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Educational only. Firm answers come from each firm's own Form ADV filing with the SEC or its state. A firm record is not a review of any one person.
The records tell you how a firm is registered. These ten yes-or-no questions are about how your adviser actually works with you. You get a grade from A to F and a list of what to ask. About one minute, no sign-up.
A checklist, not a rating of any adviser's skill or results. We are an adviser too, so weigh it with that in mind.
"Financial advisor" is a job title anyone can use. What matters is how the person is registered, because that decides the rules they work under.
Every registered adviser and broker that works with everyday investors must hand you a short relationship summary called Form CRS. It says in plain words how they are paid and what conflicts they have. Advisers must give it to you before or when you sign up (17 CFR 275.204-5). If you never got one, ask for it.
How the checker reads a firm's record. Every registered adviser files Form ADV. We read these answers from it: whether the firm is also a broker-dealer or its staff are registered brokers (Items 6.A and 5.B(2)), whether it has a related broker-dealer or insurance company (Item 7.A), whether it can be paid by commissions or a share of gains (Item 5.E), and whether it reports any disciplinary events (Item 11). Data: the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure files for SEC- and state-registered firms, refreshed monthly. Firms that only report institutional clients are left out.
We are a fiduciary at all times, on all the advice we give you. We take no commissions. One fee covers two jobs: planning your whole financial life, and managing your investments.
It starts with understanding your situation, the way it really is: your pension, your 457, your family and what you want the money to do. Then we follow the same seven steps that CFP Board sets for financial planning:
Where the plan starts: your numbers. We build your budget and cash flow (what comes in and goes out each month) and your balance sheet (what you own and what you owe). Those two pages drive every other decision in the plan.
How we test it. We plan around your goals, such as retiring at a certain age or paying for a child's college. Then we run scenarios, like retiring a year later or taking a different pension option, and a Monte Carlo test. That test runs your plan through thousands of possible market paths to show how often the money lasts. It shows the odds, not a promise.
Example: "Should I move my 457 when I retire?" This is how a goal moves through those seven steps. First we look at where you stand: your income statement and your balance sheet, and what your 457 costs you today. Then we compare leaving the money in the plan with moving it to an IRA: the costs, the investment choices, how you would draw income, and the rules each one has for taking money out before 59 and a half. If staying is better, we tell you, and we earn nothing on that money. If moving makes sense, we have the money sent straight from the plan to the new account and map out how you draw on it. You pick the path, we help put it in place, and we check it at every yearly meeting. This is an example of the process, not a promise of a result.
What the plan covers:
Will Harrison, our Chief Investment Officer, runs the portfolios, and most of the work is research you never see. He studies and follows the companies we own and the ones we might own: their results, their managers, and the trends around them. He decides what to buy, when to add, and when to sell, and he writes up his thinking every quarter in Inside the Portfolio. His approach:
Day to day, the portfolio work also includes:
Vanguard's research estimates that advisers who follow practices like these can add about 3 percentage points a year to net returns. The biggest piece, about 1.5 points, comes from coaching people to stay invested when markets drop. Vanguard is clear that this is not a steady yearly number. It shows up unevenly, mostly when markets panic or soar, and it varies a lot from person to person. These are Vanguard's estimates across many investors, not a promise of what we will add for you. Sources: Vanguard Advisor's Alpha and its research paper (February 2019).
We charge a percentage of what we manage, and we take no commissions. From our Form ADV brochure, Items 5 and 6:
The fee is taken from your account each month for the month before. Trading costs and the funds' own expenses are separate. Because of that last tier, our own record in the checker shows "can charge a share of gains." How your adviser gets paid, in full.
A conflict you should know about. We earn our fee only on money you move to us. That gives us a reason to want your money. Weigh what we say about your current adviser with that in mind.
Sirmium Capital LLC is a small, independent investment firm in New York, registered as an investment adviser with the State of New York. You can look us up on the SEC's public adviser database under CRD #167682, where our full brochure is posted. Want to try the checker on us first? Search "Sirmium" above.
Educational information only. Not investment, tax or legal advice, and not a recommendation for or against any firm. Firm details come from public Form ADV filings and can change; confirm them on the SEC's adviser database. Sirmium Capital LLC is a New York state-registered investment adviser and is not registered with the SEC. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training.