Effective December 1, 2020, Fairway Wealth LLC, d/b/a Fairway Wealth Management LLC (“Fairway
Wealth Management”) acquired the investment advisory business of Fairway Wealth Management LLC,
which was an independent, fee only, SEC-registered investment advisory and consulting firm founded
in June 2002, with its principal place of business located in Independence, Ohio.
Fairway Wealth Management is part of the Focus Financial Partners, LLC (“Focus LLC”) partnership.
Specifically, Fairway Wealth Management is a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Focus LLC.
Ferdinand FFP Acquisition, LLC is the sole managing member of Focus LLC. Ultimate governance of
Focus LLC is conducted through the board of directors at Ferdinand FFP Ultimate Holdings, LP. Focus
LLC is majority-owned, indirectly and collectively, by investment vehicles affiliated with Clayton, Dubilier
& Rice, LLC (“CD&R”). Investment vehicles affiliated with Stone Point Capital LLC (“Stone Point”) are
indirect owners of Focus LLC. Because [Partner Firm] is an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Focus
LLC, CD&R and Stone Point investment vehicles are indirect owners of Fairway Wealth Management.
Focus LLC also owns other registered investment advisers, broker-dealers, pension consultants,
insurance firms, business managers and other firms (the “Focus Partners”), most of which provide
wealth management, benefit consulting and investment consulting services to individuals, families,
employers, and institutions. Some Focus Partners also manage or advise limited partnerships, private
funds, or investment companies as disclosed on their respective Form ADVs.
We have started introducing some of our clients to certain private investment vehicles managed by
SCS Capital Management, LLC (“SCS”), an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Focus LLC and Focus
Inc. We are an affiliate of SCS by virtue of being under common control with it. Please see Items 5 and
10 of this Brochure for further details.
Fairway Wealth Management is managed by Mark Weiskind, Charles Avarello and Daniel Gaugler
(“Fairway Wealth Principals”), pursuant to a management agreement between FWM ManCo LLC, the
Fairway Wealth Principals, Fairway Wealth Management and Focus. The Fairway Wealth Principals
serve as leaders and officers of Fairway Wealth Management and are responsible for the management,
supervision and oversight of Fairway Wealth Management.
Fairway Wealth Management primarily provides advisory services to high net worth individuals and
families. We also provide limited advisory services to corporations and company sponsored retirement
plans, most often when there is a relationship to one of our individual clients.
Services to High Net Worth Individuals and Families
Our primary business is providing integrated wealth management and family office services to a select
group of private clients. As described in further detail in Section 7, we usually work with clients of
substantial wealth. As such, our expertise and services are targeted at clients typically with liquid
portfolio assets between $2 million and $100 million.
Additionally, we offer a service referred to as “Next-Gen”, which is predominantly focused on the next
generation (children and grandchildren) of our existing clients, but also could include clients that don’t
meet our typical target in terms of portfolio asset size. More details are provided below under “Next-
Gen Services”.
Our high net worth clients often think of our firm as their personal CFO or financial quarterback. We
tend to take the leadership role in:
• The analysis of their big picture goals
• The evaluation and assessment of financial strategies to achieve those goals
• The implementation of those strategies, and
• The ongoing oversight and adjustment of those strategies
For us to do our job most effectively, it is important that we can see our clients' entire financial picture.
As such, we ask clients to share their whole financial situation with us, even if we are only providing
specific advice on certain parts of it.
We believe the integration of three core factors - financial planning, investment planning, and estate
planning - is the key to developing wealth strategies that maximize after-tax results for our clients. We
also believe the ideal way to provide these integrated wealth management services is with advisors that
have technical and client service expertise across each discipline, using a fee structure that aligns our
interests with the best interests of our clients. To that end, Fairway Wealth Management is an
independent, fee-only adviser with no ties to any specific products.
Our services to high net worth individuals and families can be grouped into two main categories.
Wealth Management Services
These services are at the core of what we do. In this capacity, we serve as a family's advocate and
fiduciary, providing independent and comprehensive wealth management counsel. Our primary
mission is to solve financial problems and provide overall advisory leadership.
