Universal Wealth Management FAQ's
How Do I Access My Account?
Your advisor will provide you with the necessary steps for online account access. If you are locked out of your account, Universal Wealth Management can reset your access.
Who Holds My Money?
Pershing, a BNY Mellon company, (member FINRA, NYSE, and SIPC) – a trusted, established, and financially stable financial services firm – provides clearing services for Universal Wealth Management. For further details, please see www.pershing.com
Who Is Royal Alliance Associates?
Our broker dealer (BD) is Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., which is an independent broker dealer and an unaffiliated third party. Royal Alliance provides us with back office, technology, regulatory and operational support. For further detail, please see www.royalalliance.com.
Are You Employed By AIG, Royal Alliance, Or Pershing?
No. We are employees of Universal Wealth Management, LLC. Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. and Pershing, LLC are independent third parties that provide services to us.
How Safe Is My Money?
Pershing / Royal Alliance
Pershing is a member of Securities Investor Protection Corp. (SIPC), which protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including a maximum of $250,000 for cash). For further details, please see www.sipc.org.
SEI Private Trust Company
SEI Private Trust Company is a trust institution—not a bank or brokerage firm—your assets are segregated from SEI’s and they are held in your name. This means trust-company creditors have no claim to your assets. SEI Private Trust Company, like other trust companies, may not pledge, lend or margin assets that are held in custody. Providing a final layer of protection, funds are regularly audited by independent and internal auditors, and are subject to routine examination by the federal OCC. In order to help protect investors from employee errors and omissions events, SEI maintains a current Errors and Omissions Professional Liability policy. In addition, SEI provides fidelity bond coverage for protection against employee dishonesty, including forgery or alteration; premises; transit; counterfeit currency; computer systems; and other coverages. For further details, please see www.seic.com.
In the event of a natural disaster or other major regional emergencies, will I still be able to contact Universal Wealth Management, LLC to conduct business?
The desktops and servers at Universal Wealth Management, LLC are housed on a highly secure, advanced virtual cloud environment. This environment is accessible from anywhere, has unlimited storage capacities, 24/7 monitoring (of both the server operations and data center), and failover protection with daily backups. If operations are disrupted at our office, we are able to work with full capabilities at any location with Internet access (this includes mobile devices). Our servers are housed at multiple data centers in different areas of the country, ensuring near-100% uptime if there is a regional emergency.
How do I know that you won’t run off with my money?
Client assets are held by a third party custodian, Pershing LLC and/or SEI Private Trust Company. All checks from clients must be made payable to either Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. or SEI Private Trust Company. Universal Wealth Management, LLC employees do not have access to client assets. We can generally only move money from your account in the following fashion:
- Wire transfer to another account in the exact same name at another institution with your written permission
- A check payable to the parties listed on your account registration (e.g. Mr. & Mrs. Jones) and mailed to your address of record.
- Other transfers are possible but only with the client’s express written permission and back-up verification and authorization from Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., Pershing, LLC and SEI Private Trust Company.
If I have a small account, how can I be assured that I will receive the same attention as your larger accounts?
Based on our systematic management process, our clients own what we believe are the very best choices in all categories. Irrespective of size, our accounts generally own the same investments within each risk model. Therefore, we manage your accounts based on our current opinions of the financial markets and your individual profile. If our opinion changes, we make adjustments on all of the accounts in a specific model at once. No account gets preferential treatment.
Do I have to sell all of my current investments to work with you?
No, our advisors will not force you to sell any investments. Although, some investments may need to be sold in order for our team members to manage them for you. However, most investments will transfer to Pershing, LLC in kind without having to be sold. We will recommend changes that we believe could improve your portfolio with an eye toward the tax consequences, penalties and charges associated with any sale transactions.
What is a fiduciary and why is having a financial advisor that acts as your fiduciary important?
Our advisors act as a Fiduciary and will be providing you investment advice with the care, skill, prudence, and diligence of a prudent person. The advice will be based on your investment objectives, risk tolerance, financial circumstances, and needs, without regard to the financial or other interests of themselves.
As a Fiduciary, your Financial Advisor will work to avoid providing any misleading information related to the investment advice.
The compensation earned by the Fiduciary may be paid directly or indirectly through investments, and it will be reasonable in light of the services provided.
We do have the ability to earn commissions on certain transactions but these cannot be executed in fee based accounts. If a client wants to purchase an investment that carries a commission we can facilitate in a separate, non-fee based, account.
Additional Questions? Please contact us at info@universalwm.com
Universal Wealth Management, LLC
945 Reservoir Avenue
Cranston, RI 02910
401-331-7600