Field Announcements

“Zoom Room” at Regal Kentwood Office

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Regal Holdings has launched a “Zoom Room” at the home office in Grand Rapids! The Zoom Room features a touchscreen Yealink conference phone, a Smart TV, Zoom software, and a dedicated private room in the home office to conduct meetings. The meeting room features state of the art technology that allows our affiliates to video conference safely with clients over a secure connection in a professional environment. Regal has made this capital investment to serve our advisors and their clients during this pandemic and beyond as the landscape for client meetings evolves. The Regal Zoom Room is cleaned and sterilized before and after every meeting to ensure the safety of all who use it. The system is user-friendly and easy to use, but Regal staff stands ready during regular business hours to assist with initial setup of Zoom calls or any technical issues that may arise.

As “An Organization Created by Advisors, for Advisors,” Regal understands that during these difficult times, meeting with clients face-to-face is unlikely and can be unsafe. That is why Regal has created a virtual meeting room for advisor use – ensuring that all our affiliates have a safe and secure space to continue to build relationships with their clients virtually. Connecting and engaging with a client is vital to building your relationship with them, we built this Zoom Room to enhance our affiliates’ ability to maintain that engagement. “Relationships are the cornerstone for Regal affiliates, and during this pandemic, we have decided to increase our communications capabilities to assist advisors in helping clients reach their financial goals,” states John Kailunas II, Regal Holdings CEO.

If you would like to use the Regal Zoom Room for a meeting, please contact the Regal home office at (616) 224-2204 to reserve your time. As always, we appreciate your business and affiliation and we look forward to assisting you in pushing your business forward through these uncertain times. If you have any questions, please reach out to your advisor advocates, Lee Cole (lcole@regalfin.com) and Jordan Fischer, CFP®(jfischer@regalfin.com), for more details.

Regulation Best Interest 

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As you all should be aware of by now, Regulation Best Interest takes effect today, June 30th, 2020. As we move through the initial 30 days of Regulation Best Interest you will be asked to implement new technology and procedures into your practice. As we have stated in previous emails, we may ask for additional information related to your recommendations until we have fully implemented the technology and review changes. If you are unable to provide these notes or do not have a CRM system, we may reject transactions due to lack of disclosure, documentation or a failure to demonstrate that the recommendation is in the clients best interest. If you have any questions on anything below, please reach out to Ben Westin (bwestin@regalfin.com).

Best Interest Suitability vs General Suitability: Regulation Best Interest changes the recommendation standard from one of simple suitability (this recommendation appears to be suitable) to one of best interest. In order to evaluate the best interests of the client, the representative will need to take into account the client’s financial situation, reasonably available alternatives and any conflicts of interest that exist between the clients’  financial interests, and those of the representative and the firm. In order to comply, Regulus has implemented the changes below. These will be made available to reps over the coming days and weeks. Please look for future announcements specific to each bullet point.

The Client Relationship Summary (Form CRS): This is a simple 2 page form applicable to either Regal Investment Advisors or Regulus. Hybrid reps will need to provide their clients with both versions in order to assist the client in determining the type of account most appropriate for their needs. The CRS for Regal and Regulus were filed yesterday, 6/29/20. Both Regal and Regulus reps will be required to deliver the form to new clients once ComplianceExpress becomes available around the middle of July (see below).

InvestorCOM: Regal has partnered with InvestorCOM to bring you the additional review and disclosure delivery resources below. Additional training and updates will be sent out later this week.

  • PeerCompare: PeerCompare will allow you to compare your mutual fund, ETF or annuity recommendation to the alternatives available within the Regulus universe. It will be live for mutual fund recommendations later this week, ETF and annuity information will follow later this month.
  • ComplianceExpress: ComplianceExpress will be the vehicle by which disclosure documentation will be delivered to clients starting in mid-July. This will consist of an interface for you to input basic client information in order to deliver the applicable form CRS, ADV part 2A, ADV part 2B and any other product or review specific disclosures you may have. More information and training will follow later this month.