Each client relationship starts with a process of understanding and quantifying that client's goals
and assessing their specific needs. We then establish priorities and tasks and develop strategies to
handle those tasks. Our approach integrates three core factors that impact the actual realization of
wealth over time: financial planning, investment planning, and estate planning.
Financial Planning: Financial Planning is about quantifying goals, exploring alternatives,
running numbers, and helping clients make informed decisions and manage cash flow needs
today and in the future. It is also about the ways (other than investing) that we can optimize
each client’s financial position.
Financial Planning also involves assisting clients with their day-to-day financial decision making
and coordination. Examples of these types of items include:
• Tax planning and coordination of quarterly tax estimates
• Analyzing the advantages of debt restructuring and re-financings
• Developing strategies to deal with stock options, deferred compensation, or other
company-related incentive plans
• Reviewing property and liability insurance policies
• Assisting with any other questions or needs that arise on a day-to-day basis
The actual financial planning services delivered are customized to the individual needs of
each client.
Investment Planning: We believe private, high net worth investors face many radically
different challenges than those facing institutional investors. With a very significant percentage
of the investable assets in the world being invested on behalf of institutions (i.e. pensions plans,
foundations, retirement plans, etc.), those different challenges often don't get the attention they
deserve. Private investors must pay taxes; they have a variety of goals that change over time;
they face uncertainty in both their cash flows and the markets; they, and those close to them,
don't always act rationally; they are susceptible to higher costs and conflicts of interest in terms
of product offerings; and they usually can't afford to make a big mistake.
As a result, our investment planning focuses directly on managing the different challenges of the
private investor. Our process begins with an assessment of the clients' goals, objectives and
time horizon, all of which are typically identified in the Financial Planning process. We then
focus on education about investment concepts, asset allocation, and asset location, and
selection of investment managers and specific investment vehicles. At the culmination of that
process, we agree upon an investment plan that serves as a guideline for decision-making. We
then identify investment managers and select investment vehicles to implement that plan and
provide ongoing reporting and monitoring to make sure that plan remains on track.
Additional detail about our investment strategies is detailed in Item 8 of this brochure.
Retirement Plan Rollovers - No Obligation/Conflict of Interest. A client leaving an employer
typically has four options regarding an existing retirement plan (and may engage in a
combination of these options): (i) leave the money in his/her former employer’s plan, if
permitted, (ii) roll over the assets to his/her new employer’s plan, if one is available and rollovers
are permitted, (iii) roll over to an Individual Retirement Account (“IRA”), or (iv) cash out the
account value (which could, depending upon the client’s age, result in adverse tax
consequences). We often recommend an investor roll over plan assets to an IRA, due to there
usually being a wider array of investment options available and costs are often cheaper. As a
result, we may earn an asset-based fee on the IRA account. In contrast, a recommendation
that a client or prospective client leave his or her plan assets with his/her former employer or roll
the assets to a plan sponsored by a new employer may result in no compensation to us.
However, Please Note: Most of our clients do engage us to monitor and/or manage an account
while maintained at his/her former or current employer, if they don’t roll the account over to an
IRA. However, we have an economic incentive to encourage a client to roll plan assets into an
IRA that we will manage or to engage us to monitor and/or manage the account while
maintained at the client’s employer. There are various factors that we may consider before
recommending a rollover, including but not limited to: (i) the investment options available in the
plan versus the investment options available in an IRA, (ii) fees and expenses in the plan versus
the fees and expenses in an IRA, (iii) the services and responsiveness of the plan’s investment
professionals versus ours, (iv) protection of assets from creditors and legal judgments, (v)
required minimum distributions and age considerations, and (vi) employer stock tax
consequences, if any. No client is under any obligation to roll over plan assets to an IRA to
be managed by us or for us to monitor and/or manage the account while maintained at
the client’s employer. Please Note: If our engagement will include the management of the
client’s retirement account per the same fee schedule set forth in Item 5 below, regardless of
custodian or the client’s decision to process a rollover, the above economic incentive to
recommend a rollover is moot. Our Chief Compliance Officer, Mark Weiskind, remains
available to address any questions that a client or prospective client may have regarding
the above and the corresponding conflict of interest presented by such engagement.
We implement investment advice on behalf of certain clients in held-away accounts that are
maintained at independent third-party custodians. These held-away accounts are often 401(k)
accounts, 529 plans and other assets that are not held at our primary custodian(s).
