We are moving our business to an independent Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) business to have more control over the business, and to better serve our clients as a fee-only fiduciary advisor. Operating our business in this structure also allows us to better control the costs to our clients while continuing to provide a high level of service that our clients are accustomed to.

Additionally, as an independent RIA, we will have access to a broader range of investment products and services, including a wider selection of investment options, potentially leading to a more tailored and comprehensive financial plan.

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A fiduciary advisor is legally obligated to act in your best interests. Additionally, independent RIAs have greater freedom to offer unbiased advice, access a wider range of investment options, and provide more personalized service.

Fee-only fiduciary advisors are the gold standard when it comes to delivering financial planning and investment advice aligned with the best interest of the client. Fee only advisors only receive compensation, or fees, directly from their clients. In other words, they do not earn any commissions on products, nor do they receive compensation to refer clients to any investment or other professional. Simply put, the only money they make is earned directly from clients for advice.

This structure reduces conflicts of interest, and by design, is intended to facilitate a client advisor relationship where advisors provide advice that best serves the long-term needs of their clients.

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Independent RIAs are subject to comprehensive regulatory oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or state securities regulators. They must adhere to strict compliance and disclosure requirements to ensure client protection. Broker dealers are also regulated, but their oversight may be primarily carried out by self-regulatory organizations such as FINRA.

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As a fully independent fee only fiduciary advisor, one of the most important decisions to make is where to custodian assets for clients that they provide advice to. We will no longer have access to and be able to manage or service accounts that remain on the Ameriprise Financial Custodian platform.

We have decided to partner with Charles Schwab to provide custodian services to our clients moving forward.

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After a thorough review of custodians in the RIA industry, we felt that Schwab was the strongest choice, both for you as a client and for our firm. Their industry-leading offering surpassed all the other firms we evaluated, delivering a higher level of support and services. Their experience and knowledge in this business will provide us with one of the best venues to manage your finances. We believe they will be a great custodian for your assets and you will feel that same confidence as you transition.

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No, it does not. We are our own independent firm. Schwab is simply the custodian we chose to hold our client accounts. We believe they are the strongest custodian for you and will provide the support and service we are looking for, for our clients and our firm. We have the flexibility to choose where we custody your accounts, so Schwab will work hard on behalf of our firm to provide the best ongoing service and platform available.

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Schwab Advisor Services has extensive experience serving advisors with a variety of clients and complex needs. Their resources and support were designed to help us build customized strategies and experiences for our unique clients. This includes:

• Personal trust services, including administrative support, trust accounting, and reporting
• Administrative Corporate Trustee services (through Charles Schwab Trust Company of Delaware)
• Philanthropic services and consulting through Schwab Charitable
• A wide range of third-party investment offerings
• A significant banking and lending platform through Schwab Bank.

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Schwab is committed to safeguarding your private information and financial data. Consult the links below to read their complete privacy policy and for additional information regarding account security.

• Privacy Policy
• SchwabSafe

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Transferring your assets to Charles Schwab requires paperwork to establish your new accounts on the Charles Schwab custodian and transfer authorizations to allow them to electronically move and re-register your investments in your new accounts.

We will work with you to make this process as smooth as possible, reconcile transfers to ensure assets move fully in kind, and reestablish arrangements to provide income distributions or automated savings.

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Transferring your assets to Charles Schwab requires paperwork to establish your new accounts on the Charles Schwab custodian and transfer authorizations to allow them to electronically move and re-register your investments in your new accounts.

We will work with you to make this process as smooth as possible, reconcile transfers to ensure assets move fully in kind, and reestablish arrangements to provide income distributions or automated savings.

Unfortunately, we will not have access to your Ameriprise accounts during the transition. If you have a service need regarding your accounts during the transition, we can assist you in contacting the Ameriprise Home office directly, or utilizing the client website, or contacting the newly assigned Ameriprise representative.

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You will be able to log into the Charles Schwab website once you have established accounts. After the transfers are complete we will also make the Ehrlich Financial Group portfolio portal available, which will provide greater performance and analytics information.

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You will not lose access to your Ameriprise Accounts or website log in.

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Ehrlich Financial Group and Charles Schwab will not charge any fees to move your accounts to the Charles Schwab custodian platform. Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC will charge account closure fees on brokerage and managed accounts. We have negotiated a budget with Charles Schwab to credit some of those account closure fees.

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Ehrlich Financial Group will not be receiving any compensation for moving our clients' assets to Charles Schwab. We have negotiated a predetermined budget from Charles Schwab to assist with reimbursing account closure fees assessed by Ameriprise Financial.

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Ehrlich Financial Group will charge a percentage of your assets invested or a flat fee for advice or a combination of both. This means that we can provide you access to a huge variety of investment options and are limited to investment options offered on a broker dealer platform, or incentivized to offer you specific products that might not be the best fit for you or your situation.

Under our new advisory agreements, there may be instances where you see a small cost to execute trades, typically $20-40. This will only occur in instances where the investment purchased with a trade execution charge is in your best interest due to the internal cost or other factors. Most of the investment vehicles that we utilize (exchange traded funds, mutual funds, stocks etc) do not incur trading costs when purchased or sold.

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