charge additional
advisory or administrative fees above and beyond fees charged by Kemp Financial. Any
additional costs are fully disclosed to the client and approved by the client in the Third-
Party Adviser’s agreement. These fees are also disclosed in the Third-Party Adviser’s ADV
Part 2.
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 (“ERISA”) and/or the Internal Revenue Code
(the “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:
a. Meet a professional standard of care when making investment recommendations
(give prudent advice)
b. Never put our financial interests ahead of yours when making recommendations
(give loyal advice)
c. Avoid misleading statements about conflicts of interest, fees, and investments
d. Follow policies and procedures designed to ensure that we give advice that is in
your best interest
e. Charge no more than is reasonable for our services; and
f. Give you basic information about conflicts of interest.