Estate Planning:
Estate Planning provides an opportunity for clients to not only shape their
legacy, but also to protect their loved ones. Fairway Wealth Management helps determine
whether financial accounts and real estate are appropriately titled, that beneficiaries have been
properly recorded for insurance policies and retirement accounts, and that the right types and
levels of insurance are in place. We are not attorneys, so we don't get involved in the actual
drafting of estate documents. However, we help clients understand their existing estate
documents, how they work, what they do, and how they would be applied if needed. We
provide ideas and strategies to enhance their legacies and meet their wealth transfer goals.
When requested to do so, we can work alongside clients’ attorneys to help keep wills and trusts
up to date and to create trusts and foundations that are designed to maximize benefits for
individuals and charities while avoiding unintended negative consequences.
Family Office Services
Certain clients are interested in having us get involved at an even deeper level than with our Wealth
Management Services. While our wealth management suite of services can be compared to a
personal financial quarterback, our family office services become a personal accounting department
and concierge. This lets those clients who need this extra layer of service remain fully informed
about the day-to-day activities related to their financial life without having to devote unnecessary
time to handling administrative matters.
Our family office team typically provides the following services:
• Handling and paying bills
• Providing projections of future cash flow needs
• Representing the client’s interests in day-to-day financial management
• Maintaining detailed records
• Oversight of charitable foundations, trusts and donor-advised funds
• Coordinating as needed with other advisors (accountants, attorneys, insurance agents, etc)
Handling these matters for our clients facilitates tax preparation and often enhances our ability to
provide proactive advice in regard to financial, investment, and estate planning.
Next-Gen Services
In order to allow us to serve the needs of family members of our high net worth clients, as well as
certain additional clients that don’t meet our normal portfolio account size, we offer a scaled down
service referred to as “Next-Gen”. Next-Gen services are primarily focused on investment advisory
services for these smaller clients. While we do offer a certain number of hours of broad financial
counseling to these Next-Gen clients (typically 3-5 hours per year), the core of the service is an
investment strategy and ongoing management utilizing Schwab Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™.
Institutional Intelligent Portfolios is an automated, online investment management platform for use by
independent investment advisers and sponsored by Schwab Wealth Investment Advisory, Inc. (the
“Program” and “SWIA,” respectively). Through the Program, we offer clients a range of investment
strategies we have constructed and manage, each consisting of a portfolio of exchange traded funds
(“ETFs”) and a cash allocation. The client may instruct us to exclude up to three ETFs from their
portfolio. The client’s portfolio is held in a brokerage account opened by the client at SWIA’s affiliate,
Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“CS&Co”). We are independent of and not owned by, affiliated with, or
sponsored or supervised by SWIA, CS&Co or their affiliates (together, “Schwab”). The Program is
described in the Schwab Wealth Investment Advisory, Inc. Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™
Disclosure Brochure (the “Program Disclosure Brochure”), which is delivered to clients by SWIA during
the online enrollment process.
We, and not Schwab, are the client’s investment adviser and primary point of contact with respect to
the Program. We are solely responsible, and Schwab is not responsible, for determining the
appropriateness of the Program for the client, choosing a suitable investment strategy and portfolio for
the client’s investment needs and goals, and managing that portfolio on an ongoing basis. SWIA’s role
is limited to delivering the Program Disclosure Brochure to clients and administering the Program so
that it operates as described in the Program Disclosure Brochure.
We have contracted with SWIA to provide us with the technology platform and related trading and
account management services for the Program. This platform enables us to make the Program
available to clients online and includes a system that automates certain key parts of our investment
process (the “System”). The System includes an online questionnaire that helps us determine the
client’s investment objectives and risk tolerance and select an appropriate investment strategy and
portfolio. We will recommend a portfolio via the System in response to the client’s answers to the online
questionnaire. The client may then indicate an interest in a portfolio that is one level less or more
conservative or aggressive than the recommended portfolio, but we then make the final decision and
select a portfolio based on all the information we have about the client. The System also includes an
automated investment engine through which we manage the client’s portfolio on an ongoing basis
through automatic rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting (if the client is eligible and elects).
