Overview
- Headquarters
- Portsmouth, NH
- Total Firm Assets
- $401 million
- Average High-Net-Worth Client Portfolio Size
- $2.2 million
- Minimum Account Size
- $750,000
Fee Structure
Primary Fee Schedule (ADV DISCLOSURE BROCHURE)
| Min | Max | Marginal Fee Rate |
|---|---|---|
| $0 | $1,000,000 | 1.00% |
| $1,000,001 | $4,000,000 | 0.60% |
| $4,000,001 | and above | 0.30% |
Minimum Annual Fee: $7,500
Illustrative Fee Rates
| Total Assets | Annual Fees | Average Fee Rate |
|---|---|---|
| $1 million | $10,000 | 1.00% |
| $5 million | $31,000 | 0.62% |
| $10 million | $46,000 | 0.46% |
| $50 million | $166,000 | 0.33% |
| $100 million | $316,000 | 0.32% |
Clients
- High-Net-Worth Share of Firm Assets
- 91.84%
- Number of High-Net-Worth Clients
- 167
- Total Client Accounts
- 1,025
- Discretionary Accounts
- 1,004
- Non-Discretionary Accounts
- 21
Services Offered
Services: Financial Planning, Portfolio Management for Individuals, Investment Advisor Selection
Regulatory Filings
- SEC CRD Number
- 129656
Primary Brochure: ADV DISCLOSURE BROCHURE (2026-08-03)
View Document Text
Cornerstone Financial Planning, LLC
8 Greenleaf Woods Dr. , Suite 202
Portsmouth, NH 03801
Telephone 603-431-1133
Facsimile 603-431-1139
www.cornerstoneplanning.com
August 3, 2026
FORM ADV PART 2A
DISCLOSURE BROCHURE
This Brochure provides information about some qualifications and business practices of Cornerstone
Financial Planning, LLC. If you have any questions about the contents of this Brochure, please
contact us at 603-431-1133. The information in this Brochure has not been approved or verified by the
United States Securities and Exchange Commission or by any State Securities Authority.
Additional information about Cornerstone Financial Planning, LLC is available on the SEC's website at
at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.
Cornerstone Financial Planning, LLC is a registered investment adviser. Registration with the United
States Securities and Exchange Commission or any state securities authority does not imply a certain
level of skill or training.
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Item 2 Summary of Material Changes
Form ADV Part 2 requires registered investment advisers to amend their brochure when information
becomes materially inaccurate. If there are any material changes to an adviser's disclosure brochure,
the adviser is required to notify you and provide you with a description of the material changes.
Since the filing of our last annual updating amendment dated 03/26/2025, we have made some
material changes to our Brochure as follows:
We revised Item 14 to simplify the disclosure regarding compensating employees for referrals and also
to disclose that we use mutual funds and ETFs offered through Dimensional Fund Advisors
("DFA") which offers us access to certain non-monetary benefits, such as academic research. The
receipt of these benefits creates a conflict of interest in that we have an incentive to use DFA funds
over another fund family that does not offer the same type of benefits. Despite that, as a fiduciary, we
are obligated to only act in our clients' best interests.
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Item 3 Table Of Contents
Item 1 Cover Page
Item 2 Summary of Material Changes
Item 3 Table Of Contents
Item 4 Advisory Business
Item 5 Fees and Compensation
Item 6 Performance-Based Fees and Side-By-Side Management
Item 7 Types of Clients
Item 8 Methods of Analysis, Investment Strategies and Risk of Loss
Item 9 Disciplinary Information
Item 10 Other Financial Industry Activities and Affiliations
Item 11 Code of Ethics, Participation or Interest in Client Transactions and Personal Trading
Item 12 Brokerage Practices
Item 13 Review of Accounts
Item 14 Client Referrals and Other Compensation
Item 15 Custody
Item 16 Investment Discretion
Item 17 Voting Client Securities
Item 18 Financial Information
Item 19 Requirements for State-Registered Advisers
Item 20 Additional Information
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Item 4 Advisory Business
Cornerstone Financial Planning, LLC is a registered investment adviser primarily based in Portsmouth,
New Hampshire. We are organized as a limited liability company under the laws of the State of New
Hampshire. We have been providing investment advisory services since 2004. Christina Traurig and
Mackenzie Parsons are our principal owners. Currently, we offer the following investment advisory
services, which are personalized to each individual client:
• Financial Planning and Investment Management Services
• Selection of Other Advisers
• Hourly Consulting Services
The following paragraphs describe our services and fees. Please refer to the description of each
investment advisory service listed below for information on how we tailor our advisory services to your
individual needs. As used in this brochure, the words "we", "our" and "us" refer to Cornerstone
Financial Planning, LLC and the words "you", "your" and "client" refer to you as either a client or
prospective client of our firm. Also, you may see the term Associated Person or Investment Adviser
Representative throughout this Brochure. As used in this Brochure, our Associated Persons or
Investment Adviser Representatives are our firm's officers, employees, and all individuals providing
investment advice on behalf of our firm.