Advisory only Reps: The biggest change to the advisory side of the business will be the delivery of the Regal form CRS. The best interest standard already applied to the advisory side and there will be no additional paperwork or evaluation beyond what was required previously.

Hybrid Reps: Regulation Best Interest and its requirements will now apply to your Broker Dealer (Regulus) recommendations. You will also need to be prepared to review and demonstrate that the account type you recommend (BD or Advisory) is in the clients best interest.

BD only reps: Regulation Best Interest and its requirements will apply to the recommendations you make to clients. You are also no longer allowed to use the term Advisor in any marketing.

Previous updates: Please see previous communications on the use of the title Financial Advisor, the Regulus name change, and disclosure updates related to the name change.

Thank you for your affiliation.

Regulus Name Change Disclosure Updates

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With Regulation Best Interest taking effect on June 30th, 2020, Regulus Advisors will no longer be able to use the term “Advisor” and we will be changing the name to simply “Regulus”. Along with this name change comes a few different steps of updates that will need to be completed by our RR (BD) and Hybrid Reps (BD/RIA) and assistants before the end of the month. Below are the changes that will need to take place:

  • Email Disclosures: All Hybrid and RR registered Reps will need to update their email disclosures to reflect the change from “Regulus Advisors, LLC” to “Regulus, LLC”. The disclosures will look as follows depending on your affiliation.

Marketing under Regal Financial Group:

      • RR (BD) Only: “Securities offered through Regulus, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC.”
      • IAR (RIA) and RR (Hybrid): “Securities offered through Regulus, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Regal Investment Advisors, LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Registration with the SEC does not imply any level of skill or training. Regulus, LLC and Regal Investment Advisors are affiliated entities.”

Marketing under a DBA:

      • RR (BD) Only: “Securities offered through Regulus, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC. <DBA Name> is independent of Regulus, LLC.”
      • IAR (RIA) and RR (Hybrid): “Securities offered through Regulus, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Regal Investment Advisors, LLC, an SEC registered Investment Advisor. Registration with the SEC does not imply any level of skill or training. Regulus, LLC and Regal Investment Advisors are affiliated entities. <DBA Name> is independent of Regulus, LLC and Regal Investment Advisors.”

Assistant Disclosures:

      • Registered Assistant: “<Your Name> is a registered assistant for <Rep’s Name> (followed by Rep’s disclosure from above).”
      • Non-Registered Assistant: “<Your Name> is a non-registered assistant for <Rep’s Name> (followed by Rep’s disclosure from above).”

Once you have completed the update, please send an email to Abigail Morgan (amorgan@regalfin.com) or Daniel Ruble (druble@regalfin.com) to confirm the disclosure is set up properly.

  • Social Media Disclosures: Hybrid and RR reps’ social media disclosures will need to be updated to reflect the disclosures above. Once the update has been completed, we will need the static content of your social media pages submitted through Ad Review for approval. You can complete this by taking a screenshot of your entire page and converting it to a PDF, then uploading the document to an Ad Review work item in COMET. If you need any assistance submitting your static content, please reach out to Kaitlyn Vella (kvella@regalfin.com) or 616-258-5045.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Abigail Morgan (amorgan@regalfin.com) or Daniel Ruble (druble@regalfin.com).

Thank you for your affiliation,

The Regal Compliance Team

Reg BI: Brokers, Advisors and the SEC

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The SEC recently clarified its stance on the use of the word “advisor” versus “broker” as part of Regulation Best Interest (REG BI) rules that go into effect June 30th, 2020. Unless you are registered as an investment advisor, you will not be able to use the word “advisor” (or “adviser”) in your company name or as a title when dealing with retail clients. As an example of compliance with this rule, Regulus Advisors (the Broker-Dealer) will be shortened to Regulus. If you are using the term “advisor” (or “adviser”) in any of your marketing and do not have the proper registration, you will need to have this adjusted/changed by the compliance date of June 30th.