Clients do not pay fees to SWIA in connection with the Program, but we do charge clients a fee for our
services as described under the “Fees and Compensation” section below. Our fees are not set or
supervised by Schwab. Clients do not pay brokerage commissions or any other fees to CS&Co as part
of the Program. Schwab does receive other revenues in connection with the Program, as described in
the Program Disclosure Brochure. We do not pay SWIA fees for our services in the Program so long as
we maintain $100 million in client assets in accounts at CS&Co that are not enrolled in the Program. If
we do not meet this condition, then we must pay SWIA an annual fee of 0.10% of the value of our
clients’ assets in the Program.
All our services to high net worth individuals and families are provided on a continuing and ongoing
basis, based on the individual needs of each client.
Neither Fairway nor any of its representatives serves as an attorney, accountant, or insurance agent,
and no portion of our services should be construed as such. Accordingly, we do not prepare estate
planning documents, tax returns or sell insurance products. To the extent requested by a client, we may
recommend the services of other professionals for certain non-investment implementation purposes
(i.e. attorneys, accountants, insurance, etc.). The client is under no obligation to engage the services of
any such recommended professional.. If the client engages any such recommended professional, and a
dispute arises thereafter relative to such engagement, the client agrees to seek recourse exclusively
from and against the engaged professional.
In performing its services, Fairway Wealth Management shall not be required to verify any information
received from the client or from the client’s other professionals and is expressly authorized to rely on
that information received. It remains the client’s responsibility to promptly notify us if there is ever any
change in his/her/its financial situation or investment objectives for the purpose of
reviewing/evaluating/revising Fairway’s previous recommendations and/or services.
Services to Companies and Company Sponsored Retirement Plans
We occasionally serve as adviser to companies and certain company sponsored retirement plans, most
often defined benefit plans related to the businesses of our high net worth clients. Our primary mission
with these services is to help the companies meet their fiduciary responsibilities by developing and
maintaining a prudent process for the management and oversight of the company’s or plan’s
investment portfolio. Our process is very similar to the investment advisory services we provide to high
net worth individuals and families, and as described further in Item 8.
Our firm provides the client a periodic report (usually quarterly) which typically includes the following
information:
• An analysis of the financial markets
• Review of current and historical performance
• Summarized manager, peer group, and benchmark performance information
• Recommendations on manager changes, if necessary
• A comparison of the current allocation to allocation targets and recommended trades
We typically offer to meet with clients to review each periodic report. Services to companies and
company sponsored retirement plans are provided on a continuing and ongoing basis, based on the
individual needs of each client. Our services are offered on both a discretionary and a non-discretionary
basis and clients may impose any restrictions they choose in terms of investing in certain securities,
types of securities, or industry sectors.
Fairway Wealth is a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended
(“ERISA”) with respect to investment management services and investment advice provided to ERISA
plan clients, including plan participants. Fairway Wealth is also a fiduciary under section 4975 of the
Internal Revenue Code (the “IRC”) with respect to investment management services and investment
advice provided to individual retirement accounts (“IRAs”), ERISA plans, and ERISA plan participants.
As such, Fairway Wealth is subject to specific duties and obligations under ERISA and the IRC that
include, among other things, prohibited transaction rules which are intended to prohibit fiduciaries from
acting on conflicts of interest. When a fiduciary gives advice in which it has a conflict of interest, the
fiduciary must either avoid or eliminate the conflict or rely upon a prohibited transaction exemption (a
“PTE”).
As a fiduciary, we have duties of care and of loyalty to you and are subject to obligations imposed on us
by the federal and state securities laws. As a result, you have certain rights that you cannot waive or
limit by contract. Nothing in our agreement with you should be interpreted as a limitation of our obligations
under the federal and state securities laws or as a waiver of any unwaivable rights you possess.
UPTIQ Treasury & Credit Solutions We offer clients the option of obtaining certain financial solutions
from unaffiliated third-party financial institutions through UPTIQ Treasury & Credit Solutions, LLC
(together with UPTIQ, Inc. and its affiliates, “UPTIQ”). Please see Items 5 and 10 for a fuller discussion
of these services and other important information.
As of December 31, 2023, Fairway Wealth Management had total assets under management of
$2,356,640,736 with $926,124,509 on a discretionary basis and $1,430,616,227 on a non-discretionary
basis.