Financial Planning and Investment Management Services
To consider a suitable course of action for you, we do an initial review of the information you present.
Our review includes considering your goals, investment objectives, overall financial condition, income
and tax status, personal and business assets, risk profile, and other facts of your particular
circumstances to determine which of the three categories of service best meets your needs.
We provide an initial, no-obligation, no-fee meeting to become familiar with a prospective client's
circumstances. We get information from you - some of it in conversation with you, and some by
gathering documents from you. This information can help us consider which service might help you.
We're not obliged to check information we received from you or from your lawyer, accountant, and
other professionals. If you ask, we will suggest other professionals to help you implement your financial
planning. You're never obliged to engage anyone we suggest.
You must tell us about changes to your financial situation or investment objectives so that we can
review, evaluate, and revise our previous advice.
We offer discretionary and non-discretionary portfolio management services. If you engage this
service, we assess your current financial situation. Our assessment includes considering your future
income needs from your portfolio, and your time horizon and risk tolerance. We review your current
investment portfolio. Usually, we'll suggest a written Investment Policy Statement (IPS) unless your
invested assets are less than $150,000. For portfolios at or less than $150,000 an IPS is not created
and the reasoning for each investment recommendation is discussed individually with the client. An
IPS includes written recommendations for asset allocation and asset selection. Going forward, we
review your portfolio to check whether it is consistent with your IPS.
Some specific tasks of this service may include:
• preparing an annual net worth statement;
• creating a cash flow statement;
• creating an Investment Policy Statement for your goals and objectives;
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implementing investment recommendations as outlined in your IPS;
•
• providing investment management on a discretionary or non-discretionary basis;
reviewing your most recent personal tax returns to find tax-planning suggestions;
•
• providing insurance advice, and helping you implement our recommendations;
• providing estate-planning advice, and helping you implement our recommendations;
• completing a retirement analysis;
• providing education-planning advice;
• providing advice on other areas of financial planning for which you want our help.
We may also render non-discretionary advisory services relative to your individual employer-sponsored
retirement plans. In so doing, we may either direct or recommend the allocation of your assets among
the various mutual fund subdivisions that comprise the retirement plan. Your assets shall be
maintained at the custodian designated by the sponsor of your retirement plan. Investments and
service providers relative to Plan offerings are limited to only those available through the respective
Plans and are determined by the Plan Sponsors. That said we have a "TIAA Authorized Advisor"
arrangement with Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association ["TIAA"], College Retirement Equities
Fund ["CREF"], and their affiliates, TIAA Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, and Teachers
Personal Investors Services, Inc. (we'll call all these and their other affiliates together "TIAA") that
allows us to receive your information from TIAA and, if you authorize us, to submit some kinds of
information and investment changes to TIAA. We are also able to view and manage some Fidelity
403(b)s through the software that Fidelity provides to advisors, if you sign a Third Party Authorization
Form.
All clients may not utilize all of the services we offer. We provide our services according to a written
Advisory Services Agreement.
Selection of Other Advisers
We may infrequently recommend that you use the services of a third party money manager ("MM") to
manage all, or a portion of, your investment portfolio. If we were to do so, we would gather information
about your financial situation and objectives and then recommend that you engage a specific MM or
investment program. Factors that we take into consideration when making our recommendation(s)
include, but are not limited to, the following: the MM's performance, methods of analysis, fees, your
financial needs, investment goals, risk tolerance, and investment objectives. We will periodically
monitor the MM(s)' performance to ensure its management and investment style remains aligned with
your investment goals and objectives.
The MM(s) will actively manage your portfolio and will assume discretionary investment authority over
your account. We will assume discretionary authority to hire and fire MM(s) and/or reallocate your
assets to other MM(s) where we deem such action appropriate.
Hourly Consulting Services
This service involves consultation, analysis, and recommendations in any or all of the following
areas of financial planning:
• Cash Flow Review
Insurance Planning
•
Investment Planning
•
• Estate Planning
• Retirement Planning
• Tax Planning
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We review your current financial situation to issue a written analysis and report of our
recommendations about ways that you might meet your goals and objectives. This service involves an
initial consultation and one or more follow-up visits. The areas covered in the plan may include:
reviewing your current investments to make recommendations;
reviewing your most recent personal tax returns to present tax-planning suggestions;
reviewing life, disability, and long-term care insurance contracts to make recommendations;
reviewing your estate plan to make recommendations;
• preparing an annual net worth statement;
• creating a cash flow statement;
•
•
•
•
• completing a retirement analysis;
• providing education-planning advice.
We provide our services according to a written agreement - our Hourly Services Agreement or Divorce
Services Agreement. If we provide hourly services according to our Divorce Services Agreement, our
focus will be on issues pertaining only to your upcoming divorce. This service is available before, and
up to one month after, a divorce is final.
