General Information
Bison Wealth, LLC (“Bison”) is an investment adviser registered with the SEC since July 2013. Bison
Wealth, LLC ("Bison") was originally formed as Lakeview Capital Management, LLC and subsequently
changed names to Bison Wealth, LLC in 2021 as part of a change in ownership. As of December
2021, Bison Wealth, LLC is wholly owned by Bison Holdings, LLC. Bison Wealth, LLC provides
financial planning and portfolio management services to its clients. The firm is headquartered in
Atlanta, Georgia.
SERVICES OFFERED
We provide financial planning, reporting, consulting, investment management and investment advisory
services to individuals, trusts, estates, business entities, and charitable organizations. In advising our
clients we utilize a variety of investment strategies. We generally offer our advisory services for a fee
based on assets under management or advisement as further described in the agreement with the
client. In certain cases, we provide financial planning, investment management, reporting and/or
consulting services for an additional fee, which can be a percentage of assets under advisement,
based on the client’s net worth or a flat or hourly rate.
At the outset of each client relationship, Bison spends time with the client, asking questions, discussing
the client's investment experience and financial circumstances, and reviewing options for the client.
Based on its reviews, Bison generally develops with each client:
• a financial outline for the client based on the client's financial circumstances and goals, and the
client's risk tolerance level (the "Financial Profile"); and
• the client's investment objectives and guidelines (the "Investment Plan").
The Financial Profile is a reflection of the client's current financial picture and a look to the future goals
of the client. The Investment Plan outlines the types of investments Bison will make or recommend on
behalf of the client in order to meet those goals. The Profile and the Plan are discussed regularly with
each client but are not necessarily written documents.
Financial Planning
One of the services offered by Bison is Financial Planning, described below. This service may be
provided as a stand-alone service or may be coupled with ongoing portfolio management.
Financial Planning may include advice that addresses one or more areas of a client's financial
situation, such as estate planning, risk management, budgeting and cash flow controls, retirement
planning, education funding, and investment portfolio design and ongoing management. Depending on
a client's particular situation, financial planning may include some or all of the following:
• Gathering factual information concerning the client's personal and financial situation;
• Assisting the client in establishing financial goals and objectives;
• Analyzing the client's present situation and anticipated future activities in light of the client's
financial goals and objectives;
• Identifying problems foreseen in the accomplishment of these financial goals and objectives
and offering alternative solutions to the problems;
• Making recommendations to help achieve retirement plan goals and objectives;
• Designing an investment portfolio to help meet the goals and objectives of the client;
• Providing estate planning;
• Assessing risk and reviewing basic health, life and disability insurance needs; or
• Reviewing goals and objectives and measuring progress toward these goals.
Once Financial Planning advice is given, the client may choose to have Bison implement the client's
financial plan and manage the investment portfolio on an ongoing basis. However, the client is under
no obligation to act upon any of the recommendations made by Bison under a Financial Planning
engagement and/or engage the services of any recommended professional.
Advisory and Management Services
As described above, at the beginning of a client relationship, Bison meets with the client, gathers
information, and performs research and analysis as necessary to develop the client's Investment Plan.
The Investment Plan will be updated from time to time when requested by the client, or when
determined to be necessary or advisable by Bison based on updates to the client's financial or other
circumstances.
To implement the client's Investment Plan, Bison will manage the client's investment portfolio on a
discretionary or a non-discretionary basis. As a discretionary investment adviser, Bison will have the
authority to supervise and direct the portfolio without prior consultation with the client. Clients who
choose a non-discretionary arrangement must be contacted prior to the execution of any trade in the
account(s) under management. This may result in a delay in executing recommended trades, which
could adversely affect the performance of the portfolio. This delay also normally means the affected
account(s) will not be able to participate in block trades, a practice designed to enhance the execution
quality, timing and/or cost for all accounts included in the block. In a non-discretionary arrangement,
the client retains the responsibility for the final decision on all actions taken with respect to the portfolio.
As described is this Brochure and if requested by the client, Bison offers its clients research,
customized portfolio construction and implementation to meet the client’s portfolio objectives. The fees
for these customized portfolios are described in Item 5 – Fees and Compensation.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, clients may impose certain written restrictions on Bison in the
management of their investment portfolios, such as prohibiting the inclusion of certain types of
investments (e.g., "sin stocks") in an investment portfolio or prohibiting the sale of certain investments
held in the account at the commencement of the relationship. Each client should note, however, that
restrictions imposed by a client may adversely affect the composition and performance of the client's
investment portfolio. Each client should also note that his or her investment portfolio is treated
individually by giving consideration to each purchase or sale for the client's account. For these and
other reasons, performance of client investment portfolios within the same investment objectives, goals
and/or risk tolerance may differ, and clients should not expect that the composition or performance of
their investment portfolios would necessarily be consistent with similar clients of Bison.
