Description of Services and Fees
The Martin Worley Group, LLC is a registered investment adviser primarily based in Cottonwood
Heights, Utah, with an additional office in Lake Oswego, Oregon. We are organized as a limited
liability company under the laws of the State of Utah. Our firm has been providing investment
advisory services since 2014. Brian A. Worley, Terra J. Thurgood and Barry T. Watson are the
firm's owners. Currently, we offer the following investment advisory services, which are
personalized to each individual client:
• Portfolio Management Services
• Financial Planning Services
• Pension Consulting
Registered Investment Advisors are regulated under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and are
governed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Martin Worley Group is held to
the fiduciary standard of care, which requires us to act in our clients’ best interests at all times. Our
business model is fee-only and fully transparent. We are not compensated through commissions,
sales charges, 12b-1 fees, management fees, or revenue sharing.
The following paragraphs describe our services and fees. As used in this brochure, the words "we",
"our" and "us" refer to The Martin Worley Group and the words "you", "your" and "client" refer to you
as either a client or prospective client of our firm.
Portfolio Management Services
We offer discretionary and non-discretionary portfolio management services. Our investment advice
is tailored to meet our clients' needs and investment objectives. If you retain our firm for portfolio
management services, we will meet with you to determine your investment objectives, risk tolerance,
and other relevant information at the beginning of our advisory relationship. We will use the
information we gather to develop a strategy that enables our firm to give you continuous and
focused investment advice and/or to make investments on your behalf. As part of our portfolio
management services, we may customize an investment portfolio for you according to your risk
tolerance and investing objectives. We may also invest your assets according to one or more model
portfolios developed by our firm. Once we construct an investment portfolio for you, or select a
model portfolio, we will monitor your portfolio's performance on an ongoing basis and will rebalance
the portfolio as necessitated by changes in market conditions and in your financial circumstances.
If you participate in our discretionary portfolio management services, we require you to grant our firm
discretionary authority to manage your account. Discretionary authorization will allow us to determine
the specific securities, and the amount of securities, to be purchased or sold for your account
without your approval prior to each transaction. Discretionary authority is typically granted by the
investment advisory agreement you sign with our firm and the appropriate trading authorization
forms. You may, at our sole discretion, limit our discretionary authority (for example, limiting the
types of securities that can be purchased for your account) by providing our firm with your
restrictions and guidelines in writing. If you enter into non-discretionary arrangements with our firm,
we must obtain your approval prior to executing any transactions on behalf of your account.
In some situations, we offer the use of Third-Party Managers or Sub-Advisors (“Outside Managers”)
for portfolio management services and delegate discretionary investment authority over all or part of a
client’s account, authorizing them to buy, sell or hold securities or other investments for the account of
the client. The Outside Manager shall be responsible for the day-to-day investment management of
the account, provided however, that the Advisor shall retain supervision over the activities of such
Outside Manager. The Martin Worley Group does not pass any additional fees on to the client for the
use of Outside Managers.
The Martin Worley Group 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 we implement tax-efficient asset location and opportunistic
rebalancing strategies on behalf of the client. The Martin Worley Group includes the costs of the
Pontera platform in its overall advisory fee for each managed account. Clients do not pay any
additional fee to Pontera or to The Martin Worley Group in connection with platform participation. The
Martin Worley Group is not affiliated with the Pontera platform in any way and receives no
compensation from them for using their platform.
