PREPARED RETIREMENT INSTITUTE LLC

Prepared Retirement Institute LLC 105 Montgomery Ave. Suite 1053 Lansdale, PA 19446 Telephone: 215-997-5700 January 30, 2026 FORM ADV PART 2A BROCHURE This brochure provides information about the qualifications and business practices of Prepared Retirement Institute LLC. If you have any questions about the contents of this brochure, contact us at 215-997-5700. 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 Prepared Retirement Institute LLC is available on the SEC's website at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov. The searchable CRD number for Prepared Retirement Institute, LLC is: 309663. Prepared Retirement Institute 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. 1  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 our last annual updating amendment dated March 27, 2025, we have no material changes to report. 2  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 Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 6 Page 8 Page 9 Page 9 Page 12 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 18 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 20 Page 20 Page 20 Page 20 3  Item 4 Advisory Business Description of Firm Prepared Retirement Institute LLC is a registered investment adviser based in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. We are organized as a limited liability company ("LLC") under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We have been providing investment advisory services since 2020. We are primarily owned by Andrew John Dziedzic and Megan LeBarron. The following paragraphs describe our services and fees. 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 Prepared Retirement Institute LLC and the words "you," "your," and "client" refer to you as either a client or prospective client of our firm. Portfolio Management Services We offer discretionary portfolio management services. Our investment advice is tailored to meet our clients' needs and investment objectives. If you retain our firm for portfolio management services, we will meet with you to determine your investment objectives, risk tolerance, and other relevant information (the "suitability information") at the beginning of our advisory relationship. We will use the suitability information we gather to develop a strategy that enables our firm to give you continuous and focused investment advice and/or to make investments on your behalf. As part of our portfolio management services, we will customize an investment portfolio for you in accordance with your risk tolerance and investing objectives. Once we construct an investment portfolio for you, we will monitor your portfolio's performance on an ongoing basis, and will rebalance the portfolio as required by changes in market conditions and in your financial circumstances. If you participate in our discretionary portfolio management services, we require you to grant our firm discretionary authority to manage your account. Discretionary authorization will allow our firm to determine the specific securities, and the amount of securities, to be purchased or sold for your account without your approval prior to each transaction. Discretionary authority is typically granted by the investment advisory agreement you sign with our firm, a power of attorney, or trading authorization forms. You may limit our discretionary authority (for example, limiting the types of securities that can be purchased for your account) by providing our firm with your restrictions and guidelines in writing. As part of our portfolio management services, in addition to other types of investments (see disclosures below in this section), we may invest your assets according to one or more model portfolios developed by an unaffiliated investment manager. These models are designed for investors with varying degrees of risk tolerance ranging from a more aggressive investment strategy to a more conservative investment approach. Clients whose assets are invested in model portfolios may not set restrictions on the specific holdings or allocations within the model, nor the types of securities that can be purchased in the model. Nonetheless, clients may impose restrictions on investing in certain securities or types of securities in their account. In such cases, this may prevent a client from investing in certain models that are managed by our firm. For certain clients, we also utilize the platform of a directly held mutual fund company, Capital Bank & Trust/American Funds Service Company ("AFS") to manage some Simple IRA plans, our firm's 401k plan and individual accounts. Through AFS, we have access to a family of mutual funds with varying degrees of risk and investment objective in order to create a customized and diverse portfolio for you. 4  Financial Planning Included in our portfolio management service, we offer supplementary financial planning services which typically involve providing a variety of advisory services to clients regarding the management of their financial resources based upon an analysis of their individual needs. This supplemental service can range from broad-based financial planning to consultative or single subject planning. If you retain our firm for portfolio management services, we will meet with you to gather information about your financial circumstances and objectives. We may use financial planning software to determine your current financial position and to define and quantify your long-term goals and objectives. Once we specify those long-term objectives (both financial and non-financial), we will develop shorter-term, targeted objectives. Once we review and analyze the information you provide to our firm and the data derived from our financial planning software, we will deliver a written plan to you, designed to help you achieve your stated financial goals and objectives. Financial plans are based on your financial situation at the time we present the plan to you, and on the financial information you provide to us. You must promptly notify our firm if your financial situation, goals, objectives, or needs change. You are under no obligation to act on our financial planning recommendations. Should you choose to act on any of our recommendations, you are not obligated to implement the financial plan through any of our other investment advisory services. Moreover, you may act on our recommendations by placing securities transactions with any brokerage firm. Held Away Assets We provide an additional service for accounts not