Five Star award winner Percy E Bolton

Is your Financial Planner Held to a Fiduciary Standard?

Is your Financial Planner a Fiduciary?

Why focus on Fiduciary? Because Financial Advisors adhering to a Fiduciary Standard act in the client's best interests. These advisors are not Stock Brokers or Registered Reprcsentatives who benefit from selling you an investment or financial product. Fee-Only Financial Advisors adhere to a Fiduciary Standard and sell only one thing - their knowledge.

Do you want to know if your Financial Advisor, or prospective Financial Advisor, holds to a Fiduciary Standard? Just have them complete this quick questionnaire and compare the answers with the provided answers. You'll be happy you did!

l. How are you and your firm compersated?
a. Fee-Only
b. Fee-Based
c. Fee-Offset
d. Commissions

How should a financial advisor charge for services? We firmly believe that financial advisors should charge Fee-Only. It is our core position that a Fee-Only engagement
removes the potential conflicts of interest that are inherent in a commission relationship.
Fee-only Financial Advison put their client's interests first and therefore hold to a Fiduciary
Standard.

2. Do you have an agreement describing your compensation and services that will be provided in advance of the engagement?

Prior to formalizing a relationship, a financial advisor should always provide you information which clearly discloses how she/he will be compensated: Fee-Only, Fee-Based, Commissions only. Ask for this information prior to commencing a relationship, and if there are any corresponding conflicts of interest presented by the compensalion arrangement, be aware that your interests might not always be placed ahead of the advisor's. Financial advisors who have no apparcnt conflicts of interest are more likely to be considered a Fiduciary.

3. Do you have a minimum fee?
a. Yes (lf yes, Please explain).
b. No

Financial advisors may charge a minimum fee for services they render. If you have limited financial planning needs and/or a small portfolio, paying a minimum fee may not be in your best interests. lf that is your situation search for an advisor who will provide you professional advice on a flat-fee, project, or hourly basis.

4. lf you earn commissions, approximately what percentage of your firm's commission income
comes from?
a. Insurance products
b. Annuities
c. Mutual Funds
d. Limited Partnerhips
e. Stocks and Bonds
f. Collectibles and Tangibles
g. Other

While we encourages you to consider using a Fee-Only Financial Advisor to minimize the
potential for conllicts of interest, you may instead select an advisor who accepts commissions.
Financial advison who are compensated based on commissions should be able to explain how they are compensated and identify what percentage of their compensation is derived from the sale of various commission-based investment products and/or securities trading. Financial Advisors who do receive commissions but cannot account for how they are compensated
should raise serious questions from you. We recommends Fee-Only financial advisors
to eliminate as many conflicts of interest as possible.r

5. Does any member of your firm act as a general Partner, participate in or receive compensation from investrnents you may recommend to me?
a. Yes
b. No

Ask your prospective financial advisor if she/he is limited to presenting certain types of investments or investrnent products to you. lf so, inquire why she/he is limited, and how this might affect the succcss of attaining your goals and/or the amount of fees to be paid.

6. Do you receive referral fees from attorneys, accountants, insurance pmfessionals, mortgage
brokers, or others?
a. Yes
b. No

As you work with a financial advisor, other needs revolving around important financial issues will become evident. Certain advisors, for example, recommend attorneys, accountants, insurance agents' and mortgage brokers to their clients. You should inquire whether the financial advisor will receive a referral fee for the recommendation. If the financial advisor does receive a referral fee or some other form of compensation from the professional(s) that she/he may recommend to you, you should seriously consider this conflict of interest prior to engaging the recommended professional. Financial Advison receiving a referral fee from other professionals for referring your business may not be acting in your best inierests. A true Fiduciary will not receive any compensation from any outside sources.

7. Do you receive on-going income from any of the mutual funds that you recommend in the form of "trailing" commissions, or other continuing payouts?
a. Yes
b. No

Some mutual fund and investment product sponsors pay "trailing payouts"and similar fees. A financial advisor who receives "trailers" is not a Fee-Only Financial Advisor. Trailing fees may negatively affect you because typically the product sponsor charges shareholder higher fees and then pays a portion of the money to the financial advisor on an ongoing basis. We recommends Fee-Only Financial Advisors to ensure a Fiduciary relationship.

