2015 In Review · that Pinnacle clients enjoy with the firm. The creation of Pinnacle teams along...

2015 In Review

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www.pinnacleadvisory.com

In our 2014 Annual Report, we noted that Pinnacle was preparing for growth. Ourmessagewas thatgrowing the firmwas an important part of our ongoing effort to improve our overall client experience.Aswe described it, “Our businessmodel depends on our clients knowing that we provide themwithreal value on an ongoing basis. Hence, wemaintain a laser-like focus on delivering the best financialplanning advice, the best money management process, and concierge-level client services.”

Last year, we invested fully in that vision. In 2015 In Review, you’ll see exactly howwe did that. Fromnew business acquisitions to the addition of new technological tools to the formation of ClientRelationship Specialist teams, Pinnacle is a company on the rise.

Looking Back At 2015...


One of the most important changes we implemented last year was reorga-nizing our Wealth Managers into teams designed to deliver a multi-disci-plined level of service for Pinnacle clients. The team leaders will coordinatethe efforts of multiple Pinnacle professionals, while our clients will benefitfrom team leaders who have more time to concentrate on face-to-faceclient visits.With the teamstructure,ouradvisorswill get toknowourclientseven better than they do now, allowing them to identify less obvious finan-cial planning issues and concerns, and bringing a team approach to cus-tomized planning.

One of your critical new team members will be your Client RelationshipSpecialist, or CRS. Pinnacle clients currently know them as our Operationsteam. With the successful integration of our Orion software and the result-ing increase in back-office efficiency at Pinnacle, we are reimagining therole of ourOps teamunder the direction of Client RelationsManager KristinTucker.Our newCRS teamwill still helpPinnacle clientswith administrativeissues related to their managed accounts, custodial issues, and facilitatingthe client’s relationship with the firm. Looking forward, expect our CRSteam tobemoreproactive in reachingout to askwhatwecando to improvethe client experience, to notify you of specific financial planning deadlinesand opportunities, and generally help to further develop the relationshipthat Pinnacle clients enjoy with the firm.

The creation of Pinnacle teams along with the need to provide state of theart support to our Wealth Managers and institutional advisors led to ourhiring seven new employees during 2015.

New Pinnacle team members include:

Jay SmithPlanning Associate, working with Tom Raynor to support Team LeadersMindy Gasthalter, David Kaufmann, and Mike Green

Mike ShiresPlanning Associate, supporting Team Leader Deb Kriebel

Steve RaminaClient Relationship Specialist, supporting Pinnacle Advisor Solutions

Jose ArevaloJunior Quantitative Analyst, on the Investment Team

Dan MentoOff-Model Trading Specialist, on the Investment Team

John RiinaDirector of Sales and Marketing for Pinnacle Advisory Group

Ron PereyraDirector of Business Development for Pinnacle South

Weexpect the combination of TeamLeaders,WealthManagers, andClientRelationship Specialists to significantly strengthen our clients’ connectiontoPinnacle.We look forward to 2016 as a year to fine-tune the roles of teammembers and obtain feedback from you as to how we can improve.

The New Pinnacle Teams


Last year concluded amulti-year conversion of Pinnacle’s back office sup-port software to the new Orion software platform. Orion offers many im-provements that will increase the productivity of the firm by offering moreautomated client billing and reporting, thereby freeing upCRSpersonnel toworkmoreproactivelywithclients.OrionalsoallowsPinnacle togrow inourinstitutional Pinnacle Advisor Solutions business, which presents compli-cated technical challenges in supporting our financial advisor clients.

Under the direction of Vilas Naralakattu, Pinnacle’s Technology Manager,and Kristin Tucker, Director of Client Relations, we met our October 15,2015 deadline for upgrading our Portfolio Management System, whichprovides an array of new and improved client reports to our clients. OnDecember 15th we met our secondary goal of beginning our rollout of thenewOrion client investment portal. The new portal offers clients enhancedonline capabilities, including a secure web-based location where they canaccess data about their portfolio(s) on demand. In addition to the clientvault, which holds important client documents, the investment portal pro-vides improved reporting for accounts including newcharts, portfolio hold-ings, performance information, transactions, and cash balances.

This year will be a year for Pinnacle Wealth Managers to work closely withclients to help them incorporate these tools. As the year progresses,wewillclosely monitor how clients are using these important new capabilities, sowe can make sure they have the information they need, when they need it.

Orion Client Portal and Reports

Client Families: 1,200

Employees: 50

Designations earned in 2015: 4


MichaelKitceshasbeenapartner atPinnacleAdvisoryGroup since 2012, and is well known to our clients asthe financial planning thought leader at Pinnacle (andthe planning industry as a whole). Michael’s role atPinnacle has been Director of Financial Planning Re-search, a position that allowed him to study the verylatest in financial planning ideas. This year we’veagreed to change Michael’ role to Director of WealthManagement—as such, he’ll ensure that clients bene-fit from his cutting edge research.

We expect to be adding a new Director of FinancialPlanning with new product management functions atPinnacle in2016.WithMichael’s leadership inplanningideas andanewDirector of Financial Planningworkingclosely with our wealth management teams, we be-lieve Pinnacle clients will be exposed to—and imple-mentmore—state of the art planning strategies to helpthem achieve their goals.