directly held in our custody, but where we do have discretion, and may leverage an Order Management System to implement tax-efficient asset location and opportunistic rebalancing strategies on behalf of the client. We use a platform provided by Pontera to manage held away assets such as defined contribution plan participant accounts, with discretion. The Pontera platform allows us to avoid being considered to have custody of Client funds since we do not have direct access to or direct use of client log-in credentials to affect trades. We are not affiliated with Pontera in any way and receive no compensation from Pontera for using their platform. These are primarily 401(k) accounts, HSAs, and other assets we do not custody. For certain 401k accounts, plan participants can authorize us to place trades using Pontera. Those clients who do not provide us with such authorization must place any trades in the 401k accounts themselves through their plan provider. A link will be provided to the Client, allowing them to connect an account(s) to the platform provided by Pontera. Once a Client account is connected to the platform, we will review the current account allocations. When deemed necessary, we will rebalance the account, taking into consideration client investment goals and risk tolerance, and any change in allocations. We regularly review the available investment options in these accounts, monitor them, and rebalance and implement our strategies in the same way we do other accounts, though using different tools as necessary. Client account(s) will be reviewed at least quarterly and allocation changes will be made as we deem necessary. Wrap Fee Programs We do not participate in any wrap fee program. Types of Investments We offer advice on equity securities, certificates of deposit, municipal securities, variable life insurance, variable annuities, mutual fund shares, United States government securities, money market funds and ETFs. 5  Additionally, we may advise you on various types of investments 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. Since our investment strategies and advice are based on each client's specific financial situation, the investment advice we provide to you may be different or conflicting with the advice we give to other clients regarding the same security or investment. 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. We benefit financially from the rollover of your assets from a retirement account to an account that we manage or provide investment advice, because the assets increase our assets under management and, in turn, our advisory fees. As a fiduciary, we only recommend a rollover when we believe it is in your best interest. Assets Under Management As of December 31, 2025, we provide continuous management services for $298,851,364 in client assets on a discretionary basis. We do not manage any client assets on a non-discretionary basis. Item 5 Fees and Compensation Portfolio Management Services Our fee for portfolio management services is based on a percentage of the assets in your account and is set forth in the following annual fee schedule: Annual Fee Schedule Assets Under Management* First $1,000,000 Above $1,000,000 Annual Fee 1.50% 1.00% *We require a minimum of $100,000 to open and maintain an advisory account. 6  Our annual portfolio management fee is billed and payable, quarterly in advance, based on the balance at end of billing period. If the portfolio management agreement is executed at any time other than the first day of a calendar quarter, our fees will apply on a pro rata basis, which means that the advisory fee is payable in proportion to the number of days in the quarter for which you are a client. Our advisory fee is negotiable, depending on individual client circumstances. 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 advisory fee based on the available breakpoints in our fee schedule stated above. We will deduct our fee directly from your account through the qualified custodian holding your funds and securities. We will deduct our advisory fee only when: • you have given our firm written authorization permitting the fees to be paid directly from your account. • We will send you an invoice showing the amount of the fee. Further, the qualified custodian will deliver an account statement to you at least quarterly. These account statements will show all disbursements from your account. You should review all statements for accuracy. We encourage you to reconcile our invoices with the statement(s) you receive from the qualified custodian. If you find any inconsistent information between our invoice and the statement(s) you receive from the qualified custodian, call our main office number located on the cover page of this brochure. You may terminate the portfolio management agreement upon 30 days' written notice. 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. If you have pre-paid advisory fees that we have not yet earned, you will receive a prorated refund of those fees. Financial Plan Creation This stand-alone service is offered separately from our portfolio management services, which are inclusive of financial planning. The creation of a one-time financial plan is billed at an hourly fee of $600 per hour (at a minimum of five [5] hours) due and payable in advance of services rendered. The fee is negotiable and may increase depending on the scope and complexity of the plan, your situation, and your financial objectives. You may terminate the financial plan agreement upon 30 days' written notice to our firm. If the agreement is terminated before the services are complete, Adviser shall be compensated based on the percentage of services performed. Any fees incurred prior to the fate of termination will be payable in full. 7  Held Away Assets For assets held at a custodian that is not directly accessible by our firm ("Held Away Accounts"), we may, but are not required to, manage these Held Away Accounts using the Pontera Order Management System ("Pontera") that allows our firm to view and manage assets. Our annual fee for investment management services for held away accounts will follow our portfolio management fee schedule and termination instructions as noted above. Our advisory fees will not be deducted directly from the accounts managed through the Pontera Order Management System. We will send you an invoice showing the amount of the fee, the value of the assets on which the fee is based, the time period covered by the fee, and the specific manner in which the fee was calculated for held away accounts managed through the Pontera Order Management System. Clients will have the option of paying the invoice by giving written authorization to deduct the fee from a brokerage account managed by our firm, in which case, the advisory fee would be deducted from the brokerage account each quarter, or the client may pay the invoice with a bank account or credit card. Further, the qualified custodian will deliver an account statement to you at least quarterly. These account statements will show all disbursements from your account. You should review all statements and invoices for accuracy. You will not pay our firm a higher advisory fee other than what is listed above due to the use of Pontera. We pay 0.30% from our advisory fee to Pontera. 