Separate Account Managers
When appropriate and in accordance with the Investment Plan for a client, Bison may recommend the
use of one or more Separate Account Managers,
each a "Manager". Having access to various
Managers, including in-house strategies, offers a wide variety of manager styles and offers clients the
opportunity to utilize more than one Manager if necessary, to meet the needs and investment
objectives of the client. Bison will usually select or recommend the Manager(s) it deems most
appropriate for the client. Bison may recommend a separate account strategy that is managed
internally by Bison’s investment team. This may create a conflict of interest as such an allocation
would create additional fees for Bison. Bison mitigates this potential conflict by ensuring all
investments are appropriate in contributing to meet a client’s objectives. Factors that Bison considers
in recommending/selecting Managers generally includes the client's stated investment objective(s),
management style, performance, risk level, reputation, financial strength, reporting, pricing, and
research.
The Manager(s) will generally be granted discretionary trading authority to provide investment
supervisory services for the portfolio. Under certain circumstances, Bison retains the authority to
terminate the Manager's relationship or to add new Managers without specific client consent. In other
cases, the client will ultimately select one or more Managers recommended by Bison. Fees paid to
such Manager(s) are separate from and in addition to the fee assessed by Bison. These fees will
typically be deducted directly from client accounts by the separate Manager.
In any case, with respect to assets managed by a Manager, Bison's role will be to monitor the overall
financial situation of the client, to monitor the investment approach and performance of the
Manager(s), and to assist the client in understanding the investments of the portfolio.
When Bison evaluates potential Managers, one consideration is the brokerage arrangements of the
Manager. When the Manager allocates brokerage, such Managers will generally do so within their duty
to seek best execution. Clients may direct Bison to use a particular broker for custodial or transaction
services on behalf of the client's portfolio. In directed brokerage arrangements, the client is responsible
for negotiating the commission rates and other fees to be paid to the broker. Accordingly, a client who
directs brokerage should consider whether such designation may result in certain costs or
disadvantages to the client, either because the client may pay higher commissions or obtain less
favorable execution, or the designation limits the investment options available to the client.
General Consulting
In addition to the foregoing services, Bison may provide general consulting services to clients. These
services are generally provided on a project basis, and may include, without limitation, minimal cash
flow planning for certain events such as education expenses or retirement, estate planning analysis,
income tax planning analysis and review of a client's insurance portfolio, as well as other matters
specific to the client as and when requested by the client and agreed to by Bison. The scope and fees
for consulting services will be negotiated with each client at the time of engagement for the applicable
project.
IRA Rollover Recommendations
Effective December 20, 2021 (or such later date as the US Department of Labor (“DOL”) Field
Assistance Bulletin 2018-02 ceases to be in effect), for purposes of complying with the DOL’s
Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02 (“PTE 2020-02”) where applicable, we are providing the
following acknowledgment to clients. When we provide investment advice to client’s regarding their
retirement plan account or individual retirement account, we are fiduciaries within the meaning of Title I
of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and/or the Internal Revenue Code, as applicable,
which are laws governing retirement accounts. The way we make money creates some conflicts with
client interests, so we operate under a special rule that requires us to act in a client’s best interest and
not put our interest ahead of a client’s. Under this special rule’s provisions, we must:
• Meet a professional standard of care when making investment recommendations (give prudent
advice).
• Never put our financial interests ahead of a client’s when making recommendations (give loyal
advice).
• Avoid misleading statements about conflicts of interest, fees, and investments.
• Follow policies and procedures designed to ensure that we give advice that is in a client’s best
interest.
• Charge no more than is reasonable for our services; and
• Give a client basic information about conflicts of interest.
We benefit financially from the rollover of client assets from a retirement account to an account that we
manage or provide investment advice, because the assets increase our assets under management
and, in turn, our advisory fees. As a fiduciary, we only recommend a rollover when we believe it is in a
client’s best interest.
Use of Pontera Platform
Bison uses the Pontera platform made available by Pontera Solutions, Inc. (“Pontera”), a third party
online platform, to assist with management of clients’ “held away” accounts, including 401(k)s, 403(b)s,
annuities, and 529 education savings plans, and as an order management system for such accounts
where Bison implements tax-efficient asset location and opportunistic rebalancing strategies on behalf
of the client. The specific fee schedule charged by Bison for account management of held away assets
is established in the client’s written agreement with Bison. To facilitate use of the Pontera
platform, the client securely logs into the Pontera site and entitles Bison to manage the assets.
Pontera charges Bison 25 bps for each managed account. Clients do not pay any additional fee to
Pontera or to Bison in connection with platform participation. Bison is not affiliated with the Pontera
platform in any way and receives no compensation from them for using their platform.
Investment management fees are generally directly debited on a pro rata basis from client accounts.
The exception for this is directly-managed held-away accounts, such as 401(k)s. As it is impossible to
directly debit the fees from these accounts, those fees will be assigned to the client’s taxable accounts
on a pro-rata basis. If the client does not have a taxable account, those fees will be billed directly to the
client.
Wrap Fee Programs
We do not participate in any wrap fee program.
Assets Under Management
As of December 31, 2023, we provide continuous management services for $1,605,396,773 in client
assets on a discretionary basis, and $46,026 in client assets on a non-discretionary basis.