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Code
of Ethics
This
Code of Ethics expresses the policy and procedures of
Worley Erhart-Graves Financial Advisors, Inc. (WEFA), and
is enforced to insure that no one is taking advantage of
their position, or even giving the appearance of placing
their own interests above that of the accounts, clients,
and shareholders we are serving. In this regard, Section
204A of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (“Act”)
requires investment advisers to establish, maintain, and
enforce policies designed to prevent the misuse of
nonpublic information by the investment adviser and its
associated persons. Moreover, Section 206 of the Act,
among other things, prohibits investment advisers from
engaging in any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud any
existing or prospective client.
In
compliance with Sections 204A and 206 of the Act, this
Code of Ethics contains provisions reasonably necessary to
eliminate the possibility of conduct constituting the
misuse of nonpublic information and/or fraud against any
existing or prospective client. As more specifically
detailed below, this Code prohibits all associated persons
from trading in any securities listed on the Restricted
Trading List without prior written approval. The following
definitions apply as used herein:
The
term “account” shall mean any advisory client of WEFA
or its affiliated companies or subsidiaries.
The
term “Security” means any note, stock, treasury stock,
bond, debenture, evidence of indebtedness, certificate of
interest, option or participation in any profit-sharing
agreement, collateral-trust certificate, pre-organization
certificate or subscription, transferable share,
investment contract, voting-trust certificate, certificate
of deposit for a security, fractional undivided interest
in oil, gas, or other mineral rights, or, in general, any
interest or instrument commonly known as a “security”,
or any certificate of interest or participation in,
temporary or interim certificate for, receipt for,
guarantee of, or warrant or right to subscribe to or
purchase, any of the foregoing; provided, however, that
“security” shall not mean securities issued by the
government of the United States, bankers’ acceptances,
bank certificates of deposit, commercial paper, shares of
registered open-end investment companies, variable annuity
contracts and variable life insurance policies.
“Beneficial ownership” shall be interpreted in
the same manner, as it would be in determining whether a
person is subject to the provisions of Section 16 of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the rules and
regulations thereunder. “Beneficial ownership of a
security” includes securities held by:
►
Your spouse, minor children or relatives who share
the same house with you;
►
an estate for your benefit;
►
a trust, of which (i) you are a trustee or you or
members of your immediate family
have a vested interest in the income or corpus of the
trust, or (ii) you own a vested beneficial interest, or
(iii) you are the settlor and you have the power to revoke
the trust without the consent of all the beneficiaries;
►
a partnership in which you are a partner;
►
a corporation (other than with respect to treasury
shares of the corporation) of which you are an officer,
director or 10% stockholder;
►
any other person if, by reason of contract,
understanding, relationship, agreement or other
arrangement, you obtain there from benefits substantially
equivalent to those of ownership; or
►
your spouse or minor children or any other person,
if, even though you do not obtain there from the above
mentioned benefits of ownership, you can vest or revest
title in yourself at once or at some future time.
A
beneficial owner of a security also includes any person
who, directly or indirectly, through any contract,
arrangement, understanding, relationship or otherwise, has
or shares voting power and/or investment power with
respect to such security. Voting power includes the power
to vote, or to direct the voting of such security, and
investment power includes the power to dispose, or to
direct the disposition of such security. A person is the
beneficial owner of a security if he or she has the right
to acquire beneficial ownership of such security at any
time within sixty days.
“Associated
person,” means any officer, director, advisor or
employee of Worley Erhart-Graves Financial Advisors, Inc.
or its affiliates.
Responsibility
It
is expected that all supervisory personnel, access
persons, solicitors, and employees conduct business with
the highest level of ethical standards keeping in mind at
all time WEFA’s fiduciary duties to its clients. The
Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) will be responsible for
having each employee sign a written acknowledgement that
they have read this entire Compliance Manual and any
amendments thereto. A copy of such receipt will be kept in
the supervised/access persons employment file.
Furthermore, the CCO will be responsible for maintaining
and enforcing WEFA’s policies and recording any
violation and any actions taken as a result of any
violation, and reporting any violation to senior
management of the WEFA.
Duty
to Clients
WEFA
has a duty to exercise its authority and responsibility
for the benefit of its clients, to place the interests of
its clients first, and to refrain from having outside
interests that conflict with the interests of its clients.
WEFA is committed to avoid any circumstances that might
adversely affect, or appear to affect, its duty of
complete loyalty to its clients.
Privacy
of Client Financial Information
WEFA
will not disclose any nonpublic personal information about
a client to any nonaffiliated third party unless the
client expressly gives permission to WEFA to do so. The
client in writing or verbally in person or on the phone
must grant such permission, or denial of permission, to
WEFA. A copy of the permission/denial document will be
kept in the client file.
Prohibited
Acts
WEFA
or any of its supervised persons, access persons or
employees will not;
► employ any device, scheme or artifice to defraud;
►
make any untrue statement of a material fact;
►
omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make a
statement, in light of the circumstances under which
it is made, not misleading;
►
engage in any fraudulent or deceitful act, practice
or course of business; or,
►
engage in any manipulative practices.
Conflicts
of Interest
WEFA
has a duty to disclose potential and actual conflicts
of interest to their clients. All supervised persons,
access persons and solicitors have a duty to report
potential and actual conflicts of interest to the CCO.