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 (described in each fund's prospectus) to their shareholders. These fees will generally include a management fee and other fund expenses. You will 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 the fees charged by mutual funds, exchange traded funds, our firm, and others. For information on our brokerage practices, refer to the Brokerage Practices section of this brochure. Persons providing investment advice on behalf of our firm are licensed as independent insurance agents. These persons will earn commission-based compensation for selling insurance products, including insurance products they sell to you. Insurance commissions earned by these persons are separate and in addition to our advisory fees. This practice presents a conflict of interest because persons providing investment advice on behalf of our firm who are insurance agents have an incentive to recommend insurance products to you for the purpose of generating commissions rather than solely based on your needs. You are under no obligation, contractually or otherwise, to purchase insurance products through any person affiliated with our firm. 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 a 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 funds in your advisory account. 8  Item 7 Types of Clients We offer investment advisory services to individuals (other than high net worth individuals), high net worth individuals, corporations, and other businesses. In general, we require a minimum of $100,000 to open and maintain an advisory account. At our discretion, we may waive this minimum account size. For example, we may waive the minimum if you appear to have significant potential for increasing your assets under our management. We may also combine account values for you and your minor children, joint accounts with your spouse, and other types of related accounts to meet the stated minimum. Item 8 Methods of Analysis, Investment Strategies and Risk of Loss Our Methods of Analysis and Investment Strategies We may use one or more of the following methods of analysis or investment strategies when providing investment advice to you: 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. Long-Term Purchases - securities purchased with the expectation that the value of those securities will grow over a relatively long period of time, generally greater than one year. Risk: Using a long-term purchase strategy generally assumes the financial markets will go up in the long-term which may not be the case. There is also the risk that the segment of the market that you are invested in or perhaps just your particular investment will go down over time even if the overall financial markets advance. Purchasing investments long-term may create an opportunity cost - "locking-up" assets that may be better utilized in the short-term in other investments. 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 information, liquidity needs and other various suitability factors. Your restrictions and guidelines may affect the composition of your portfolio. It is important that you notify us immediately with respect to any material changes to your financial circumstances, including for example, a change in your current or expected income level, tax circumstances, or employment status. 9  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. Custodians and broker-dealers must report the cost basis of equities acquired in client accounts. Your custodian will default to the First-In First-Out ("FIFO") 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, provide written notice to our firm immediately and we will alert your account custodian of your individually selected accounting method. 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. Other Risk Considerations When evaluating risk, financial loss may be viewed differently by each client and may depend on many different risks, each of which may affect the probability and magnitude of any potential loses. The following risks may not be all-inclusive, but should be considered carefully by a prospective client before retaining our services. Liquidity Risk: The risk of being unable to sell your investment at a fair price at a given time due to high volatility or lack of active liquid markets. You may receive a lower price or it may not be possible to sell the investment at all. Credit Risk: Credit risk typically applies to debt investments such as corporate, municipal, and sovereign fixed income or bonds. A bond issuing entity can experience a credit event that could impair or erase the value of an issuer's securities held by a client. Inflation and Interest Rate Risk: Security prices and portfolio returns will likely vary in response to changes in inflation and interest rates. Inflation causes the value of future dollars to be worth less and may reduce the purchasing power of a client's future interest payments and principal. Inflation also generally leads to higher interest rates which may cause the value of many types of fixed income investments to decline. Horizon and Longevity Risk: The risk that your investment horizon is shortened because of an unforeseen event, for example, the loss of your job. This may force you to sell investments that you were expecting to hold for the long term. If you must sell at a time that the markets are down, you may lose money. Longevity Risk is the risk of outliving your savings. This risk is particularly relevant for people who are retired, or are nearing retirement. Recommendation of Particular Types of Securities We recommend various types of securities and we do not primarily recommend one particular type of security over another 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 10  widely. However, in very general terms, the higher the anticipated return of an investment, the higher the risk of loss associated with the investment. A description of the types of securities we may recommend to you and some of their inherent risks are provided below. Money Market Funds: A money market fund is technically a security. The fund managers attempt to keep the share price constant at $1/share. However, there is no guarantee that the share price will stay at $1/share. If the share price goes down, you can lose some or all of your principal. