The Customer Relationship Summary (CRS) is a new form that SEC-registered investment advisers (RIAs) and broker-dealers must provide to their clients and the public. This document is pivotal in ensuring transparency between financial professionals and their clients. The CRS is designed to help you, the investor, understand the nature of your relationship with your financial professional, the services they offer, the fees they charge, the conflicts of interest they face, and their disciplinary history.

The CRS is part of a broader package of rules adopted by the SEC in 2019 to enhance the quality and transparency of retail investors’ relationships with financial professionals. The core purpose of these rules is to protect investors from potential harm and empower them to make informed decisions.

If you’re seeking wealth management advice, the CRS is an invaluable tool. It assists you in comparing different firms and financial professionals, ensuring you choose the one that aligns best with your needs and aspirations. The SEC mandates firms to draft their CRS in plain language, keeping it concise at two pages or less.

Below is the Customer Relationship Summary from Successful Portfolios, dated 9/21/2023, reproduced in its entirety and filed with the SEC.

We encourage every investor to thoroughly read and understand the CRS of any financial professional they consider working with. It’s essential to ensure transparency and alignment in your financial journey.

Successful Portfolios LLC

Form ADV, Part 3: Client Relationship Summary (CRS)

September 21, 2023

Item 1: Introduction

Successful Portfolios LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor firm, not a broker-dealer. Brokerage and investment advisory services and fees differ, so it’s important that you understand the differences.

Free and simple tools are available to research firms and financial professionals at investor.gov/CRS, which also provides educational material about broker-dealers, investment advisors, and investing.

Item 2: Relationships and Services 

What investment services and advice can you provide to me?

 As our client, we’ll start by getting to know your objectives, risk tolerance, and needs. Then, we’ll help you create and manage a personalized portfolio of readily marketable, easily traded securities like stocks, bonds, ETFs, and liquid alternatives. We’ll conduct an in-depth account evaluation at least once a year. We accept discretionary and non-discretionary accounts, where the latter means clients must pre-approve trades. While our minimum account size is $100,000, we may sometimes lower or waive this minimum.

Feel free to ask us these conversation-starter questions:

• Given my situation, should I choose an investment advisory service? Why or why not?
• How will you choose investments to recommend for me?
• What are your qualifications, credentials, and experience? What do they mean?

 

Item 3: Fees, Costs, Conflicts, and Standard of Conduct

What fees will I pay?

The table below presents our standard fee schedule for full-service custom asset management.

Assets Under Management	Annualized Fee
First $1,000,000	1.25%
Next $1,000,000	.95%
Next $1,000,000	.80%
Next $1,000,000	.70%
Next $1,000,000	.60%
Over $5,000,000	.50%

Our fees are negotiable depending on investment strategy or mandate. Qualified clients may negotiate a performance-based fee arrangement based on a set percentage of the client’s quarterly mark-to-market account profit, subject to a high watermark.

You may also incur additional costs, including account maintenance fees and commissions, payable to the independent custodian or brokerage that carries your account. You will incur internal or fund-level expenses if your account is invested in mutual funds or ETFs.

You will pay fees and costs whether you make or lose money on your investments. Fees and expenses will reduce any amount of money you make on your investments over time.  It’s essential to make sure you understand what fees and costs you are paying.

Our Form ADV, Part 2 Client Brochure provides additional detailed information about fees and costs.

When we act as your investment advisor, we must act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours. At the same time, how we make money may conflict with your interest. You should understand and ask us about these conflicts because they can affect the investment advice we provide to you.

Ask us:

• How could fees affect my investments?
• If I give you $10,000 to invest, how much goes toward fees vs investments?
• What are your legal obligations when advising me?
• How else does your firm make money?
• How do your financial professionals make money?
• What conflicts do you have and how do you address them?

 

Our financial professionals are compensated by salary plus a percentage of client advisory fees. This may create a conflict of interest when we advise you to add money to your account or refrain from making withdrawals. Our representatives agree to abide by Successful Portfolios’ Code of Ethics to address and mitigate conflicts of interest.

Item 4. Disciplinary History

Do you have any disciplinary history?

We’re pleased to report that our firm and advisors have no legal or disciplinary history. Visit investor.gov/CRS to research us and our financial professionals.

Item 5. Additional Information

You will find additional information about our investment advisory services at https://successfulportfolios.com/ or https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/152429, where you may also download a copy of an up-to-date Customer Relationship Summary.

We welcome questions from clients or prospective clients. Feel free to ask us these conversation-starter questions: “Who is my primary contact person? Are they a representative of an investment adviser or a broker-dealer? Who can I talk to if I have concerns about how this person is treating me?”

Our Investment Advisor Representatives, Parker Evans, CFA, CFP, and Joe Baer, APMA, work as a team in our Clearwater, Florida office and are available to assist you and answer any questions you may have. You may call or text them anytime at (727) 744-3614 to request additional information about our advisory services or an up-to-date copy of this relationship summary.

Where can you find the official current CRS for us or any other Registered Investment Advisor?

Visit the Investment Advisor Public Depository (IAPD) here.

The CRS summarizes key information about our firm and our services. It also includes conversation starters that you can use to ask us questions and learn more about us. It’s the same for every RIA, big or small.

We encourage you to read our CRS carefully and contact us with any questions or concerns. We look forward to working with you and helping you achieve your financial goals.