We offer this service only as a non-discretionary service - that means that we'll provide our advice and
recommendations, but don't have any authority to make decisions for you. We're not responsible to
help you implement any recommendation. However, you can request, and agree to pay for, another
engagement for further services.
Types of Investments
We primarily offer advice on mutual funds or exchange traded funds (ETFs). Additionally, we may
advise you on any type of investment that we deem appropriate based on your stated goals and
objectives. We may also provide advice on any type of investment held in your portfolio at the inception
of our advisory relationship. You may request that we refrain from investing in particular securities or
certain types of securities.
IRA Rollover Recommendations
Effective December 20, 2021 (or such later date as the US Department of Labor ("DOL") Field
Assistance Bulletin 2018-02 ceases to be in effect), for purposes of complying with the DOL's
Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02 ("PTE 2020-02") where applicable, we are providing the
following acknowledgment to you.
When we provide investment advice to you regarding your retirement plan account or individual
retirement account, we are fiduciaries within the meaning of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income
Security Act and/or the Internal Revenue Code, as applicable, which are laws governing retirement
accounts. The way we make money creates some conflicts with your interests, so we operate under a
special rule that requires us to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours. Under
this special rule's provisions, we must:
• Meet a professional standard of care when making investment recommendations (give prudent
advice);
• Never put our financial interests ahead of yours when making recommendations (give loyal
advice);
• Avoid misleading statements about conflicts of interest, fees, and investments;
• Follow policies and procedures designed to ensure that we give advice that is in your best
interest;
• Charge no more than is reasonable for our services; and
• Give you basic information about conflicts of interest.
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When you leave your ERISA account with your current (or previous) employer or roll the assets over
into another Company's plan that you participate in, if we are not managing those assets then we
obviously do not receive any fees based thereon. However, if you were to roll over those assets into an
IRA that we recommend, then we would be managing those assets and would be charging a fee
thereon. As a result, we have a financial incentive to make such a recommendation.
Assets Under Management
As of December 31, 2025, we provide continuous management services for $398,282,286 in client
assets on a discretionary basis, and $2,408,971 in client assets on a non-discretionary basis. We also
manage $8,712,690 in client assets on a non-continuous basis.
Item 5 Fees and Compensation
Financial Planning and Investment Management
Our fee for portfolio management services is based on a percentage of your assets we manage and is
set forth in the following fee schedule:
Assets Under Management or Advisement Annual Advisory Fee
On the First $1,000,000
On the next $3,000,000
On the portion above $4,000,000
1.00%
0.60%
0.30%
*Certain existing clients may be billed under a different fee schedule.
By way of example: For a portfolio valued at $2,500,000, the first $1,000,000 would be charged 1.00%
(i.e., $10,000) and the next $1,500,000 would be charged 0.60% (i.e., $9,000) for a total annual fee of
$19,000 and an effective rate of 0.76%.
We consider cash to be an asset class and we therefore include cash balances in the total value of
your account on which we base our fee calculation.
At times our fee will exceed the money market yield.
Our minimum portfolio size is $750,000 for assets under our management or advice. Our minimum
annualized fee for our "Financial Planning and Investment Management" service is $7,500.
For Investment portfolios that fall below $750,000 the fee will be negotiated but in no event will it
exceed 2.75% on an annualized basis. At our discretion, we may waive the minimum account size.
Our financial planning and investment management fee is billed and payable in arrears beginning three
months after you sign the contract with us and every three months thereafter. Alternatively, depending
on the arrangements made at the inception of the engagement the billing cycle may be varied as
agreed to by the client in order to accommodate various scenarios. The fee is calculated based on the
value of your account on the last day of the month prior to the month you are billed. We do not analyze
individual stocks, but they are included as assets under management for billing purposes. Our
advisory fee is negotiable, depending on individual client circumstances.
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At our discretion, we may combine the account values of family members living in the same household
to determine the applicable advisory fee. For example, we may combine account values for you and
your minor children, joint accounts with your spouse, and other types of related accounts. Combining
account values may increase the asset total, which may result in your paying a reduced percentage
fee based on the available breakpoints in our fee schedule stated above.
Depending on the arrangements made at the time of the engagement, we may either bill you directly or
deduct your fee directly from your account through the qualified custodian holding your cash and
securities. If you are more than 30 days late on your payment, you may be assessed a 1.5% late
fee. If we deduct our fee directly from your account, we will do so only when the following
requirements are met:
• You provide our firm with written authorization permitting the fees to be paid directly from your
account held by the qualified custodian.
• The qualified custodian agrees to send you a statement, at least quarterly, indicating all
amounts dispersed from your account including the amount of the advisory fee paid directly to
our firm.
We encourage you to reconcile our fee statement with the statement(s) you receive from the qualified
custodian. If you find any inconsistent information between our fee statement and the statement(s) you
receive from the qualified custodian, please call our main office number located on the cover page of
this brochure.