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") notes that "While investor losses in money market funds have been rare, they are possible." In return for this risk, you should earn a greater return on your cash than you would expect from a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") insured savings account (money market funds are not FDIC insured). Next, money market fund rates are variable. In other words, you do not know how much you will earn on your investment next month. The rate could go up or go down. If it goes up, that may result in a positive outcome. However, if it goes down and you earn less than you expected to earn, you may end up needing more cash. A final risk you are taking with money market funds has to do with inflation. Because money market funds are considered to be safer than other investments like stocks, long-term average returns on money market funds tends to be less than long term average returns on riskier investments. Over long periods of time, inflation can eat away at your returns. Certificates of Deposit: Certificates of deposit ("CD") are generally a safe type of investment since they are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Company ("FDIC") up to a certain amount. However, because the returns are generally low, there is risk that inflation outpaces the return of the CD. Certain CDs are traded in the marketplace and not purchased directly from a banking institution. In addition to trading risk, when CDs are purchased at a premium, the premium is not covered by the FDIC. 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. Stocks: There are numerous ways of measuring the risk of equity securities (also known simply as "equities" or "stock"). In very broad terms, the value of a stock depends on the financial health of the company issuing it. However, stock prices can be affected by many other factors including, but not limited to the class of stock (for example, preferred or common); the health of the market sector of the issuing company; and, the overall health of the economy. In general, larger, better-established companies ("large cap") tend to be safer than smaller start-up companies ("small cap") are but the mere size of an issuer is not, by itself, an indicator of the safety of the investment. Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds: Mutual funds and exchange traded funds ("ETF") 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. ETFs 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 11  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. 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. In addition, 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. In addition, 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. Variable Annuities: A variable annuity is a form of insurance where the seller or issuer (typically an insurance company) makes a series of future payments to a buyer (annuitant) in exchange for the immediate payment of a lump sum (single-payment annuity) or a series of regular payments (regular- payment annuity). The payment stream from the issuer to the annuitant has an unknown duration based principally upon the date of death of the annuitant. At this point, the contract will terminate and the remainder of the funds accumulated forfeited unless there are other annuitants or beneficiaries in the contract. Annuities can be purchased to provide an income during retirement. Unlike fixed annuities that make payments in fixed amounts or in amounts that increase by a fixed percentage, variable annuities, pay amounts that vary according to the performance of a specified set of investments, typically bond and equity mutual funds. Many variable annuities typically impose asset-based sales charges or surrender charges for withdrawals within a specified period. Variable annuities may impose a variety of fees and expenses, in addition to sales and surrender charges, such as mortality and expense risk charges; administrative fees; underlying fund expenses; and charges for special features, all of which can reduce the return. Earnings in a variable annuity do not provide all the tax advantages of 401(k)s and other before-tax retirement plans. Once the investor starts withdrawing money from their variable annuity, earnings are taxed at the ordinary income rate, rather than at the lower capital gains rates applied to other non-tax-deferred vehicles which are held for more than one year. Proceeds of most variable annuities do not receive a "step-up" in cost basis when the owner dies like stocks, bonds and mutual funds do. Some variable annuities offer "bonus credits." These are usually not free. In order to fund them, insurance companies typically impose mortality and expense charges and surrender charge periods. In an exchange of an existing annuity for a new annuity (so-called 1035 exchanges), the new variable annuity may have a lower contract value and a smaller death benefit; may impose new surrender charges or increase the period of time for which the surrender charge applies; may have higher annual fees; and provide another commission for the broker. Item 9 Disciplinary Information Neither our firm nor any of our associated persons has any reportable disciplinary information. 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. 