Onboarding Process

Our clients have diverse backgrounds in terms of occupation, family structure, life stage and
geographic location. Many are high net-worth professionals, small business owners and
retirees. We do not set strict minimums for our relationships, as each client’s situation is
unique. Our ideal client has a collaborative mindset, with the willingness to both accept and
provide feedback.

Our team also operates in the institutional space. Many business owners and executives
desire the comprehensive retirement plan and asset management capabilities we provide.

Typically, we bring on several new clients each year, and many of our clients have been
working with us for over 25 years. Because of the collaborative working relationships we
build with clients, we tend to grow as friends along the way (if we weren’t friends before).
Every advisor has their own style, so we aim to be transparent by setting shared and
reasonable expectations with clients during introductory meetings. In the end, our goal is to
form strong, long-lasting relationships with our clients.

We are fee-based advisors, with the majority of our relationships being structured as
advisory accounts. These accounts charge a fee as a percentage of managed assets and the
fee is deducted from the account on a quarterly basis. From a client perspective, this means
that we will not be compensated through sales commissions on each trade for these types of
accounts. We strive to have our success completely aligned with our client’s success, as we
look to help ensure that our clients are satisfied and making progress towards their goals.

This means costs can vary from quarter to quarter based on investment performance (but
our fee percentage stays constant even though investment values fluctuate).

We also offer transaction-based brokerage accounts in situations where advisory services
are not appropriate (i.e. laddered municipal bond portfolios, CDs, and buy-hold type
strategies).

We are pleased to extend a number of services to you and your family including investment
services, retirement planning, education planning, access to lending services¹, business services, and estate planning strategies.²

We take a multi-step approach when meeting with potential clients. Our process begins with
a FIT Meeting, where we listen to your needs, explain our processes and how we operate. If
we mutually agree that our team is a good fit, the next step is data collection, asking for
current statements, contracts, and other relevant material. This allows us to conduct a
comprehensive financial analysis. Additionally, we will discuss specific goals, such as early
retirement or funding education and where they fall as priorities. By aggregating this
information, we will be able to create your customized plan.

The process then moves to the presentation of the plan, where we work to make sure you understand the plan and
accompanying recommendations. We discuss all costs associated with our services, then
suggest taking your time in reviewing the plan.

Once you decide to hire Trillium Wealth as your financial advisors, we will go through the account opening process, which usually takes a week or so to complete. We then move to implementation of the plan; as change is almost
always certain, we will continue to meet regularly to adjust the plan, if needed.

We review our advisory-based³ client accounts through on-going analysis of current
portfolio selections and evaluation of suitable alternatives. At least annually, we will take a
thorough dive into your comprehensive plan when preparing, presenting and recapping our
review meetings. In addition, we assist clients with year-end planning techniques such as,
tax loss harvesting, retirement plan enhancements and charitable donations, as needed.
Finally, we are always on call as your financial liaison to address any needs or questions as
they arise.

Many discount and online brokerage firms now allow you to trade for little to no cost. While
these firms may be attractive for the “do it yourself” investor, we believe that they do not
provide many valuable services such as behavioral guidance in volatile markets. Our
strategy incorporates a comprehensive plan, which considers tax consequences, debt
management, education planning, retirement goals, and estate planning objectives.
Furthermore, we serve as a trusted resource for all of your financial decisions and inquiries
as planning for you and your family’s financial future can be overwhelming. We will help
you navigate through challenging times by providing impartial, experienced perspectives.
We believe our financial experience, comprehensive process, and disciplined approach
differentiates us from our competition. The combination of these factors can often help
reduce common missteps made by many independent investors.

Our team members serve as fiduciaries in several ways: TJ Zak and Anthony Juliano are
bound to a fiduciary duty as Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) professionals; TJ is bound to
the same duty as an Accredited Investment Fiduciary® (AIF®); and all financial advisors
have a fiduciary duty to clients who enter into advisory relationships with the practice
(governed under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940).

We firmly believe in regular meetings to review and update your plan and investment
accounts. At our initial meetings, we will mutually agree on how frequently you would like
to meet. During our ongoing meetings, we will evaluate and update your plan, if necessary,
discuss portfolio performance, recommend changes to your allocation or investments (if
appropriate), and leave time to touch on any other time relevant topics. Think of these as
your annual financial physicals; they are crucial to maintaining financial health.

Additionally, all clients are able to access their accounts through this site or conveniently on their mobile devices. There you will have access to your portfolio holdings, asset allocation,
account statements, tax documents, etc. Our team can assist you with any questions or
issues regarding accessibility.