Reg BI will continue to change the financial landscape as interpretation and enforcement by both FINRA and the SEC moves forward. In order to keep our advisors informed, we will continue to communicate with you via email and by phone. While there have been requests from industry groups to the SEC for delayed implementation, there has been little indication from the SEC that this will occur for anyone other than specific cases of firms hampered by COVID-19. Regulus compliance is continuing to reshape our processes and procedures in order to ensure we are all in compliance by the June 30th deadline.

This is the first of several emails you will see from me in the coming weeks as we prepare our firm for the June 30th deadline. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Compliance Team (compliance@regalfin.com). We will be sending timely updates, so please be diligent in the execution/compliance of the regulatory items.

For further resources on Reg BI and the additional impacts it will have on your practice, please see previous communications from Compliance as well as the links below.

The SEC list of frequently asked questions:
https://www.sec.gov/tm/faq-regulation-best-interest33The SEC Regulation Best Interest Compliance Guide:
https://www.sec.gov/info/smallbus/secg/regulation-best-interest22

FINRA overview and resources:
https://www.finra.org/article/regulation-best-interest-%28reg-bi%29-overview

A recent Forbes Article your clients may have seen:
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/regulation-best-interest/

Regal Investment Advisors Annual ADV Mailing

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Your clients may have already received or will be receiving a mailer or email (e-delivery clients) containing the Regal ADV Summary of Changes, the Regal Privacy Policy and a letter identical to the one below. This is an annual mailer that is sent out in order to fulfill the annual delivery requirements of SEC Rule 275.204-3. If you or your clients would like additional information or have any questions, please reach out to Ben Westin (bwestin@regalfin.com).

Thank you for your affiliation!

Dear Sir/Madam:

Below, please find the “Summary of Material Changes,” outlining material changes to our firm’s disclosure brochure, Form ADV Part 2A, and a copy of our firm privacy policy. The Summary of Material Changes highlights the changes to our disclosures that have occurred since our last annual brochure update. The full version of our current disclosure brochure is available to you upon request by contacting our firm at (888) 546-2715. You may also find additional information about our firm at our website www.regalfin.com, and through the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure system at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.

Summary of Material Changes ⤓33

Regal Privacy Policy ⤓33

Additionally, we would like to make you aware of the following:  

  1. We are required to adopt a code of ethics and provide a copy of our code of ethics to clients upon request. The current version of our code of ethics is available to you by contacting our firm at the telephone number listed above.
  2. Contact your advisory representative immediately if you have had any changes in your investment objectives or financial circumstances. Any changes could impact how we manage your portfolio and will become part of your client file. You should also contact us at any time during the year if your investment goals or financial circumstances change.
  3. Should you hold equity securities in your portfolio, you will be responsible for the voting of proxies with regard to those investments. We do not vote client proxies.
  4. Finally, a copy of our current privacy policy is available above, which we are required to deliver to all existing clients annually.

As always, we welcome your questions and comments at any time.

Very truly yours,

Brian D. Yarch, LUTCF®, CLU®, ChFC®
Chief Compliance Officer
Regal Holdings, LLC

Important 2019 Tax Information

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Tax Season Processes and Deadlines

Below are a few friendly reminders about commonly requested tax items and processing deadlines to assist your clients, and you, during tax season.

  1. Most custodians post the initial client 1099 documents online about the same time they are mailed out to clients. The Regal service team does not have access to advanced versions of these documents.

    Vendors and custodians tend to take longer due to the complexity and volume of information provided. Custodian 1099’s typically cover an entire year’s worth of trading and transactional activity, whereas bank 1099’s typically are reporting interest earned during the prior year. Also, keep in mind many custodians will do these mailings in various pieces due to the differing complexity of holdings in client accounts.

    See the below notes for mail times of our major custodians, as posted by each custodian/vendor.