12  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 adviser; 5. banking or thrift institution; 6. accountant or accounting firm; 7. lawyer or law firm; 8. insurance company or agency; 9. pension consultant; 10.real estate broker or dealer; and/or 11.sponsor or syndicator of limited partnerships. Insurance License Persons providing investment advice on behalf of our firm may be licensed as insurance agents. These persons will earn commission-based compensation for selling insurance products, including insurance products they sell to you. Insurance commissions earned by these persons are separate from our advisory fees. See the Fees and Compensation section in this brochure for more information on the compensation received by insurance agents who are affiliated with our firm. This affiliated firm is otherwise regulated by the professional organizations to which it belongs and must comply with the rules of those organizations. These rules may prohibit paying or receiving referral fees to or from investment advisers that are not members of the same organization. Consulting We are also affiliated with Prepared Business Institute, LLC through common control and ownership. This firm only provides business consulting. Item 11 Code of Ethics, Participation or Interest in Client Transactions and Personal Trading Description of Our Code of Ethics We strive to comply with applicable laws and regulations governing our practices. Therefore, our Code of Ethics includes guidelines for professional standards of conduct for persons associated with our firm. Our goal is to protect your interests at all times and to demonstrate our commitment to our fiduciary duties of honesty, good faith, and fair dealing with you. All persons associated with our firm are expected to adhere strictly to these guidelines. Persons associated with our firm are also required to report any violations of our Code of Ethics. Additionally, we maintain and enforce written policies reasonably designed to prevent the misuse or dissemination of material, non-public information about you or your account holdings by persons associated with our firm. Clients or prospective clients may obtain a copy of our Code of Ethics by contacting us at the telephone number on the cover page of this brochure. Participation or Interest in Client Transactions Neither our firm nor any persons associated with our firm has any material financial interest in client transactions beyond the provision of investment advisory services as disclosed in this brochure. 13  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. Aggregated Trading Our firm or persons associated with our firm may buy or sell securities for you at the same time we or persons associated with our firm buy or sell such securities for our own account. We may also combine our orders to purchase securities with your orders to purchase securities ("aggregated trading"). Refer to the Brokerage Practices section in this brochure for information on our aggregated trading practices. 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 eliminate 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 recommend the brokerage and custodial services of Schwab (whether one or more "Custodian"). Your assets must be maintained in an account at a "qualified custodian," generally a broker-dealer or bank. In recognition of the value of the services the Custodian provides, you may pay higher commissions and/or trading costs than those that may be available elsewhere. Our selection of custodian is based on many factors, including the level of services provided, the custodian's financial stability, and the cost of services provided by the custodian to our clients, which includes the yield on cash sweep choices, commissions, custody fees and other fees or expenses. We seek to recommend a custodian/broker that will hold your assets and execute transactions on terms that are, overall, the most favorable compared to other available providers and their services. We consider various factors, including: • Capability to buy and sell securities for your account itself or to facilitate such services. • The likelihood that your trades will be executed. • Availability of investment research and tools. • Overall quality of services. • Competitiveness of price. • Reputation, financial strength, and stability. • Existing relationship with our firm and our other clients. Research and Other Soft Dollar Benefits We do not have any soft dollar arrangements. Economic Benefits As a registered investment adviser, we have access to the institutional platform of your account custodian. As such, we will also have access to research products and services from your account custodian and/or other brokerage firms. These products may include financial publications, information about particular companies and industries, research software, and other products or services that provide lawful and appropriate assistance to our firm in the performance of our investment decision- making responsibilities. Such research products and services are provided to all investment advisers that utilize the institutional services platforms of these firms, and are not considered to be paid for with 14  soft dollars. However, you should be aware that the commissions charged by a particular broker for a particular transaction or set of transactions may be greater than the amounts another broker who did not provide research services or products might charge. The custodian and brokers we use We do not maintain custody of your assets that we manage, although we may be deemed to have custody of your assets if you give us authority to withdraw assets from your account (see Item 15— Custody, below). Your assets must be maintained in an account at a "qualified custodian," generally a broker-dealer or bank. We [recommend/ request/require] that our clients use Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (Schwab), a registered broker-dealer, member SIPC, as the qualified custodian. We are independently owned and operated and are not affiliated with Schwab. Schwab will hold your assets in a brokerage account and buy and sell securities when we instruct them to. While we recommend that you use Schwab as custodian/broker, you will decide whether to do so and will open your account with Schwab by entering into an account agreement directly with them. Conflicts of interest associated with this arrangement are described below as well as in Item 14 (Client referrals and other compensation). You should consider these conflicts of interest when selecting your custodian. We do not open the account for you, although we may assist you in doing so. If you do not wish to place your assets with Schwab, then we cannot manage your account. Even though your account is maintained at Schwab, and we anticipate that most trades will be executed through Schwab, we can still use other brokers to execute trades for your account as described below (see "Your brokerage and custody costs"). How we select brokers/custodians We seek to recommend Schwab, a custodian/broker that will hold your assets and execute transactions. When considering whether the terms that Schwab provides are, overall, most