Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur

All the knowledge in the world... Will appear as ignorance... without ACTION.

Happy
New Year!

Quick Links: https://excelsiorfinancialgroupllc.com/

952.843.4941 office | 952.843.4942 fax | 612.298.6633 cell | 4021 Vernon Ave S. Suite 208 | St Louis Park, MN 55416
Kay Stienessen CPA, Financial Advisor, 4021 Vernon Ave. S., Suite 208, St. Louis Park, MN 55416

Advisory Services offered through Motiv8 Investments LLC Member FINRA-SIPC

Securities licensed in MN, WI, SD, MI, AZ, CO, LA, MD, FL

Monthly News and Tips January 2022

Your referrals are the highest compliment you can give me. I thank you for your trust and pledge to continue to earn it. Feel free to refer me to a friend, colleague or associate.
If you have any questions or concerns you’d like me to address in future issues, please e-mail me

The Markets have been extremely volatile. This is why it’s so important to have a plan and stick with it. We know that times like these happen.

Remember the tech bubble in 2001? 2008 Mortgage crises? Those who react in fear could potentially drive the market down further and faster. Remember why we put your plan together. We discussed your risk tolerance, the length of time you plan to be invested, and when you’ll start to draw funds out in retirement. Life changes and we will adjust, but I don’t believe we adjust because of volatility alone. This is the time you might want to add to your investments – buy low.

If you don’t have a plan, before you lock in your losses, give us a call to review what you’re aiming to achieve, and we can work on a plan together.

We use many different tools when considering challenges to reaching your desired goals. Life insurance can be useful to protect assets for the loved ones we leave behind but also riders are available to help pay for long term care needs. There are instruments which may guarantee you against loss or help to create lifetime income. There is not a one size fits everyone – a plan is personal to fit your needs.

Did You Know?? ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance.
What Are Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Criteria?

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are a set of standards for a company’s behavior used by socially conscious investors to screen potential investments. Environmental criteria consider how a company safeguards the environment, including corporate policies addressing climate change, for example. Social criteria examine how it manages relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and the communities where it operates. Governance deals with a company’s leadership, executive pay, audits, internal control and shareholder rights.

Large Investment platforms and financial institutions are among those that are monitoring these criteria and “scoring” companies according to standards they have developed and are wanting to require the companies to follow. Small businesses may be the hardest hit with these new rules. Should these large institutions be allowed to dictate ESG rules?

Sustainable investing is a long-term process. In the short term sustainable investing strategies are just as vulnerable to market sentiment as any other. To reduce volatility, a portfolio still requires diversification across other asset classes like hedge funds or real estate.

Larger companies have more resources to devote to ESG reporting. The result is that larger companies often receive better ESG ratings when that may not reflect reality.

Sustainability data is now widely available for companies in the United States and other developed economies. In developing economies data is not readily available. This makes ranking and scoring companies around the world challenging.

ESG analysis considers the way in which SRI issues affect economic value. In many cases this results in more responsible investing. However, it can result in important factors being ignored if they don’t affect value.

And ESG investing isn’t as straightforward as picking, say, an index fund. Here’s what you should know:

It isn’t one-size-fits-all
Before you invest in an ESG fund, it’s important that you understand the criteria the fund uses to define their ESG strategy. “’Socially responsible’ sounds nice, but can mean vastly different things to different people,” says Theodore Haley, a financial planner in Portland, OR. “It is crucial to get under the hood to make sure the fund’s core values line up with your own.”
It can be tricky to choose your issues

While many stocks are rated by different analytic firms on where they fall on the socially responsible scale, there’s still wiggle room for portfolio managers.

“Consider a large cell phone provider that uses materials that are not biodegradable and will consistently contribute to pollution and be detrimental to the environment over time,” says Matthew Gaffey, a financial planner in Potomac Falls, VA. “On the other hand, this same company is very proactive in promoting diversity, fair compensation to women and several women serve in managerial roles. This company may satisfy the criteria of the portfolio manager, but leave the individual client wanting more.”

Check out our Facebook page at Kay Stienessen CPA
we share a video every week!

On a Personal Note……May has flown by! I started golfing with the ladies' league on Tuesdays – went out golfing with Matt and Rose too – team building!