You may terminate the portfolio management agreement upon written notice to our firm. You will incur
a pro rata charge for services rendered prior to the termination of the portfolio management
agreement, which means you will incur advisory fees only in proportion to the number of days in the
quarter for which you are a client.
Selection of Other Advisers
Advisory fees charged by MMs are separate and apart from our advisory fees. Assets managed by
MMs will be included in calculating our advisory fee, which is based on the fee schedule set forth in the
Fees and Compensation section in this brochure. Advisory fees that you pay to the MM are established
and payable in accordance with the brochure provided by each MM to whom you are referred. These
fees may or may not be negotiable. You should review the recommended MM's brochure and take into
consideration the MM's fees along with our fees to determine the total amount of fees associated with
this program.
In some instances you may be required to sign a separate agreement directly with the recommended
MM while in other cases the broker-dealer/custodian we use, Fidelity, may only require the execution
of a form adding the MM as a sub-advisor on your account. Where you sign a separate agreement with
the MM, you may terminate the relationship with the MM according to the terms of your agreement with
them. In such case, you should review the MM's brochure for specific information on how you may
terminate your advisory relationship with them and how you may receive a refund, if applicable. You
should contact the MM directly for questions regarding your advisory agreement with the MM.
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Hourly Consulting Services
We charge either a fixed or an hourly fee for hourly consulting services. Fixed fees are negotiable and
range from $300 to $5,000, depending on the scope and complexity of services to be rendered.
Alternatively, we may charge an hourly fee of $300. An estimate of the total time/cost may be
determined at the start of the advisory relationship. In limited circumstances, the cost/time could
potentially exceed the initial estimate. In such cases, we will notify you in advance and request that you
approve the additional fee. Depending on the arrangements made at the inception of the relationship,
we may agree to payment of our consulting fee upon completion of the agreed upon consulting
services; alternatively we may require an upfront retainer or send interim billing invoices. In no event,
however, will we require a payment of fees for services in excess of $1,200 and more than six months
in advance. For information on our brokerage practices, please refer to the Brokerage Practices
section of this brochure.
Additional Fees and Expenses
As part of our investment advisory services to you, we may invest, or recommend that you invest, in
mutual funds and exchange traded funds. The fees that you pay to our firm for investment advisory
services are separate and distinct from the fees and expenses charged by mutual funds or exchange
traded funds to their shareholders (as described in each fund's prospectus). These fees will generally
include a management fee and other fund expenses. You may also incur transaction charges and/or
brokerage fees when purchasing or selling securities. These charges and fees are typically imposed by
the broker-dealer or custodian through whom your account transactions are executed. We do not
share in any portion of the brokerage fees/transaction charges imposed by the broker-dealer or
custodian. To fully understand the total cost you will incur, you should review all fees charged by
mutual funds, exchange traded funds, our firm, and others. For information on our brokerage practices,
please refer to the Brokerage Practices section of this brochure.
Item 6 Performance-Based Fees and Side-By-Side Management
We do not accept performance-based fees or participate in side-by-side management. Performance-
based fees are fees that are based on a share of capital gains or capital appreciation of a client's
account. Side-by-side management refers to the practice of managing accounts that are charged
performance-based fees while at the same time managing accounts that are not charged performance-
based fees. Our fees are calculated as described in the Fees and Compensation section above, and
are not charged on the basis of a share of capital gains upon, or capital appreciation of, the assets in
your advisory account.
Item 7 Types of Clients
We offer investment advisory services to individuals, trusts, estates, and charitable organizations.
Our minimum portfolio size is $750,000 for assets under our management or advice. Our minimum
annualized fee for our "Financial Planning and Investment Management" service is $7,500.
For Investment portfolios that fall below $750,000 the fee will be negotiated but in no event will it
exceed 2.75% on an annualized basis. At our discretion, we may waive the minimum account size.
Item 8 Methods of Analysis, Investment Strategies and Risk of Loss
We will use one or more of the following methods of analysis or investment strategies when providing
investment advice to you:
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Fundamental Analysis – involves analyzing individual companies and their industry groups, such as a
company's financial statements, details regarding the company's product line, the experience and
expertise of the company's management, and the outlook for the company and its industry. The
resulting data is used to measure the true value of the company's stock compared to the current
market value.
• Risk: The risk of fundamental analysis is that information obtained may be incorrect and the
analysis may not provide an accurate estimate of earnings, which may be the basis for a stock's
value. If securities prices adjust rapidly to new information, utilizing fundamental analysis may
not result in favorable performance.
The primary investment strategy we use most often is diversification and an appropriate allocation of
assets among equities, fixed income, and cash.
Some of our advice might use portfolio-optimization and "Monte Carlo" stochastic simulation methods
(a random sampling of investment returns, within a range, over a designated period) to illustrate the
savings rates and investment mix that could help you increase the likelihood that you would meet your
financial-planning goal.