advantageous to you when compared with other available providers and their services, we take into account a wide range of factors, including: • Combination of transaction execution services and asset custody services (generally without a separate fee for custody) • Capability to execute, clear, and settle trades (buy and sell securities for your account) • Capability to facilitate transfers and payments to and from accounts (wire transfers, check requests, bill payment, etc.) • Breadth of available investment products (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds [ETFs], etc.) • Availability of investment research and tools that assist us in making investment decisions • Quality of services • Competitiveness of the price of those services (commission rates, margin interest rates, other fees, etc.) and willingness to negotiate the prices • Reputation, financial strength, security and stability • Prior service to us and our clients • Services delivered or paid for by Schwab • Availability of other products and services that benefit us, as discussed below (see "Products and services available to us from Schwab") Your Custody and Brokerage Costs For our clients' accounts that Schwab maintains, Schwab generally does not charge you separately for custody services but is compensated by charging you commissions or other fees on trades that it executes or that settle into your Schwab account. Certain trades (for example, many mutual funds and 15  ETFs) may not incur Schwab commissions or transaction fees. Schwab is also compensated by earning interest on the uninvested cash in your account in Schwab's Cash Features Program. In addition to commission rates and asset-based fees Schwab charges you a flat dollar amount as a "prime broker" or "trade away" fee for each trade that we have executed by a different broker-dealer but where the securities bought or the funds from the securities sold are deposited (settled) into your Schwab account. These fees are in addition to the commissions or other compensation you pay the executing broker-dealer. Because of this, in order to minimize your trading costs, we have Schwab execute most trades for your account. We are not required to select the broker or dealer that charges the lowest transaction cost, even if that broker provides execution quality comparable to other brokers or dealers. Although we are not required to execute all trades through Schwab, we have determined that having Schwab execute most trades is consistent with our duty to seek "best execution" of your trades. Best execution means the most favorable terms for a transaction based on all relevant factors, including those listed above (see "How we select brokers/custodians"). By using another broker or dealer you may pay lower transaction costs. Products and services available to us from Schwab Schwab Advisor Services™ is Schwab's business serving independent investment advisory firms like us. They provide us and our clients with access to their institutional brokerage services (trading, custody, reporting and related services) many of which are not typically available to Schwab retail customers. However, certain retail investors may be able to get institutional brokerage services from Schwab without going through us. Schwab also makes available various support services. Some of those services help us manage or administer our clients' accounts while others help us manage and grow our business. Schwab's support services are generally available on an unsolicited basis (we don't have to request them) and at no charge to us. Following is a more detailed description of Schwab's support services: Services that Benefit You Schwab's institutional brokerage services include access to a broad range of investment products, execution of securities transactions, and custody of client assets. The investment products available through Schwab include some to which we might not otherwise have access or that would require a significantly higher minimum initial investment by our clients. Schwab's services described in this paragraph generally benefit you and your account. Services that May Not Directly Benefit You Schwab also makes available to us other products and services that benefit us but may not directly benefit you or your account. These products and services assist us in managing and administering our clients' accounts. They include investment research, both Schwab's own and that of third parties. We may use this research to service all or some substantial number of our clients' accounts, including accounts not maintained at Schwab. In addition to investment research, Schwab also makes available software and other technology that: • provide access to client account data (such as duplicate trade confirmations and account statements); facilitate trade execution and allocate aggregated trade orders for multiple client accounts; • • provide pricing and other market data; o facilitate payment of our fees from our clients' accounts; and • assist with back-office functions, recordkeeping and client reporting. 16  Services that Generally Benefit Only Us Schwab also offers other services intended to help us manage and further develop our business enterprise. These services include: • educational conferences and events; • consulting on technology and business consulting; • consulting on legal and related compliance needs; • publications and conferences on practice management and business succession; • access to employee benefits providers, human capital consultants and insurance providers; and • Marketing consulting and support. Schwab provides some of these services itself. In other cases, it will arrange for third-party vendors to provide the services to us. Schwab also discounts or waives its fees for some of these services or pays all or a part of a third party's fees. Schwab also provides us with other benefits such as occasional business entertainment of our personnel. If you did not maintain your account with Schwab, we would be required to pay for these services from our own resources. Our Interest in Schwab's Services The availability of these services from Schwab benefits us because we do not have to produce or purchase them. These services may give us an incentive to recommend that you maintain your account with Schwab based on our interest in receiving Schwab's services that benefit our business rather than based on your interest in receiving the best value in custody services and the most favorable execution of your transactions. This is a potential conflict of interest. We believe, however, that our selection of Schwab as custodian and broker is in the best interests of our clients. It is primarily supported by the scope, quality and price of Schwab's services (based on the factors discussed above – see "The Custodian and Broker We Use") and not Schwab's services that benefit only us. We do not believe that maintaining our client's assets at Schwab for services presents a material conflict of interest. 