Five Star Wealth Management Award

The “Five Star Wealth Manager” award is administered by Crescendo Business Services, LLC’s dba Five Star Professional (“Five Star”). Stephen Molinelli is not affiliated with Five Star. Five Star does not endorse CCM, Aurora, APW Capital or any of its representatives. Stephen Molinelli received the Five Star Wealth Manager award in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018. Stephen Molinelli applied for consideration, and the result was independently granted.

Candidates must satisfy ten (10) objective Eligibility Criteria and Evaluation Criteria associated with work. Factors taken into account include assets under management and client retention rate. Candidates also undergo a thorough regulatory and complaint review.

With respect to the award’s Eligibility Criteria, the nominee must: 1. be credentialed as a registered investment adviser or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. be actively licensed as a registered investment adviser or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. possess a favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by Five Star Professional, the wealth manager: (a) has not been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; (b) does not have more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process; (c) does not have any unfavorable feedback that may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process; (d) has not individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; (e) has not filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; (f) has not been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; (g) has not been convicted of a felony); 4. fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. accepting new clients.

With respect to the award’s Evaluation Criteria, Five Star considers: 1. one-year client retention rate; 2. five-year client retention rate; 3. non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 4. the number of client households the nominee served; and 5. educational and professional designations.

The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by Five Star Professional.

After receiving the respective award, Stephen Molinelli paid a separate fee to Five Star in exchange for publication of this information. While Stephen Molinelli paid this fee after receiving the designation, and not as a condition precedent to receiving the award, the fact that Stephen Molinelli paid any fee with respect to its receipt of the designation should be considered whether such designation is a factor in a client or prospective client’s evaluation of whether to initially to engage or continue to engage Stephen Molinelli for investment advisory services. This type of payment creates a conflict of interest because it provides the awarding entity with a monetary incentive to grant such ranking, recognition, or designation to participants that submit forms of consideration. To mitigate that conflict of interest we remind current and prospective clients that these ratings, rankings, and designations should not be construed as an endorsement of Stephen Molinelli by any client, and that they are no guarantee of future investment success.

Five Star does not require membership or payment in order for award participants and/or applicants to be considered for an award. The number of New Jersey wealth managers that applied and were named a Five Star Wealth Manager award for the years upon which it appeared are as follows: 2018: 6,097 New Jersey wealth managers were considered for the award, 477 (approximately 8% of candidates) were named 2018 Five Star Wealth Managers winners.

Additional information about the Five Star Wealth Manager award and corresponding ranking lists are available at the following links:

2018 additional information and ranking list: www.fivestarprofessional.com.