IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION
Deane Retirement Strategies, Inc. (“DRS“) is an SEC registered investment advisor located in New Orleans, Louisiana. DRS and its representatives are in compliance with the current filing requirements imposed upon SEC registered investment advisors by those states in which DRS maintains clients. DRS may only transact business in those states in which it is registered, or qualifies for an exemption or exclusion from registration requirements. DRS‘ web site is limited to the dissemination of general information pertaining to its advisory services, together with access to additional investment-related information, publications, and links. Accordingly, the publication of DRS‘ web site on the Internet should not be construed by any consumer and/or prospective client as DRS‘ solicitation to affect, or attempt to affect transactions in securities, or the rendering of personalized investment advice for compensation, over the Internet. Any subsequent, direct communication by DRS with a prospective client shall be conducted by a representative that is either registered or qualifies for an exemption or exclusion from registration in the state where the prospective client resides. For information pertaining to the registration status of DRS, please contact the SEC or the state securities regulators for those states in which DRS maintains a notice filing. A copy of DRS‘ current written disclosure statement discussing DRS‘ business operations, services, and fees is available from DRS upon written request. DRS does not make any representations or warranties as to the accuracy, timeliness, suitability, completeness, or relevance of any information prepared by any unaffiliated third party, whether linked to DRS‘ web site or incorporated herein, and takes no responsibility therefore. All such information is provided solely for convenience purposes only and all users thereof should be guided accordingly.
Please remember that different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that the future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy (including those undertaken or recommended by DRS), will be profitable or equal any historical performance level(s).
Certain portions of DRS‘ web site (i.e. conference call replays, articles, commentaries, etc.) may contain a discussion of, and/or provide access to, DRS‘ (and those of other investment and non-investment professionals) positions and/or recommendations as of a specific prior date. Due to various factors, including changing market conditions, such discussion may no longer be reflective of current position(s) and/or recommendation(s). Moreover, no client or prospective client should assume that any such discussion serves as the receipt of, or a substitute for, personalized advice from DRS, or from any other investment professional. DRS is neither an attorney nor an accountant, and no portion of the web site content should be interpreted as legal, accounting or tax advice.
Rankings and/or recognition by unaffliated rating services and/or publications should not be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if DRS is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services, nor should it be construed as a current or past endorsement of DRS by any of its clients. Rankings published by magazines, and others, generally base their selections exclusively on information prepared and/or submitted by the recognized advisor. Rankings are generally limited to participating advisors.
To the extent that any client or prospective client utilizes any economic calculator or similar interactive device contained within or linked to DRSs web site, the client and/or prospective client acknowledges and understands that the information resulting from the use of any such calculator/device, is not, and should not be construed, in any manner whatsoever, as the receipt of, or a substitute for, personalized individual advice from DRS, or from any other investment professional.
Each client and prospective client agrees, as a condition precedent to his/her/its access to DRS‘ web site, to release and hold harmless DRS, its officers, directors, owners, employees and agents from any and all adverse consequences resulting from any of his/her/its actions and/or omissions which are independent of his/her/its receipt of personalized individual advice from DRS.
PRIVACY POLICY
Deane Retirement Strategies, Inc. (referred to as “DRS”) maintains physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to protect its clients’ nonpublic personal information (“information”). Through this policy and its underlying procedures, DRS attempts to secure the confidentiality of customer records and information and protect against anticipated threats or hazards to the security or integrity of customer records and information.
It is the policy of DRS to restrict access to all current and former clients’ information (i.e., information and records pertaining to personal background, investment objectives, financial situation, tax information/returns, investment holdings, account numbers, account balances, etc.) to those employees and affiliated/nonaffiliated entities who need to know that information in order to provide products or services in furtherance of the client’s engagement of DRS. In that regard, DRS may disclose the client’s information: (1) to individuals and/or entities not affiliated with DRS, including, but not limited to the client’s other professional advisors and/or certain service providers that may be recommended or engaged by DRS in furtherance of the client’s engagement of DRS (i.e., attorney, accountant, insurance agent, broker-dealer, investment adviser, account custodian, record keeper, proxy management service provider, etc.); (2) required to do so by judicial or regulatory process; or (3) otherwise permitted to do so in accordance with the parameters of applicable federal and/or state privacy regulations. The disclosure of information contained in any document completed by the client for processing and/or transmittal by DRS to facilitate the commencement/continuation/termination of a business relationship between the client and/or between DRS and a nonaffiliated third party service provider (i.e., broker-dealer, investment adviser, account custodian, record keeper, insurance company, etc.), including, but not limited to, information contained in any document completed and/or executed by the client in furtherance of the client’s engagement of DRS (i.e., advisory agreement, client information form, etc.), shall be deemed as having been automatically authorized by the client with respect to the corresponding nonaffiliated third party service provider.
DRS permits only authorized employees and affiliates who have signed a copy of DRS’ Privacy Policy to have access to client information. Employees violating DRS’ Privacy Policy will be subject to DRS’ disciplinary process. Additionally, whenever DRS hires other organizations to provide services to DRS’ clients, DRS will require them to sign confidentiality agreements and/or the Privacy Policy.
Should you have any questions regarding the above, please contact Linda L. Deane CCO, Chief Compliance Officer.
FORM CRS
Item 1 – Introduction
Deane Retirement Strategies, Inc. (“we” or “us”) is registered with the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”) as an investment adviser. Our services and compensation structure differ from a registered broker-dealer, and it is important for you to understand the differences between those structures. Free and simple tools are available to research firms and financial professionals at www.investor.gov/CRS. The site also provides educational materials about broker-dealers, investment advisers and investing. The italicized sentences appearing in text boxes below are intended to be “conversation starters” for you to have with us, as required by the instructions to Form CRS.