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 require that you direct our firm to execute transactions through Schwab. 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 that offers the same types of services. Not all advisers require their clients to direct brokerage. Aggregated Trades We combine multiple orders for shares of the same securities purchased for discretionary advisory accounts we manage (this practice is commonly referred to as "aggregated trading"). We will then distribute a portion of the shares to participating accounts in a fair and equitable manner. Generally, participating accounts will pay a fixed transaction cost regardless of the number of shares transacted. In certain cases, each participating account pays an average price per share for all transactions and pays a proportionate share of all transaction costs on any given day. In the event an order is only partially filled, the shares will be allocated to participating accounts in a fair and equitable manner, typically in proportion to the size of each client's order. Accounts owned by our firm or persons associated with our firm may participate in aggregated trading with your accounts; however, they will not be given preferential treatment. 17  Item 13 Review of Accounts Andrew John Dziedzic, Chief Compliance Officer, will monitor your accounts on an ongoing basis and will conduct account reviews at least quarterly, to ensure the advisory services provided to you are consistent with your investment needs and objectives. Additional reviews may be conducted based on various circumstances, including, but not limited to: • contributions and withdrawals; • year-end tax planning; • market moving events; • security specific events; and/or • changes in your risk/return objectives. The individuals conducting reviews may vary from time to time, as personnel join or leave our firm. We will not provide you with regular written reports. You will receive trade confirmations and monthly or quarterly statements from your account custodian. Andrew John Dziedzic, Chief Compliance Officer, will review financial plans as needed. These reviews are provided as part of the contracted services. We do not assess additional fees for financial plan reviews. Generally, we will contact you periodically to determine whether any updates may be needed based on changes in your circumstances. Changed circumstances may include, but are not limited to marriage, divorce, birth, death, inheritance, lawsuit, retirement, job loss and/or disability, among others. We recommend meeting with you at least annually to review and update your plan if needed. Additional reviews will be conducted upon your request. Written updates to the financial plan may be provided in conjunction with the review. Updates to your financial plan may be subject to our then current hourly rate, which you must approve in writing and in advance of the update. If you implement financial planning advice, you will receive trade confirmations and monthly or quarterly statements from relevant custodians. Item 14 Client Referrals and Other Compensation Charles Schwab & Co., Inc - Institutional In addition, we receive an economic benefit from Schwab in the form of the support products and services it makes available to us and other independent investment advisors whose clients maintain their accounts at Schwab. You do not pay more for assets maintained at Schwab as a result of these arrangements. However, we benefit from the referral arrangement because the cost of these services would otherwise be borne directly by us. You should consider these conflicts of interest when selecting a custodian. The products and services, how they benefit us, and the related conflicts of interest are described above (see Item 12 - Brokerage Practices). The availability to us of Schwab's products and services is not based on us giving particular investment advice, such as buying particular securities for our clients. As disclosed under the Fees and Compensation section in this brochure, persons providing investment advice on behalf of our firm are licensed insurance agents, and are registered representatives with Geneos Wealth Management, Inc., a securities broker-dealer, and a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. For information on the conflicts of interest this presents, and how we address these conflicts, refer to the Fees and Compensation section. 18  Item 15 Custody Your independent custodian will directly debit your account(s) for the payment of our advisory fees. This ability to deduct our advisory fees from your accounts causes our firm to exercise limited custody over your funds or securities. We do not have physical custody of any of your funds and/or securities. Your funds and securities will be held with a bank, broker-dealer, or other qualified custodian. You will receive account statements from the qualified custodian(s) holding your funds 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 statements to you reflecting the amount of the advisory fee deducted from your account. You should compare our statements with the statements from your account custodian(s) to reconcile the information reflected on each statement. If you have a question regarding your account statement, or if you did not receive a statement from your custodian, contact us immediately at the telephone number on the cover page of this brochure. Wire Transfer and/or 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. Held-Away Assets Prepared Retirement uses Pontera, a third-party service provider, for accounts not directly held with our recommended custodian. Prepared Retirement will leverage Pontera's platform to directly manage 401(k) accounts, 403(b) accounts, 529 plans, and other accounts not held with our recommended custodian. Prepared Retirement does not have access to client credentials, client assets, or the ability to withdraw/transfer funds and therefore we do not have custody. We will periodically review these accounts and make changes on behalf of our clients in accordance with our investment policy statement. We will provide our clients with reporting on these accounts on a quarterly basis. The client 19  does not pay an additional fee for Pontera. Fees will be based upon your negotiated fee in accordance with our portfolio management fee schedule and your Agreement. Refer to Item 5 - Fees and Compensation, Item 13- Review of Accounts and Item 15- Custody for further information. Item 16 Investment Discretion Before we can buy or sell securities on your behalf, you must first sign our discretionary management agreement and the appropriate trading authorization forms. You may grant our firm discretion over the selection and amount of securities to be purchased or sold for your account(s) without obtaining your consent or approval prior to each transaction. 