Form CRS (ADV, Part 3):
Relationship Summary
Equus Private Wealth Management, LLC, an SEC registered Investment Advisor (CRD# 144367)
Date: September 7, 2021
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Brokerage and investment advisory services and fees differ, and it is important for the retail investor to understand the differences. Free and simple tools are available to research firms and financial professionals at www.investor.gov/CRS, which also provides educational materials about broker-dealers, investment advisors, and investing.
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Relationships and Services
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What investment services and advice can you provide me?
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Description of Services: Equus provides investment advisory services for individuals, households, and family offices. We primarily build custom fixed-income portfolios for high-net-worth individuals or families with a need for income and/or capital preservation. Equus requires a minimum investment of $5,000,000. This amount is negotiable. Our expertise is in municipal bonds, but we can complement those exposures with various other fixed-income and/or equity products depending on the clients’ unique objectives and risk tolerances.
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Monitoring: Equus monitors our client portfolios on an on-going basis as part of our standard service offering.
Investment Authority: Equus has full discretionary trading authority to transact on behalf of our clients. Each client can customize their portfolio by limiting exposure to certain asset classes, lower or non-rated securities, selecting a desired maturity profile, and/or industry weightings.
Additional Information: For additional information about our Firm, please review our Form ADV II Brochure which can be accessed on our website. Additionally, our Form ADV and Form ADV II can be viewed on the SEC’s website at https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/144367.
Conversation Starters:
Below are additional questions to ask a financial professional and start a conversation about relationships and services:
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Given my financial situation, should I choose an investment advisory service? Why or why not?
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How will you choose investments to recommend to me?
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What is your relevant experience, including your licenses, education, and other qualifications? What do these qualifications mean?
Fees, Costs, Conflicts, and Standard of Conduct
What fees will I pay?
Description of Principal Fees and Costs: Equus charges a fixed rate fee based on the size of your portfolio. Fees are calculated monthly and invoiced quarterly in arrears. The more assets in your account, the more you will pay in fees. Therefore, Equus may have an incentive to encourage an investor to increase the assets in his or her account. For accounts up to $25 million, Equus charges 0.50%. A more detailed fee schedule can be found our Form ADV II located on our website.
Other fees and costs: Some investments charge additional fees that will reduce the value of your investments over time. Examples include load charges in mutual funds, product level fees, custody fees, and transaction-based fees.
Additional Information: 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.
Conversation Starters:
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Help me understand how these fees and costs might affect my investments. If I give you $5,000,000 to invest, how much will go to fees and costs, and how much will be invested for me?
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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?
Standard of Conduct:
When we act as your investment adviser, we must 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 with your interests because they can affect the investment advice, we provide you. Here is an example to help you understand what this means. Equus employees trade securities for their personal accounts that are similar to and sometimes the same as securities eligible for client accounts. There is a risk that an employee’s participation in such a
transaction disadvantages a client portfolio.
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Conversation Starter:
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How might your conflicts of interest affect me, and how will you address them?
Additional Information: Please see our Form ADV on the SEC’s website and Form ADV II on our website for
more detailed information about our conflicts of interest.
How do your financial professionals make money?
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Description of how financial professionals at Equus make money: Partners and employees are paid either a guaranteed distribution or salary and bonus and can earn additional compensation if they bring on a new client. In that case, the professional is compensated with a percentage of the revenues from that client. The additional compensation does not increase the fee for the client but may create an incentive for the professional to encourage the client to increase the size of his or her account with Equus.
Disciplinary History
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Do you or your financial professionals have legal or disciplinary history?
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Yes
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Visit https://www.investor.gov/CRS for a free and simple search tool to research our firm and our
professionals.
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Conversation starter:
As a financial professional, do you have any disciplinary history? For what type of conduct? Additional Information
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Investors can find additional information about our investment advisory services and request a copy of the relationship summary on our website or by calling us at (970) 963-9254.
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Conversation starter:
• Who is my primary contact person? Is he or she a representative of an investment advisor or broker- dealer? Who can I talk to if I have concerns about how this person is treating me?
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