8. Are there financial incentives for you to recommend certain financial products?
a. Yes (lf yes, please explain) b. No

Commission-based advisors may receive higher commissions on certain products they sell than on others. This may influence their decision to recommend investment products that are not in your best interest. Ask your prospective financial advisor how his/her recommendation might affect the success of attaining your goals and/or the amount of fees to be paid. Fee-Only advisors do not have this conflict ofinterest; they are able to recommend investsnents based solely upon your specific needs. We recommends Fee-Only Financial Advisors to ensure a Fiduciary relationship.

9. Are you currently engaged in any other business, either as a sole proprietor, partner. officer,
employee, trustee, agent or otherwise? (Exclude non-investment related activities which are
exclusively charitable, civic, religious or fratemal and are recognized as tax-exempt.)
a. Yes (lf yes, please explain)
b. No

By knowing what other business ventures a financial advisor is involved in, you will better
understand if there are any conflics of interest with regard to the advice that you might receive. This is especially important if the advisor is involved wilh any other investment-related entity. Ask for a delailed account of how that relationship will impact the advice she/he witl provide you. The outside relationship may be in conflict with your personal interests.

Accountability is important in financial planning. While there are many people in the financial
services induslry who profess to have the client's best interests at heart, they still may make
recommendation that present a conflict of interest.

By comparing the answers provided to you by the advisor with our recommended answers, you will be able to better understand whether or not the advisor in question holds to a Fiduciary Srandard. This means he/she is placing your interests ahead of his/her own.

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This award was issued on 12/01/2022 by Five Star Professional (FSP) for the time period 03/28/2022 through 09/23/2022. Fee paid for use of marketing materials. Self-completed questionnaire was used for rating. This rating is not related to the quality of the investment advice and based solely on the disclosed criteria. 3,629 Los Angeles-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 155 (4% of candidates) were named 2023 Five Star Wealth Managers. The following prior year statistics use this format: YEAR: # Considered, # Winners, % of candidates, Issued Date, Research Period. 2022: 3781, 150, 4%, 12/1/21, 3/29/21 - 10/1/21; 2021: 3574, 158, 4%, 12/1/20, 3/30/20 - 10/9/20; 2020: 3527, 158, 4%, 12/1/19, 3/1/19 - 10/25/19; 2019: 3528, 154, 4%, 12/1/18, 3/26/18 - 10/16/18; 2018: 2708, 154, 6%, 12/1/17, 3/23/17 - 10/13/17; 2017: 2351, 287, 12%, 11/1/16, 2/25/16 - 10/24/16; 2016: 2374, 298, 13%, 11/1/15, 5/22/15 - 10/16/15; 2015: 3105, 327, 11%, 12/1/14, 5/22/14 - 10/16/14; 2014: 6088, 340, 6%, 12/1/13, 5/22/13 - 10/16/13; 2013: 3488, 372, 11%, 12/1/12, 5/22/12 - 10/16/12; 2012: 1019, 176, 17%, 11/1/11, 5/22/11 - 10/16/11.

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PERCY E. BOLTON ASSOCIATES, INC. [PEB] is a registered investment adviser offering advisory services in the State(s) of CA where registered/notice filed and in other jurisdictions where exempted. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. The presence of this website on the Internet shall not be directly or indirectly interpreted as a solicitation of investment advisory services to persons of another jurisdiction unless otherwise permitted by statute. Follow-up or individualized responses to consumers in a particular state by [PEB] in the rendering of personalized investment advice for compensation shall not be made without our first complying with jurisdiction requirements or pursuant an applicable state exemption.

Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. The award is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility criteria - required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser (RIA) or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. Actively licensed as a RIA or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by FSP, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or FSP's consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through FSP's consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client's experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria - considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. FSP does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. The award is not indicative of the wealth manager's future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients' assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by FSP or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by FSP in the future. Visit www.fivestarprofessional.com.