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. Refer to the Advisory Business section in this brochure for more information on our discretionary management services. Item 17 Voting Client Securities 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 solicitations to vote proxies. Item 18 Financial Information Our firm does not have any financial condition or impairment that would prevent us from meeting our contractual commitments to you. We do not take physical custody of client funds or securities, or serve as trustee or signatory for client accounts, and, we do not require the prepayment of more than $1,200 in fees six or more months in advance. Therefore, we are not required to include a financial statement with this brochure. We have not filed a bankruptcy petition at any time in the past ten years. 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 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. If a trade error results in a profit, you will keep the profit. 20  Class Action Lawsuits We will assist you, in conjunction with your legal counsel or other professionals, in filing claims with the claims administrator to participate in any settlement proceeds related to class action settlements involving a security held in your portfolio. We may also work with your legal counsel to determine whether you are eligible to participate in class action litigation to recover damages on your behalf for injuries as a result of actions, misconduct, or negligence by issuers of securities held in your portfolio. IRA Rollover Considerations As part of our investment advisory services to you, we may recommend that you withdraw the assets from your employer's retirement plan and roll the assets over to an individual retirement account ("IRA") that we will manage on your behalf. If you elect to roll the assets to an IRA that is subject to our management, we will charge you an asset-based fee as set forth in the agreement you executed with our firm. This practice presents a conflict of interest because persons providing investment advice on our behalf have an incentive to recommend a rollover to you for the purpose of generating fee based compensation rather than solely based on your needs. You are under no obligation, contractually or otherwise, to complete the rollover. Moreover, if you do complete the rollover, you are under no obligation to have the assets in an IRA managed by our firm. Many employers permit former employees to keep their retirement assets in their company plan. Also, current employees can sometimes move assets out of their company plan before they retire or change jobs. In determining whether to complete the rollover to an IRA, and to the extent the following options are available, you should consider the costs and benefits of: 1. Leaving the funds in your employer's (former employer's) plan. 2. Moving the funds to a new employer's retirement plan. 3. Cashing out and taking a taxable distribution from the plan. 4. Rolling the funds into an IRA rollover account. Each of these options has advantages and disadvantages and before making a change we encourage you to speak with your CPA and/or tax attorney. If you are considering rolling over your retirement funds to an IRA for us to manage here are a few points to consider before you do so: 1. Determine whether the investment options in your employer's retirement plan address your needs or whether you might want to consider other types of investments. 1. Employer retirement plans generally have a more limited investment menu than IRAs. 2. Employer retirement plans may have unique investment options not available to the public such as employer securities, or previously closed funds. 2. Your current plan may have lower fees than our fees. 1. If you are interested in investing only in mutual funds, you should understand the cost structure of the share classes available in your employer's retirement plan and how the costs of those share classes compare with those available in an IRA. 2. You should understand the various products and services you might take advantage of at an IRA provider and the potential costs of those products and services. 3. Our strategy may have higher risk than the option(s) provided to you in your plan. 4. Your current plan may also offer financial advice. 5. If you keep your assets titled in a 401k or retirement account, you could potentially delay your required minimum distribution beyond age 73. 6. Your 401k may offer more liability protection than a rollover IRA; each state may vary. 1. Generally, federal law protects assets in qualified plans from creditors. Since 2005, IRA assets have been generally protected from creditors in bankruptcies. However, there 21  can be some exceptions to the general rules so you should consult with an attorney if you are concerned about protecting your retirement plan assets from creditors. 7. You may be able to take out a loan on your 401k, but not from an IRA. 8. IRA assets can be accessed any time; however, distributions are subject to ordinary income tax and may also be subject to a 10% early distribution penalty unless they qualify for an exception such as disability, higher education expenses or the purchase of a home. 9. If you own company stock in your plan, you may be able to liquidate those shares at a lower capital gains tax rate. 10.Your plan may allow you to hire us as the manager and keep the assets titled in the plan name. It is important that you understand the differences between these types of accounts and to decide whether a rollover is best for you. Prior to proceeding, if you have questions contact your investment adviser representative, or call our main number as listed on the cover page of this brochure. 22