Our investment advice includes long-term purchases, short-term purchases, and margin transactions.
Investing in securities involves risks of loss that you should be prepared to bear.
Our financial-planning advice and our investment advice often are based on assumptions. We rely,
without checking, on the facts you tell us (or that your lawyer, accountant, or other person who works
for you tells us). For factors that can't be known, we may rely on assumptions. For example, we might
use an assumption about how long a person might live.
You must tell us about your attitudes concerning the risks and opportunities of investments.
Risks of our investment strategies
Many people are familiar with a warning that an investment's past doesn't predict its future. Likewise,
although there's some evidence to support the idea that, in the past, asset allocation was effective in
diversifying risks, no one can predict the future. Every investment strategy bears the risk that there's no
way to know that it will work.
Risk of particular types of securities
Usually, we suggest filling an asset allocation using Mutual Funds and/or Exchange Traded Funds
(ETFs). Here are some risks of that type of investing:
• Using Mutual Funds could be an ineffective way to meet a desired asset allocation. For
instance, you might wish to invest in a very specific type of asset, such as Brazilian bonds, for
which no dedicated Mutual Fund exists.
Information that we receive about a Mutual Fund could be wrong.
•
• A Mutual Fund's future investments could be different from what we assumed when we
suggested the Mutual Fund.
• A Mutual Fund could lose money or value.
• ETFs may have tracking error risks. For example, the ETF investment adviser may not be able
to cause the ETF's performance to match that of its Underlying Index or other benchmark,
which may negatively affect the ETF's performance.
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• For leveraged and inverse ETFs that seek to track the performance of their Underlying Indices
or benchmarks on a daily basis, mathematical compounding may prevent the ETF from
correlating with performance of its benchmark.
• An ETF may not have investment exposure to all of the securities included in its Underlying
Index, or its weighting of investment exposure to such securities may vary from that of the
Underlying Index.
• Some ETFs may invest in securities or financial instruments that are not included in the
Underlying Index, but which are expected to yield similar performance.
We may use long-term purchases, short-term purchases, short-term trading, margin transactions,
option writing, and/or short sales as investment strategies when managing your account(s). None of
these strategies are a fundamental part of our overall investment strategy, but we may use one or
more occasionally when we determine that they are suitable given your stated investment objectives
and tolerance for risk.
Our investment strategies and advice may vary depending upon each client's specific financial
situation. As such, we determine investments and allocations based upon your predefined objectives,
risk tolerance, time horizon, financial horizon, financial information, liquidity needs, and other various
suitability factors. Your restrictions and guidelines may affect the composition of your portfolio.
We will not perform quantitative or qualitative analysis of individual securities. Instead, we will advise
you on how to allocate your assets among various classes of securities or third party money managers
("MMs"). We primarily rely on investment model portfolios and strategies developed by MMs and their
portfolio managers. We may recommend replacing MMs if there is a significant deviation in
characteristics or performance from the stated strategy and/or benchmark.
We primarily offer advice on mutual funds or exchange traded funds (ETFs).
Tax Considerations
Our strategies and investments may have unique and significant tax implications. However, unless we
specifically agree otherwise, and in writing, tax efficiency is not our primary consideration in the
management of your assets. Regardless of your account size or any other factors, we strongly
recommend that you consult with a tax professional regarding the investing of your assets.
Moreover, as a result of revised IRS regulations, custodians and broker-dealers will begin reporting the
cost basis of equities acquired in client accounts on or after January 1, 2011. Your custodian will
default to the FIFO (First-In First-Out) accounting method for calculating the cost basis of your
investments. You are responsible for contacting your tax advisor to determine if this accounting
method is the right choice for you. If your tax advisor believes another accounting method is more
advantageous, please provide written notice to our firm immediately and we will alert your account
custodian of your individually selected accounting method. Please note that decisions about cost basis
accounting methods will need to be made before trades settle, as the cost basis method cannot be
changed after settlement.
Risk of Loss
Investing in securities involves risk of loss that you should be prepared to bear. We do not represent or
guarantee that our services or methods of analysis can or will predict future results, successfully
identify market tops or bottoms, or insulate clients from losses due to market corrections or declines.
We cannot offer any guarantees or promises that your financial goals and objectives will be met. Past
performance is in no way an indication of future performance.
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Recommendation of Particular Types of Securities
As disclosed under the Advisory Business section in this brochure, we primarily recommend mutual
funds and ETFs. However, we may recommend other types of investments as appropriate since each
client has different needs and different tolerance for risk. Each type of security has its own unique set
of risks associated with it and it would not be possible to list here all of the specific risks of every type
of investment. Even within the same type of investment, risks can vary widely. However, in very
general terms, the higher the anticipated return of an investment, the higher the risk of loss associated
with that investment.