Financial Planning Services
We offer financial planning services which typically involve providing advisory services to clients
regarding the management of their current and forecasted future financial resources based upon an
analysis of their individual needs. These services can range from broad, comprehensive financial
planning to consultative or single subject planning. If you retain our firm for financial planning
services, we will meet with you to gather information about your financial circumstances and
objectives. Once we review and analyze the information you provide to our firm, we may deliver a
written or electronic plan or individual recommendations to you designed to help you achieve your
stated financial goals and objectives. Areas of recommendation and financial planning services may
include any or all of the following:
• Retirement and
Lifetime Income Management
• Investment Portfolio Management
• Estate and Legacy Planning
• Tax Efficient Strategies
• Multi-Generational Wealth Transfer Support
• Impactful Charitable Giving Guidance
• Coordination with Estate Attorneys and Tax Professionals
• Advanced Planning Services
• Risk Management and Insurance Gap Analysis
• Social Security and Medicare Guidance
• Education Funding Strategies
• Business Continuation, Exit Planning and Retirement Plan Selection
Financial plans and recommendations are based on your financial situation at the time we present
the plan to you, and on the information you provide to us. You should promptly notify our firm if your
financial situation, goals, objectives, or needs change. Implementation of financial plan
recommendations is entirely at the client’s discretion. Should you choose to implement any of our
recommendations, we suggest working closely with your attorney, accountant, and/or insurance
agent, as needed. Moreover, you are not obligated to implement the financial plan through any of
our other investment advisory services and may act on our recommendations by placing securities
transactions with any brokerage firm.
Pension Consulting Services
We offer pension consulting services to employee benefit plans and their fiduciaries based upon the
needs of the plan and the services requested by the plan sponsor or named fiduciary. In general,
these services may include an existing plan review and analysis, plan-level advice regarding fund
selection and investment options, education services to plan participants, investment performance
monitoring, and/or ongoing consulting. These advisory services will generally be similar to one or
all of the categories of services defined above (i.e., portfolio management and/or financial
planning). The ultimate decision to act on behalf of the plan shall remain with the plan sponsor or
other named fiduciary.
We may also assist with participant enrollment meetings and provide investment-related
educational seminars to plan participants on such topics as: Diversification; Asset allocation; Risk
tolerance; and Time horizon, or other investment-related topics specific to the particular plan. We
may also provide additional types of advisory services to plans on an individually negotiated basis.
All services, whether discussed above or customized for the plan based upon requirements from
the plan fiduciaries (which may include additional plan-level or participant-level services) shall be
detailed in a written agreement and be consistent with the parameters set forth in the plan
documents.
As disclosed above, we offer various levels of advisory and consulting services to employee benefit
plans (“Plan”) and to the participants of such plans (“Participants”). Pursuant to adopted regulations
of the U.S. Department of Labor, we are required to provide the Plan’s responsible plan fiduciary
(the person who has the authority to engage us as an investment adviser to the Plan) with a written
statement of the services we provide to the Plan, the compensation we receive for providing those
services, and our status (which is described below).
The services we provide to your Plan are described above and in the service agreement signed with
our firm. Our compensation for these services is described below, at Item 5, and also in the service
agreement. We do not reasonably expect to receive any other compensation, direct or indirect, for
the services we provide to the Plan or Participants, unless the plan sponsor directs us to deduct our
fee from the plan or directs the plan record-keeper to issue payment for our fee out of the plan. If we
receive any other compensation for such services, we will (i) offset the compensation against our
stated fees, and (ii) we will promptly disclose the amount of such compensation, the services
rendered for such compensation and the payer of such compensation to the plan sponsor and
fiduciary.
Our status is that of a registered investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 with
the SEC and individual states where we are registered and/or doing business pursuant to an
exemption from registration. Our firm is not subject to any disqualification as set forth in Section 411
of ERISA. To the extent we perform Fiduciary Services, we are acting either as a non-discretionary
fiduciary of the Plan as defined in Section3(21) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act
(“ERISA”), or as a discretionary fiduciary of the plan as defined in the service agreement.
Wrap Fee Program(s)
We are not a portfolio manager to a wrap fee program nor do we sponsor a wrap fee program.
Types of Investments
Our investment recommendations are not limited to any specific product or service and will primarily
include advice on mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs). Additionally, we may advise
you on any type of investment that we deem appropriate based on your stated goals and objectives
such as structured notes, exchange-listed securities, certificates of deposit, and municipal securities,
among others. We may also provide advice on any type of investment held in your portfolio at the
inception of our advisory relationship. You may request that we refrain from investing in particular
securities or certain types of securities by providing these restrictions to our firm in writing.
Assets Under Management
As of December 31, 2023, we manage approximately $312,531,214 in client assets on a
discretionary basis, and approximately $0 in client assets on a non-discretionary basis.