Custodian/Vendor 1099 Availability
Fidelity 1st Mailing: 1/25/2020
2nd Mailing: 2/15/2020
3rd Mailing: 2/29/2020
4th Mailing: 3/6/2020
TD Ameritrade 1st Mailing: 1/17/2020
2nd Mailing: 2/6/2020
3rd Mailing: 2/12/2020
Schwab 1st Mailing: Late Jan to early Feb
2nd Mailing: Mid-February
Pershing 1st Mailing: 1/31/2020
2nd Mailing: 2/15/2020
3rd Mailing: 2/29/2020
4th Mailing: 3/15/2020

  1. Client 1099’s are issued directly by the account custodians/vendors, not by Regal or Regulus. The best place to see if the 1099 has posted and to obtain additional or corrected copies is the custodian or vendor’s web platform (Fidelity Wealthscape, TD Ameritrade Veo One, Pershing NetX 360, etc.)
  2. Advisor’s 1099 documents for Regal/Regulus paid production were mailed late January. These documents were mailed to the Advisor office from the Regal/Regulus office directly. If you did not receive this or have questions please contact the Accounting team at 800-357-4757.
  3. Requests for cost basis information on positions that were transferred in from prior firms must be routed through the prior firm. The custodian/vendor can only account for the basis information that transferred in, or for securities purchased or sold in the current account. If prior cost basis is needed, your client will need to request that information from the prior firm.
  4. K-1’s may be issued in mid-March for any securities that are organized as partnerships. It is up to the client and their tax preparer how they treat the K-1 income distributions (note that in most instances this income is received by the shareowners of individual securities such as ETF’s organized as partnerships). K-1’s are sent by the issuer of the specific security and not by the custodian who issues the 1099.
  5. Regal/Regulus does not have the ability to back-date transactions from missed year end deadlines for 2019.  If your client missed a 2019 deadline they should consult a tax professional on how to remedy the situation to best fit their needs and situation.
  6. Beginning date for a client’s first Required Minimum Distribution is April 1st of the year following the calendar year in which they reach age 70 ½. The first year a client may have two RMD dates; an April 1st withdrawal (for the year they turned 70 ½) and an additional withdrawal by December 31st (for the year following the year they turned 70 ½). This will be impacted for clients turning 70 ½ after 2019 but remains as stated above for those clients turning 70 ½ by the end of 2019.
  7. Important tax season deadlines to be aware of:

    Items must be submitted to COMET “In Good Order” by the below deadlines to ensure timely processing. All submissions made after these deadlines will be done on a best efforts basis, but we cannot guarantee their completion by filing deadlines.

    Thursday February 27th, 2020 close of business

    • New business retirement account applications requiring a pre-filing open date

    Thursday March 5th, 2020 close of business

    • First-year Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) requests
    • Contributions to be coded as prior year contributions
    • Other contributions or distributions requiring a pre-filing process date
    • New personal retirement account applications requiring a pre-filing open date
    • Roth IRA conversion or recharacterization transactions requiring a pre-filing process date

    Wednesday April 1st, 2020 close of business

    • All setups of new bank ETF links that are intended to be used for transactions prior to the Federal personal income tax filing deadlines

    Wednesday April 8th, 2020 close of business

    • All cashiering work items (excluding the set up of new ETF links) that require a pre-filing process date

    Friday April 10th, 2020 close of business

    • Checks must be received by the Regal/Regulus service team for forwarding and deposit to the custodians (Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, Schwab and Pershing) into accounts that are already open and in good order.

The Regal/Regulus team cannot dispense tax advice. Our team is here to help and provide guidance where possible, however, we are unable to provide tax advice. If a client has a tax related question it is always best practice to use the services of a tax professional.

If you have any additional questions, please contact our team at 800-357-4757.

Thank you for your business and affiliation!

State of Regal 2020 – Webinar Replay

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State of Regal 2020

As we’re kicking off an action-packed 2020, this past week has been a busy one here at the Regal office! Along with the quarterly manager call and hosting the latest LionShare Investment Academy in downtown Grand Rapids, we had all of our partners on the State of Regal call on Tuesday discussing company successes last year and our initiatives for 2020.

If you were unable to join us or would like to go back and review the call, we’ve attached the link to the replay below for your viewing. As always, please let us know how we can assist — let’s start this year off strong!

Replay the Webinar →1313
Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you for your affiliation!