Mutual Funds and ETFs: Mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) are professionally
managed collective investment systems that pool money from many investors and invest in stocks,
bonds, short-term money market instruments, other mutual funds, other securities or any combination
thereof. The fund will have a manager that trades the fund's investments in accordance with the fund's
investment objective. While mutual funds and ETFs generally provide diversification, risks can be
significantly increased if the fund is concentrated in a particular sector of the market, primarily invests
in small cap or speculative companies, uses leverage (i.e., borrows money) to a significant degree, or
concentrates in a particular type of security (i.e., equities) rather than balancing the fund with different
types of securities. Exchange traded funds differ from mutual funds since they can be bought and sold
throughout the day like stock and their price can fluctuate throughout the day. The returns on mutual
funds and ETFs can be reduced by the costs to manage the funds. Also, while some mutual funds are
"no load" and charge no fee to buy into, or sell out of, the fund, other types of mutual funds do charge
such fees which can also reduce returns. Mutual funds can also be "closed end" or "open end". So-
called "open end" mutual funds continue to allow in new investors indefinitely whereas "closed end"
funds have a fixed number of shares to sell which can limit their availability to new investors.
Municipal Securities: Municipal securities, while generally thought of as safe, can have significant
risks associated with them including, but not limited to: the credit worthiness of the governmental entity
that issues the bond; the stability of the revenue stream that is used to pay the interest to the
bondholders; when the bond is due to mature; and, whether or not the bond can be "called" prior to
maturity. When a bond is called, it may not be possible to replace it with a bond of equal character
paying the same amount of interest or yield to maturity.
Item 9 Disciplinary Information
We are required to disclose the facts of any legal or disciplinary events that are material to a client's
evaluation of our advisory business or the integrity of our management. We do not have any required
disclosures under this item.
Item 10 Other Financial Industry Activities and Affiliations
We have not provided information on other financial industry activities and affiliations because we do
not have any relationship or arrangement that is material to our advisory business or to our clients with
any of the types of entities listed below.
1. broker-dealer, municipal securities dealer, or government securities dealer or broker.
2. investment company or other pooled investment vehicle (including a mutual fund, closed-end
investment company, unit investment trust, private investment company or "hedge fund,"
and offshore fund).
3. other investment adviser or financial planner.
4. futures commission merchant, commodity pool operator, or commodity trading advisor.
5. banking or thrift institution.
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6. accountant or accounting firm.
7. lawyer or law firm.
8. insurance company or agency.
9. pension consultant.
10.real estate broker or dealer.
11.sponsor or syndicator of limited partnerships.
Item 11 Code of Ethics, Participation or Interest in Client Transactions and
Personal Trading
Code of Ethics
We have a Code of Ethics. It includes standards of conduct that we require of Christina, Mackenzie,
and our supervised persons. It requires them to comply with applicable Federal and state securities
laws. It prevents access to confidential information about our clients' securities holdings and
transactions by those who don't need the information to do their work for us. It requires those who have
access to clients' confidential information about securities to seek approval of, report, and handle their
personal securities transactions according to the Policy described below.
We furnish our Code of Ethics to each of our supervised persons, and we require each to give us a
written confirmation that he or she received it. We require each of our supervised persons to report any
violation of our Code of Ethics to our chief compliance officer. But if a person believes that a violation
involves our chief compliance officer, we permit a report to the other member.
On request, we furnish our Code of Ethics to any client or prospective client.
NO conflict from recommending a security we have a stake in
We don't recommend a security in which we have, or a related person of us has, a material financial
interest.
• We don't buy a security from a client, or sell a security to a client.
• We don't act as a general partner of a partnership in which we solicit your investment.
• We don't act as investment adviser to any investment company.
Personal Trading Practices
Our firm or persons associated with our firm may buy or sell the same securities that we recommend to
you or securities in which you are already invested. A conflict of interest exists in such cases because
we have the ability to trade ahead of you and potentially receive more favorable prices than you will
receive. To mitigate this conflict of interest, it is our policy that neither our firm nor persons associated
with our firm shall have priority over your account in the purchase or sale of securities.
Item 12 Brokerage Practices
We maintain relationships with several broker-dealers. While you are free to choose any broker-dealer
or other service provider, we recommend that you establish an account with a brokerage firm with
which we have an existing relationship. Such relationships may include benefits provided to our firm,
including but not limited to market information and administrative services that help our firm manage
your account(s). We believe that recommended broker-dealers provide quality execution services for
our clients at competitive prices. Price is not the sole factor we consider in evaluating best execution.
We also consider the quality of the brokerage services provided by recommended broker-dealers,
including the value of the firm's reputation, execution capabilities, commission rates, and
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responsiveness to our clients and our firm. In recognition of the value of the services recommended
broker-dealers provide, you may pay higher commissions and/or trading costs than those that may be
available elsewhere.
We are not affiliated with any brokerage firm that we recommend. No brokerage firm, supervises us,
our agents, or activities.
Research and Other Soft Dollar Benefits
In selecting or recommending a broker-dealer, we do not receive any soft dollar benefits from any
broker-dealer.
