Description of our Advisory Firm
Barwick & Partners, Inc. (“Barwick & Partners,” “us,” “our,” “we”) is wholly owned by Jon A. Barwick. The
firm has existed as a Washington corporation providing a variety of business services since 1996. The firm
became registered as an investment advisor in July of 2015, and we began providing direct advisory
services in October of 2015.
Advisory, Planning, and Consultative Services Offered
Barwick & Partners offers planning and ongoing management services in four separate areas of either an
individual’s life, or for an entity. These areas include income tax, investments, business succession, and
estate planning, as well as other comprehensive wealth management services, as appropriate for the
client. Our objective is to provide coordinated planning and management of each of these areas in concert
with the client’s other professional advisors.
Barwick & Partners’ principal owner, Jon Barwick, also serves personally as a Named Fiduciary (e.g.,
trustee, managing member of a client entity, etc.), assuming a specified fiduciary role over certain client
entities and assets. Jon’s services for these clients include the income tax, investment, business
succession, and estate planning services we provide to other clients, but may also include other services
not directly related to investment advisory work. Advisory services are detailed in the client agreement
while Named Fiduciary services are described in the governing documents (e.g., trust agreement,
operating agreement, etc.). Named Fiduciary clients also execute a separate agreement addressing the
dual, and potentially conflicted, roles of Barwick & Partners as investment advisor and Jon Barwick as
Named Fiduciary.
Barwick & Partners does not provide any compliance services. Specifically, we do not prepare income tax
returns, we do not directly purchase or sell securities, we do not draft legal documents or provide legal
advice, nor do we provide bookkeeping, valuation, or accounting services. It is our corporate objective to
provide assessment, planning, customized implementation recommendations, and oversight in each of
these areas, as well as coordination among the areas. Once a plan has been established, we then work
with the client to engage and hire the best possible providers of each product or service to fit the client’s
specific needs.
In most cases, we obtain limited discretionary authority to create an appropriate asset allocation plan and
to select, oversee, and replace the third-party money managers we choose to implement the plan with
respect to marketable investments. Our discretionary authority includes the ability to alter the asset
allocation mix, as well as re-allocate assets among different sub-advisors or third-party managers, as we
believe appropriate in light of the client’s emerging needs.
We also believe that it is important for clients to understand their financial choices and typically work in
a collaborative and interactive manner with our clients concerning selection criteria, ongoing fit, and
decisions related to our continuing assessment of other managers and their performance.
Alternatively, clients may engage us on a non-discretionary basis to help with the selection of managers
and to provide ongoing review and oversight. In this case, the client retains responsibility for all
investment decisions and our oversight will not be continuous. The scope of review and form of
consultation will be negotiated with the client and may include periodic review of the client’s investment
allocation, cash flow, performance, and direct contact with the managers the client has selected.
In addition to our ongoing work with a client’s other professional advisors, such as attorneys and CPAs,
we may also assist with the establishment of a “family office” structure for the client. This may involve,
depending on client need and the scope of the engagement, the creation of a Family Board of Directors
and/or family office to manage the administration of day-to-day affairs.
We serve a number of families, all US-based. They generally have net worth between $50 and $500
million. The source of our clients’ wealth comes, for the most part, from ownership of one or more
privately held businesses, or from inheritance. In some cases, our clients are high-income earners, such
as corporate executives or sports or entertainment personalities who have created substantial assets from
their employment earnings.
Tailored Advisory Services; Client Ability to Impose Restrictions on Investing
Our services are highly customized, and we permit clients to impose restrictions on investing, whether
related to specific investment types or connected to personal objectives or philosophy. In some cases,
we may decline to provide our services if the restrictions seem unduly complex or if we believe the
potential risk of the investment restrictions
significantly outweighs the potential benefits of the
investment restrictions. If this occurs, we will clearly explain our concerns and the limits of our services
and provide options for the client’s consideration.
Initial Engagement, Assessment and Advice
As it relates to our advisory process, our objective is to create a plan based on the client’s particular
situation. This includes the first step of reviewing and modeling the client’s current and future cash flow
needs in the context of the client’s income tax, business, and estate planning requirements. We gather
both subjective and objective data. This information, combined with assumptions about growth and
income rates, current and future tax and inflation rates, and projected living expenses, allows the client
to take a hypothetical “glimpse into the future.” This perspective provides another tool to us in reviewing
how well-positioned the family is to meet their future financial objectives.
Based upon a client’s need for cash flow, we will work with the client to determine which types of
investments best fit their family management, administrative and personal risk tolerance considerations.
This does not necessarily mean they will invest in traditional liquid market securities. A number of the
families that we provide services for meet all of their cash flow needs from operating businesses or
privately owned real estate. This means that we may advise on illiquid assets and that such assets may
constitute a significant portion of the client’s overall investment portfolio.
As the plan is implemented, we provide ongoing monitoring, review, and adjustment of implementation
strategies, consistent with the services described in our advisory agreement with the client, and as the
client’s circumstances warrant.
Investment Advice and Investment Management
To the extent it is appropriate for us to employ marketable securities to meet some or all of a client’s
financial needs, we will create an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) to identify the asset allocation, tax
impact, performance benchmarks, quarterly reviews, and fee expectations. We will then select third-
party managers for implementation, based on assets, management style, proximity to the client, and the
manager’s own investment approach and interaction style. As discussed above, we encourage our clients
to be actively involved in the oversight of their assets and believe that the manager needs to “fit” the
client, as well as “fit” Barwick & Partners’ own selection criteria. The majority of client assets are invested
through Badgley Phelps Wealth Managers, United Capital Financial Advisors, LLC and Orion Portfolios
Solutions, LLC dba Brinker Capital Investments (“Brinker”).
Participation in Wrap Fee Programs
Investment advisors are required to make specific disclosures about their use of or relationship to wrap
fee programs. We do not provide portfolio management services to or sponsor any wrap fee program.
We may, however, allocate a portion of a client’s assets to a third-party manager, Brinker, whose Core
Asset Manager Program Brinker deems a “wrap fee program.” This program provides us with access to a
number of managers for a single negotiated fee to Brinker. Brinker divides that fee into a tiered asset-
based “Custody and Clearing Fee Component,” as well as an asset-based fee charged for its advisory
services. The combination of these fees covers investment management, custody, and execution services,
and does not change regardless of the broker used or the number of trades executed in the account.
Brinker collects and pays the Custody and Clearing Fee Component to the custodian and does not keep
any portion of that fee for itself. Similarly, Barwick & Partners does not share in any portion of those fees.
Wrap fee programs are sometimes considered expensive and hard to assess because the charges aren’t
separated and easily compared on a trade-by-trade basis. We have found the Core Asset Manager
program’s pricing helpful because it simplifies the fees involved with multiple managers. In addition,
Brinker’s separate itemization of the Custody and Clearing Fee from their program advisory fee has
provided additional transparency. Where we select wrap fee programs for client accounts, we do so only
because they offer an overall competitive cost for the diversification and access to multiple managers
provided by the program.
Clients receive a copy of the other advisor’s Brochure that describes that advisor’s services and fees in
greater detail. The combined fee charged by Barwick & Partners and the third-party manager, including
any Custody and Clearing Fee Component, will not exceed 1.00% annually.
We will typically consider a wrap program for clients with larger portfolios of marketable securities (e.g.,
over $10 million). This provides additional diversification as well as access to specialized managers. See