Michael Kitces: Director ofWealth Management


2015 is a great example of how Pinnacle growth has a direct and positiveimpact on the quality of the services we provide for current clients. As thedirect result of Pinnacle core growth and acquisitions, we are expandingthedepthofourclient financial planningandservice teams, investing innewtechnology to allow clients more flexibility in accessing important financialinformation, andplanning the introductionof a new investment offering thatwill allow clients to combine their employer 401(k) accounts with their cur-rent managed Pinnacle portfolios. In a competitive world of financial plan-ning service providers, it’s important thatwe continue to growour businessto be ‘best in class’ in how we deliver value to our clients.

John Riina is Pinnacle’s new Sales andMarketing Director, and is chargedwith creating a new strategic approach for Pinnacle to grow in the future.Elements of the strategic plan will include organic growth fueled by clientreferrals, developing third party centers of influence, working with Pinna-cle’s current custodial relationships, and Pinnacle Internet and digital mar-keting.

High on the list for 2016 is to create niches of expertise within Pinnacle’swealth management teams. John will work closely with Wealth Manage-ment Director Michael Kitces, our new Director of Financial Planning, andour current Team Leaders, to develop these niche strategies. We believethe resulting niche ‘financial planning products’ will fill the dual role ofimmediately benefiting current Pinnacle clients, while at the same timeallowing us to reach out to digital and third partymarkets to introduce themto Pinnacle Advisory Group.

Growing the Business


As a result of business development activities in our Pinnacle Advisor Solu-tions (PAS) program, Dale Van Scoyk, PAS Director of Strategic Partner-ships, reignited a relationship with the owners of The Enrichment Group(TEG), a top tier planning firm inMiami, Floridawith 200 clients, $220millionof assets under management, and 12 full-time employees. While the initialconversation began with discussions about PAS, Kathleen and Pat Day—the owners of TEG—gradually realized that Pinnacle Advisory Group hadtheculture, structure, and investmentmanagementexpertise thatwouldbeideal for their clients andemployeesas theymoved toward retirement.Afteralmost a year of due diligence by both firms and agreement on financialterms, TEGbecame part of Pinnacle AdvisoryGroup in 2015. Kathleen andPat will remain engaged as they prepare for retirement.

From the perspective of our new TEG clients and employees—TEG is nowaffectionately known as Pinnacle South—we believe this will result in sub-stantial opportunities as we combine the best of two firms. Specifically,TEG clients will benefit from Pinnacle’s exceptional investment manage-ment expertise as well our significant investments in staff, technology, andinfrastructure. In addition, by keeping the TEG planning and support teamlargely intact, TEG clients will continue to benefit from the unique clientservice and financial planning relationships they have always enjoyed.

We also believe current Pinnacle clients will benefit from several specificplanning opportunities that are part of our new combination with TEG. Forexample, the TEG acquisition will result in Pinnacle clients being able tomanage their 401(k) planassetsaspart of theirmanagedPinnacleaccountssometime during the first half of 2016. In addition, by creating new efficien-cies in the TEG operation, we will add to our client service capabilities forbothPinnacleNorth andPinnacleSouth. In short, thebenefits of combiningthe two firms should immediately accrue to all Pinnacle clients.

The combination also offers us exciting opportunities to grow Pinnacle inSoutheast and Southwest Florida. Both areas have unique challenges forbusiness development: The Naples area ismore traditional Americana and

seasonal, while Miami is heavily influenced by a population that has de-scended primarily from the Caribbean and Central and South America. Werecently hired Ron Pereyra, who has a strong marketing background andis fluent in Spanish, as the Director of Business Development for PinnacleSouth.

Business Acquisition


2015was an exciting year for Pinnacle Advisor Solutions (PAS). Duringthe year, PAS continued to build out the infrastructure needed to scalethe business in the future, both in terms of software solutions and staff.ThePAS team ledbyPeterMcGratty,with significant support byDirec-tor of StrategicPartnerships, Dale VanScoyk, expanded recognition ofthePASbrand among the advisor community. In addition,wediligentlyrefined the on-boarding process for new clients and increased ourarray of available services.

As we continue building the PAS services, it will soon be possible fora strategic partner to have virtually all of the same services that are nowavailable to a Pinnacle Advisory GroupWealthManager, while remain-ing an independent business owner.

Our successionoffering,PRISM (PinnacleRevocable Institutional Suc-cession Model), continues to be the single best succession solution inthe industry. In addition, it provides uswith a great opportunity to shareourPASstorywith advisorswhohaveplaced their confidence inPinna-cle Advisory Group to service their clients in the event of death ordisability.

Pinnacle Advisory Solutions

Significant accomplishments in the past year include:

•Developed 12 newPRISM relationships for a current total of 26 advisory firms,with combined assets under management over $1.3 billion dollars.

• Implemented our PAS comprehensive service and support program whichincludes an array of technical options as well as a joint venture with a compli-ance consultant.

• Appointed Tim Mascari as director of our PRISM offering.

• Continued our ambitious campaign to further increase brand recognition ofPRISM. This included web events, personal speaking engagements at majorconferences, and an aggressive public relations campaign

• Expanded our financial planning support to our PAS partner firms to includeconsulting by Michael Kitces, Pinnacle’s Director of Wealth Management andan industry leading expert.

• Increased the number of PAS relationships to 30 across 20 states to broadenour footprint and expand the delivery of Pinnacle’s services.


The 2015 Market at a GlanceThis is a word cloud using the text of Pinnacle's 2015 quarterly market reviews.The more frequently a term appears, the larger it is in the word cloud.

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