Brokerage for Client Referrals
We do not receive client referrals from broker-dealers in exchange for cash or other compensation,
such as brokerage services or research.
Directed Brokerage
We routinely recommend that you direct our firm to execute transactions through
Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC ("Fidelity"). As such, we may be unable to achieve the most favorable
execution of your transactions and you may pay higher brokerage commissions than you might
otherwise pay through another broker-dealer offering the same types of services. You may, of course,
also pay lower brokerage commissions than you might otherwise pay through another broker-dealer
offering the same types of services and you are therefore encouraged to compare rates. Not all
advisers require their clients to direct brokerage.
Block Trades
We do not combine multiple orders for shares of the same securities purchased for advisory accounts
we manage (this practice is commonly referred to as "aggregated trading") because we do not trade in
stocks. We may, however, in our sole discretion, aggregate trades for shares of the same exchange-
traded mutual funds and enter all the trades at the same time. This "block trade" would be the
simultaneous entry of individual orders for the purchase or sale of an EFT.
Item 13 Review of Accounts
Periodic reviews
For an investment-management client, we'll do a review of your information at least once a year. We
may review your Investment Account in between annual reviews if we consider it advisable to do so.
Or you may request extra reviews. One of the firm's financial planners will review each Investment
Account. We review an Investment Account for changes in value, and for current suitability of its
investments.
We review your Investment Policy Statements with you once a year. We invite you to reconsider and
re-evaluate whether your IPS remains in keeping with your current financial situation, and change in
your family or circumstances, and change in your needs or goals. If you do not have an IPS our annual
review of your portfolio will still take into consideration the same issues.
Extra reviews
If Fidelity or TIAA holds mutual fund shares for your Investment Account, we review those investments
on a regular basis. We review those Funds for past performance and for our outlook on continuing
suitability. Also, we might review a Mutual Fund if it shows under-performance for an extended time, if
the Mutual Fund changes its management, or if the Mutual Fund increases its expenses.
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Investments held in an account outside of TIAA or Fidelity are monitored, if possible, through an
account aggregation service. Some accounts are not able to be monitored this way, and for those
accounts we would request you provide us with current statements on a regular basis.
We would review your Investment Account if we notice something unusual, such as outlying
performance of an investment, or if you request it.
You should tell us if your investment goals or your financial situation changes, or if you want to make
changes about your investments.
Our reports to you
For our investment-management clients, we provide portfolio reports generated by our portfolio
management system at our annual meeting or as requested. These reports can show such information
as the allocation, holdings, past performance, standard deviation and other data about the portfolio.
For our investment-management clients, we provide annual performance reports. These written reports
are generated by our portfolio management system or by us in Excel and show 12-month performance
of the portfolio.
Item 14 Client Referrals and Other Compensation
We do not directly or indirectly use, employ, or compensate non-employee (outside) consultants,
individuals, and/or entities (Solicitors) for client referrals.
Refer to the Brokerage Practices section above for disclosures on research and other benefits we may
receive resulting from discount brokers in connection with utilizing their brokerage services.
We use mutual funds and ETFs offered through Dimensional Fund Advisors ("DFA") which offers us
access to non-monetary benefits, such as academic research, investment seminars, investing and
practice management advice, occasional meals at seminars (we pay all travel expenses to seminars)
and an advisor-only access website that contains extensive market research and other advisor
resources. We receive no commissions and are under no obligation to recommend DFA funds and we
do not provide any payment to DFA for access to their funds. Nevertheless, the receipt of the above
benefits creates a conflict of interest in that we have an incentive to use DFA funds over another fund
family that does not offer the amount or quality of research or provide such other benefits as DFA
offers. Despite that, as a fiduciary, we are obligated to only act in our clients' best interests.
Beyond the disclosures provided in this Brochure, we do not receive any compensation from any third
party in connection with providing investment advice to you.
Item 15 Custody
As paying agent for our firm, your independent custodian will directly debit your account(s) for the
payment of our advisory fees when you specifically authorize us to do so. This ability to deduct our
advisory fees from your accounts causes our firm to exercise limited custody over your cash or
securities. We do not have physical custody of any of your cash and/or securities. Your cash and
securities will be held with a bank, broker-dealer, or other independent, qualified custodian. You will
receive account statements from the independent, qualified custodian(s) holding your cash and
securities at least quarterly. The account statements from your custodian(s) will indicate the amount of
our advisory fees deducted from your account(s) each billing period. You should carefully review
account statements for accuracy. We will also provide our fee statement to you reflecting the amount
of advisory fees deducted from your account.
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Standing Letter of Authorization
Our firm, or persons associated with our firm, may effect wire transfers from client accounts to one or
more third parties designated, in writing, by the client without obtaining written client consent for each
separate, individual transaction, as long as the client has provided us with written authorization to do
so. Such written authorization is known as a Standing Letter of Authorization. An adviser with authority
to conduct such third party wire transfers has access to the client's assets, and therefore has custody
of the client's assets in any related accounts.