Gifts (other than de minimis gifts, which are usually
defined as having a value under $100.00) should not be
accepted from persons or entities doing business with
WEFA.
Use
of Disclaimers
WEFA
shall not attempt to limit liability for willful
misconduct or gross negligence through the use of
disclaimers.
Suitability
WEFA
shall only recommend those investments that it has
a reasonable basis for believing are suitable for a
client, based upon the client's particular situation and
circumstances. In addition, clients should be instructed
to immediately notify WEFA of any significant changes in
their situation or circumstances so that WEFA can respond
appropriately.
Duty
to Supervise
Under
the Advisers Act Section 203(e)(5), the CCO is responsible
for ensuring adequate supervision over the activities of
all persons who act on WEFA’s behalf. Specific duties
include, but are not limited to:
►
establishing procedures that could be reasonably
expected to prevent and detect
violations of the law by
its advisory personnel;
►
analyzing its operations and creating a system of
controls to ensure compliance
with applicable securities
laws;
►
ensuring that all advisory personnel fully
understand WEFA’s policies and
procedures; and,
►
establishing an annual review system designed to
provide reasonable assurance
that WEFA’s company's
policies and procedures are effective and are being
followed.
Personal
Securities Transactions
WEFA’s
policies and procedures governing personal security
transactions are covered in Section XIII of this manual.
Access employees as of January 1, 2012 are:
JULI ERHART-GRAVES, CFP®
PRESIDENT
GRACE M. WORLEY, CFP®
SENIOR FINANCIAL PLANNER
BONNIE J. STRUCK, CMFC® CHIEF COMPLIANCE OFFICER
INVESTMENT SERVICES MANAGER
PAMELA SMITSON,
CPA®
CERTIFIED
PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT
ELIZABETH BRADEN,
CFP®
PARAPLANNER
KYLENE CONNOLLY,
CMFC®
INVESTMENT SPECIALIST
CHELSEA DAVIS
OFFICE MANAGER
RANA KORY
STAFF ACCOUNTANT
Privacy
Statement
Worley
Erhart-Graves Financial Advisors, Inc., an independent
financial planning firm, is committed to safeguarding the
confidential information of its clients. We hold all
personal information provided to our firm in the strictest
confidence. These records include all personal information
that we collect from clients in connection with any of the
services provided by Worley Erhart-Graves Financial
Advisors. We have never disclosed information to
nonaffiliated third parties, except as authorized by you
or required by law, and do not anticipate doing so in the
future. If we were to anticipate such a change in firm
policy, we would be prohibited under the law from doing so
without advising you first. As you know, we use financial
information that you provide to us to help you meet your
personal financial goals while guarding against any real
or perceived infringements of your rights of privacy. Our
policy with respect to personal information about you is
listed below.
We limit employee access to information to only
those who have a business or professional reason for
knowing and only to nonaffiliated parties as permitted by
law.
For unaffiliated third parties that require access
to your personal information, such as auditors, we require
strict confidentiality in our agreements with them and
expect them to keep this information private. Federal and
state regulators also may review firm records as permitted
under the law.
We do not provide your personal identifiable
information to mailing list vendors or solicitors for any
purpose.
We maintain a secure office and computer environment
to ensure that your information is not placed at
unreasonable risk. Ongoing updates are added to our
computer network in order to provide the most current and
effective security software available.
Personally identifiable information about you will
be maintained during the time you are a client and for the
time thereafter that such records are required to be
maintained by federal and state regulator’s securities
laws and consistent with the CFP Board Code of Ethics and
Professional Responsibility. After this required period of
record retention, all such information will be destroyed
by a secure method. Our firm uses the services of a bonded
shredding company for the disposal of all client
documents. Revised
02/01/12
Website
Disclosure
This
website is a publication of Worley Erhart-Graves Financial
Advisors. The firm only transacts business in states where
it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from
registration requirements. Registration as an investment
advisor does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by
securities regulators nor does it indicate that the
advisor has attained a particular level of skill or
ability.
Information on this website does not involve the
rendering of personalized investment advice nor is it an
offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation of any offer to
buy or sell the securities mentioned. A professional
advisor should be consulted before implementing any of the
strategies presented.
All investment strategies have the potential for
profit or loss. Different types of investments involve
varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance
that any specific investment will either be suitable or
profitable for a client's portfolio.
Worley Erhart-Graves Financial Advisors is not
engaged in the practice of law or accounting. Tax services
are offered to our clients through our affiliated company,
Smitson Erhart-Graves Tax Advisors.
Hyperlinks on this website are provided as a
convenience, and we disclaim any responsibility for
information, services or products found on websites linked
hereto.
Information presented is believed to be factual and
up-to-date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy and it
should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the
subjects discussed. All expressions of opinion reflect the
judgment of the authors as of the date of publication and
are subject to change.
Third-party
rankings and recognition from publications are no
guarantee of future investment success. Working with a
highly-rated advisor does not ensure that a client or
prospective client will experience a higher level of
performance or results. These ratings should not be
construed as an endorsement of the advisor by any client
nor are they representative of any one client’s
evaluation. Generally, ratings, rankings and recognition
are based on information prepared and submitted by the
advisor. Furthermore, information about ratings and awards
are available upon request. Revised
12/15/11
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