Item 2 – Relationships and Services
What investment services and advice can you provide me?
As fiduciaries, we offer to provide discretionary investment advisory services and limited financial planning and consulting services to individuals and their trusts and estates (our “retail investors”).We manage client portfolios based on unique factors that are specific to them. These factors include the respective client’s investment objectives, risk tolerance, investment time horizon, withdrawal requirements, and other special circumstances. We monitor clients’ portfolios continually throughout the year and make changes to their portfolios as we determine necessary. When a retail investor engages us to provide financial planning and consulting services, we rely upon the information they provide and do not verify or monitor that information while providing these services. Our financial planning and consulting services are completed upon the communication of our recommendations to the retail investor. We provide our investment advisory services on a discretionary basis, which means we have the authority to buy and sell investments in your account without speaking to you before doing so. However, you can place reasonable restrictions on the securities that we buy by notifying us, in writing. We do not limit the type of securities we trade for retail investors to proprietary products or a limited group or type of investment, but we generally employ the use of stocks, bonds, cash holdings, and exchange traded funds (“ETFs”). Our investment advisory services are designed for retail investors with at least $1,000,000 designated for our discretionary management. We generally impose a minimum quarterly fee of $3,125 for those services, which we can agree to modify in certain circumstances. For more detailed information about our Advisory Business and the Types of Clients we generally service, please see Items 4 and 7, respectively in our Form ADV Part 2A.
Conversation Starters:
Given my financial situation, should I choose an investment advisory service? Why or why not?
How will you choose investments to recommend to me?
What is your relevant experience, including your licenses, education and other qualifications? What do these qualifications mean?
Item 3 – Fees, Costs, Conflicts, and Standard of Conduct
What fees will I pay?
We are fiduciaries who provide services to and receive fees only from our clients. We do not accept any payments or commission from any third parties for our services. For our discretionary investment advisory services, and with certain exceptions described in Item 5A in our Form ADV Part 2A, our fee is based on a percentage of the market value of all aggregated accounts valued at $100,000 or greater that are placed under our management, ranging between 0.50% and 1.25%. We require a minimum quarterly fee of $3,125 for accounts valued under $1,000,000. An additional fee for the current quarter will be assessed if assets are deposited after the beginning of the quarter, prorated based on the number of calendar days remaining in the quarter during which the service will be in effect. We either deduct our fee from one or more of your investment accounts or bill you for our services on a quarterly basis, in advance. Because our fee is based on the amount of your assets under our management, the more assets you entrust us to manage, the more you may pay us for our services. However, as your assets under our management increase, your fee percentage of assets under our management decreases incrementally. Therefore, we may have an incentive to encourage you to increase the amount of assets that you designate for our management. For more detailed information about our investment advisory fees and related items, please see Item 5 in our Form ADV Part 2A.
Your account will be held with a qualified custodian. Custodians and their affiliated broker dealers generally charge fees for certain custodial services, as required by law, or for effecting certain types of securities transactions. In addition, if your assets are invested in ETFs, you will bear your pro rata share of the investment management fees and other fees of the ETFs, which are in addition to the fees you pay us. These fees and expenses are described in each fund’s prospectus or other offering documents. You will pay fees and costs whether you make or lose money on your investments. Fees and costs will reduce any amount of money you make on your investments over time. Please make sure you understand what fees and costs you are paying. For more detailed information about our fees and costs related to our management of your account, please see Item 5 in our Form ADV Part 2A.
Conversation Starters:
Help me understand how these fees and costs might affect my investments. If I give you $10,000 to invest, how much will go to fees and costs, and how much will be invested for me?
What are your legal obligations to me when acting as my investment adviser?
How else does your firm make money and what conflicts of interest do you have?
When we act as your investment adviser, we have to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours. At the same time, the way we make money creates some conflicts with your interests. You should understand and ask us about these conflicts because they can affect the investment advice we provide you. Here are some examples to help you understand what this means:
* We may recommend a particular custodian from whom we receive support services. This presents a conflict of interest, because our receipt of their support make us more inclined to continue using and recommending them.
* We may recommend a particular custodian from whom we receive support services. This presents a conflict of interest, because our receipt of their support make us more inclined to continue using and recommending them.* We may recommend rollovers out of employer-sponsored retirement plans and into Individual Retirement Accounts that we manage for an asset-based fee. If we don’t currently manage your account held with your employer’s plan, this will increase our compensation.
For more detailed information about our conflicts of interest, please review Items 4, 11 and 12 of our Form ADV Part 2A.
Conversation Starters:
How might your conflicts of interest affect me, and how will you address them?
How do your financial professionals make money?
Our financial professionals are generally compensated on a salary basis and are eligible to receive discretionary bonuses. In addition, certain of our financial professionals are equity owners of the firm, in which case they stand to receive a share of the profits of the firm. Bonuses can be but are not necessarily based on the acquisition of new clients and their growth of assets. This presents a conflict of interest, as this incentivizes our financial professionals to recommend that you place additional assets under our management. You should discuss your financial professional’s compensation directly with your financial professional.
Item 4 – Disciplinary History
Do you or your financial professionals have legal or disciplinary history?
No. We encourage you to visit www.Investor.gov/CRS to research our firm and our financial professionals.
Conversation Starters:
As a financial professional, do you have any disciplinary history? If so, for what type of conduct?
Item 5 – Additional Information
Additional information about our firm is available on the SEC’s website at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov. You may contact our Chief Compliance Officer at any time to request a current copy of our Form ADV Part 2A or our relationship summary. Our Chief Compliance Officer may be reached by phone at (504) 582–2345.
Conversation Starters:
Who is my primary contact person? Is he or she a representative of an investment adviser or broker-dealer? Who can I talk to if I have concerns about how this person is treating me?