However, we do not have to obtain a surprise annual audit, as we otherwise would be required to by
reason of having custody, as long as we meet the following criteria:
1. You provide a written, signed instruction to the qualified custodian that includes the third party's
name and address or account number at a custodian;
2. You authorize us in writing to direct transfers to the third party either on a specified schedule or
from time to time;
3. Your qualified custodian verifies your authorization (e.g., signature review) and provides a
transfer of funds notice to you promptly after each transfer;
4. You can terminate or change the instruction;
5. We have no authority or ability to designate or change the identity of the third party, the
address, or any other information about the third party;
6. We maintain records showing that the third party is not a related party to us nor located at the
same address as us; and
7. Your qualified custodian sends you, in writing, an initial notice confirming the instruction and an
annual notice reconfirming the instruction.
We hereby confirm that we meet the above criteria.
We are not affiliated with any custodian that we recommend. None of the custodians we recommend,
supervise us, our agents, or activities.
If you have a question regarding your account statement, or if you did not receive a statement from
your custodian, please contact us immediately at the telephone number on the cover page of this
brochure.
Item 16 Investment Discretion
Discretionary Arrangements
Before we can buy or sell securities on your behalf, you must provide us with authorization by signing
our Advisory Services Agreement along with the appropriate trading authorization forms.
Should you enter into a discretionary arrangement with our firm, you must grant us discretion over the
selection and amount of securities to be purchased or sold for your account(s). You may specify
investment objectives, guidelines, and/or impose certain conditions or investment parameters for your
account(s). For example, you may specify that the investment in any particular stock or industry should
not exceed specified percentages of the value of the portfolio and/or restrictions or prohibitions of
transactions in the securities of a specific industry or security. Please refer to the Advisory Business
section in this brochure for more information on our discretionary management services.
Non Discretionary Arrangements
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Should you enter into non-discretionary arrangement with our firm, we will obtain your approval prior to
the execution of any transactions for your account(s). You have an unrestricted right to decline to
implement any advice provided by our firm on a non-discretionary basis.
Item 17 Voting Client Securities
Without exception, we will not vote proxies on behalf of your advisory accounts. At your request, we
may offer you advice regarding corporate actions and the exercise of your proxy voting rights. If you
own shares of applicable securities, you are responsible for exercising your right to vote as a
shareholder.
In most cases, you will receive proxy materials directly from the account custodian. However, in the
event we were to receive any written or electronic proxy materials, we would forward them directly to
you by mail, unless you have authorized our firm to contact you by electronic mail, in which case, we
would forward any electronic solicitation to vote proxies.
Item 18 Financial Information
We are not required to provide a balance sheet or other financial information to our clients because we
do not require the prepayment of fees in excess of $1,200 and six months or more in advance; we do
not take custody of client funds or securities; and, we do not have a financial condition that is
reasonably likely to impair our ability to meet our commitments to you. Moreover, we have never been
the subject of a bankruptcy petition.
Item 19 Requirements for State-Registered Advisers
We are a federally registered investment adviser; therefore, we are not required to respond to this
item.
Item 20 Additional Information
Your Privacy
We view protecting your private information as a top priority. Pursuant to applicable privacy
requirements, we have instituted policies and procedures to ensure that we keep your personal
information private and secure.
We do not disclose any non-public personal information about you to any non-affiliated third parties,
except as permitted by law. In the course of servicing your account, we may share some information
with our service providers, such as transfer agents, custodians, broker-dealers, accountants,
consultants, and attorneys.
We restrict internal access to non-public personal information about you to employees, who need that
information in order to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical and procedural
safeguards that comply with regulatory standards to guard your non-public personal information and to
ensure our integrity and confidentiality. We will not sell information about you or your accounts to
anyone. We do not share your information unless it is required to process a transaction, at your
request, or required by law.
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You will receive a copy of our privacy notice prior to or at the time you sign an advisory agreement with
our firm. Thereafter, we will deliver a copy of the current privacy policy notice to you on an annual
basis. Please contact our main office at the telephone number on the cover page of this brochure if you
have any questions regarding this policy.
Massachusetts Residents: Our firm is forbidden to share any information which qualifies as private
unless you specifically agree to, or "opt in", to sharing such information.
Trade Errors
In the event a trading error occurs in your account, our policy is to restore your account to the position
it should have been in had the trading error not occurred. Depending on the circumstances, corrective
actions may include canceling the trade, adjusting an allocation, and/or reimbursing the account. In the
event that Cornerstone were to benefit from correcting the trade error, those funds would be donated
to charity.
Class Action Lawsuits
We do not determine if securities held by you are the subject of a class action lawsuit. Moreover, we
do not determine whether you are eligible to participate in class action settlements or litigation nor do
we initiate or participate in litigation to recover damages on your behalf.
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