Conversation Starter 1
Ask your financial professional:
- Given my financial situation, should I choose an investment advisory service? Should I choose a brokerage service? Should I choose both types of services? Why or why not?
- How will you choose investments to recommend to me?
- What is your relevant experience, including your licenses, education and other qualifications? What do these qualifications mean?
As an investor, you decide where to place your money, and investing is not for everyone. You should always consider your own objectives, risk appetite, and time horizon when investing. Consult with your legal and tax professionals if your situation requires it. Aspiration does not provide legal or tax advice.
Aspiration is different from traditional financial institutions. We offer socially-conscious and sustainable cash management services and investment products, so you can make money while making the world a better place. We don’t use your deposits to fund oil exploration or production, coal mining, firearm manufacturers, or private prisons. Aspiration donates 10% of every dollar our customers choose to pay us to charities helping struggling Americans build a better life.
Aspiration offers one sustainable investment, the Redwood Fund. You choose whether to invest in the Fund or not. All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. Aspiration also offers two cash management options, the Spend & Save™ accounts. You have no obligation to open any type of account with us. Aspiration’s team of professionals have various backgrounds, educations, and securities registrations.
Free and simple tools are available to research firms and financial professionals at investor.gov/CRS, which also provides educational materials about broker-dealers, investment advisers, and investing. For more information about Aspiration’s broker-dealer background, visit FINRA’s broker-check. For additional information about Aspiration’s advisory background, here’s our ADV Part II Brochure. The Redwood Fund’s SEC public filings can be found here.
Conversation Starter 2
Ask your financial professional:
- Help me understand how these fees and costs might affect my investments. If I give you $10,000 to invest, how much will go to fees and costs and how much will be invested for me?
At Aspiration, you're empowered to choose your own fee, even if it's zero, under our “Pay What Is Fair” model. For any extra services such as a wire transfer, Aspiration commits to "All Extra Services Provided at Cost," meaning that we will only charge you what it costs us to provide the extra service and not a penny more. For the Redwood Fund, although some set fees and expenses are unavoidable, Aspiration has an “Expense Limitation Agreement” where certain expenses are capped at 0.5%, and other costs are subsidized.
Since you decide how much to pay Aspiration, a $10,000 investment might vary in fees and costs paid. However, if you chose to pay us zero dollars and invested $10,000 into the Redwood Fund, with the expenses capped annually at 0.5% and other costs subsidized, the total fee would amount to $50.00, assuming no market increase. However, if the market performs positively and your $10,000 investment grew to $11,000, your fee would be $55.00. These fees are not collected by Aspiration but are directed to the Fund’s administration costs. More information can be found here.
Conversation Starter 3
Ask your financial professional:
- How might your conflicts of interest affect me, and how will you address them?
For more information about Aspiration’s broker-dealer background, visit FINRA’s broker-check. For additional information about Aspiration’s advisory background, here’s our ADV Part ll Brochure. The Redwood Fund’s SEC public filings can be found here.
Aspiration Partners, Inc., the parent company to Aspiration Fund Adviser, LLC and Aspiration Financial, LLC, is the sole member of the Aspiration Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization. The Aspiration Foundation serves as the organizational umbrella for Aspiration’s charitable activities. The Aspiration Foundation does not hold any donated monies for its own purposes, pay any personnel or incur any administrative expenses; rather, it passes through 100% of donated monies that it receives to other 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organizations. No Aspiration executive or any other person receives any financial benefit from the Aspiration Foundation.
Aspiration works with Bright Funds Inc. and the Bright Funds Foundation, which is a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization. Bright Funds Inc. has created “funds of giving” that allow individuals and corporations to give to a specific cause and have the money they donate distributed to a number of underlying 501(c)(3) organizations. For providing the services and infrastructure to the Bright Funds, the Bright Funds Foundation charges a fee of the amounts contributed by the Aspiration Foundation. Certain of Aspiration Partners’ owners have an ownership interest in Bright Funds Inc. However, we believe any benefit to them relating contributions made by Aspiration Financial are de minimis.
A related person of Aspiration, who is not involved in the day to day business of Aspiration, has ownership interests in certain non-affiliated broker-dealers, investment advisers, and managing members or general partners of pooled investment vehicles. Aspiration does not have business dealings, share operations, or share premises with any such entity. Further Aspiration has no reason to think that this would cause a conflict of interest with its clients.
Aspiration’s “supervised persons” (as defined in the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended), employees, and contractors do not accept compensation, including sales charges or service fees from the sale of mutual funds, from any person for the sale of securities or other investment products.
Aspiration expects its employees, contractors, and supervised persons to always act in the best interest of our clients, and to place the interests of our clients ahead of our own. We have adopted a Code of Ethics (the “Code”), which sets forth the standard of business conduct expected from each member of our team. The Code restricts trading in any security for which we believe we may be privy to material nonpublic information. It also restricts personal trading activities to prevent any conflict of interest between personal trading and client trading. In addition, we maintain compliance policies and procedures that limit gifts and entertainment, whether received or given, to avoid conflicts of interest. We also require all outside business activities of our team members to be disclosed so that potential conflicts can be detected and addressed. Finally, we limit the political contributions of our managers and employees to prevent any potential conflicts in that area as well. All our managers and employees must accept in writing the terms of the firm’s Compliance Manual as well as the Code upon employment, annually, and as amended.
Conversation Starter 4
Ask your financial professional:
- As a financial professional, do you have any disciplinary history? For what type of conduct?
Aspiration Financial, LLC, Aspiration Fund Advisors, LLC, and Aspiration Partners, Inc. have no disclosure history at the entity level. Certain of Aspiration’s registered representatives have disclosable events. Those events have been disclosed on their U4s. Visit Investor.gov/CRS or FINRA’s BrokerCheck for free and simple search tools to research your financial professionals.
Conversation Starter 5
Ask your financial professional:
- Who is my primary contact person? Is he or she a representative of an investment-adviser or broker-dealer? Who can I talk to if I have concerns about how this person is treating me?
Additional information on Aspiration’s products and services can be found on our website or by contacting our customer service department at 800.683.8529. Requests for additional information can also be submitted electronically here.
Aspiration Financial, LLC, a registered broker-dealer and Member FINRA/SIPC that provides brokerage services, and Aspiration Fund Adviser, LLC, a RIA that provides advisory services, are subsidiaries of Aspiration Partners, Inc. (“Aspiration”). Neither Aspiration Partners, Inc. nor any of its subsidiaries is a bank. Aspiration does not offer or provide tax or legal advice. Aspiration pledges to donate 10% of profit to charities.
Comments