Read also:

Scroll to Top
Form ADV Part 3 – Client Relationship Summary

Date: 03/29/2024

Item 1: Introduction

MOTIV8 INVESTMENTS LLC is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission offering advisory accounts and services. Brokerage and investment advisory services and fees differ, and it is important that you understand the differences. This document gives you a summary of the types of services and fees we offer. Please visit www.investor.gov/CRS for free, simple tools to research firms and financial professionals, as well as educational materials about broker-dealers, investment advisers, and investing.

Item 2: Relationships and Services

Questions to ask us: Given my financial situation, should I choose an investment advisory service? Why or why not? How will you choose investments to recommend to me? What is your relevant experience, including your licenses, education and other qualifications? What do these qualifications mean?

What investment services and advice can you provide me? Our firm primarily offers the following investment advisory services to retail clients: portfolio management (we review your portfolio, investment strategy, and investments); financial planning (we assess your financial situation and provide advice to meet your goals); solicitor/selection of other advisers (we select a third party adviser for you to use). As part of our standard services, we typically monitor client accounts on a monthly basis. Our firm has discretionary management without any material limitations. We do not limit the types of investments that we recommend. Our minimum account size is $50,000. Please also see our Form ADV Part 2A (“Brochure”), specifically Items 4 & 7.

Item 3: Fees, Costs, Conflicts, and Standard of Conduct

Questions to ask us: Help me understand how these fees and costs might affect my investments. If I give you $10,000 to invest, how much will go to fees and costs, and how much will be invested for me? How might your conflicts of interest affect me, and how will you address them?

What fees will I pay? Our fees vary depending on the services you receive. Additionally, the amount of assets in your account affects our advisory fee; the more assets you have in your advisory account, the more you will pay us and thus we have an incentive to increase those assets in order to increase our fee. For hourly fee arrangements, each additional hour (or portion therefore) we spend working for you would increase the advisory fee. Our fixed fee arrangements are based on the amount of work we expect to perform for you, so material changes in that amount of work will affect the advisory fee we quote you. All fees are paid monthly in advance. Additionally, we have the following compensation structure: Other: THIRD PARTY ADVISER FEES You pay our fees even if you do not have any transactions and the advisory fee paid to us generally does not vary based on the type of investments selected. Please also see Items 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 of our Brochure.

Some investments (e.g., mutual funds, variable annuities, etc.) impose additional fees (e.g., transactional fees and product-level fees) that reduce the value of your investment over time. The same goes for any additional fees you pay to a custodian. Additionally, you will pay transaction fees, if applicable, when we buy or sell an investment for your account. You will pay fees and costs

whether you make or lose money on your investments. Fees and costs will reduce any amount of money you make on your investments over time. Please make sure you understand what fees and costs you are paying. Please also see our
Brochure for additional details.
What are your legal obligations to me when acting as my investment adviser? How else does your firm make money and what conflicts of interest do you have?: When we act as your investment adviser, we have to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours. At the same time, the way we make money creates some conflicts with your interests. You should understand and ask us about these conflicts because they can affect the investment advice we provide you. Here are some examples to help you understand what this means (see heading immediately below).

How do your financial professionals make money? Primarily, we and our financial professionals receive cash compensation from the advisory services we provide to you because of the advisory fees we receive from you. This compensation may vary based on different factors, such as those listed above in this Item. Our financial professionals also have the ability to receive commissions from clients and therefore have an incentive to recommend products that provide them or us additional compensation over those that do not. Please also see Item 10 of our Brochure for additional details.

Item 4: Disciplinary History

Questions to ask us: As a financial professional, do you have any disciplinary history? For what type of conduct?

Do you or your financial professionals have legal or disciplinary history? No. Visit https://www.investor.gov/ for a free, simple search tool to research us and our financial professionals.

Item 5: Additional Information

Questions to ask us: Who is my primary contact person? Is he or she a representative of an investment adviser or a broker-dealer? Who can I talk to if I have concerns about how this person is treating me?

For additional information on our advisory services, see our Brochure available at https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/285560 and any individual brochure supplement your representative provides. If you have any questions, need additional information, or want another copy of this Client Relationship Summary, then please contact us at 772-807-4628.