New Team Member Introduction

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New Team Member Introduction
We are excited to welcome and share with you the following new team members:

Kelvin Miller
Client Service Associate
Direct: 616.258.5009
kmiller@regalfin.com

Kelvin graduated from Grand Valley State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration majoring in Finance. He gained an Operations knowledge base with his work in the logistics field before finding his way back to the Finance industry where he is most interested. As part of his role, Kelvin will be working towards his Series 7 and 66 license.

In his role as Client Service Associate, Kelvin will be processing new business coming into the Regal service flows, as well as any Account Maintenance and Servicing work items on existing accounts. He will also be responsible for client check deposits as they come into the Regal office.

Spencer Lademan
Client Service Associate
Direct: 616.258.5008
slademan@regalfin.com

Spencer comes to the Regal team with his Series 66, 7 and Life & Health license. He earned his Finance degree with a minor in Management through Grand Valley State University and has gained industry experience working as a Financial Advisor with Edward Jones and a Registered Financial Representative with W & S Financial Group.

In his role as Client Service Associate, Spencer will be processing new business coming into the Regal service flows, as well as any Cashiering work items on existing accounts. He is working towards being the main point of contact for any trading questions from Affiliates.

Shannon Knerr
Executive Assistant / Event Planner
Direct: 616.258.5016
sknerr@regalfin.com

Shannon earned her B.A. in Communication Studies in Interpersonal Communication from Susquehanna University and comes to the Regal team with various administrative experience. She has a wide range of Event Planning experience in her previous roles and will be pursuing the CMP, Certified Meeting Professional designation as part of her role with the Regal team. Shannon is also very involved with a crisis intervention service as a team leader.

As the Executive Assistant / Event Planner, Shannon is responsible for all Regal events, including Affiliate events, recruiting events, and client-facing events. In addition, Shannon is also responsible for the management of the Partner’s calendars and travel.

Amy Potgieter
Director of First Impressions
Direct: 616.258.5041
apotgieter@regalfin.com

Amy holds her B.S. inn Community Health Education with a Psychology Minor from Western Michigan University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. In her previous career roles she has gained great customer service and administrative skills that she brings to her role on the Regal team. Amy has managed and excelled in various client facing roles specifically in the medical and wellness field.

In the role of Director of First Impressions, Amy is responsible for the client service aspect of all incoming calls to the Regal office, as well as all in-person guests to the office. She also is the main contact for all incoming/outgoing shipments to the office and various other administrative tasks.

Updated Team Directory

Team Directory ⤓2424

Q1 2020 Manager Call Replay

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Q1 2020 Manager Call Replay

Thank you to those who attended our quarterly update with our Boutique Money Managers, Sonya Lincolnhol with Durand Capital Partners, Eric Kuby and Brad Cohen from North Star, Larry Taunt with Regalfolios, and Tyler Hardt of Pelican Bay Capital Management.

If you missed the webinar or would like to view it again, you can access the replay using the link below.

Replay the Webinar →77
Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you for your affiliation!

Lee Cole
lcole@regalfin.com
(616) 258-5043

Regal Holdings Purchases Durand Capital Partners

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Regal Holdings Purchases Durand Capital Partners

We are excited to share that we have purchased Durand Capital Partners. Read our full press release for details below.

KENTWOOD, MI, January 21, 2020 — Regal Holdings, LLC is proud to announce the acquisition of Durand Capital Partners, managers of two flagship investment strategies: US All-Cap Core Equity and International All-Cap Core Equity, in addition to several “white labeled” strategies that make up over $139 million in Assets Under Management (AUM). Regal had previously held a 10% ownership stake since the inception of Durand Capital Partners in 2012.

The US All-Cap Core Equity Strategy focuses on purchasing individual equity securities of companies we believe to be undervalued based on fundamental and financial health metrics. Once these companies are identified, the management team looks to secure them at an attractive price. Lastly, the ability to hold cash as an investment position in the portfolio further allows for moving up and down the risk spectrum as appropriate.

“Durand Capital Partners built its AUM on the Regal RIA investment management platform, which was recently rebranded as the “LionShare” platform. As a subsidiary of Regal Holdings, it is a natural transition for Durand Capital Partners to become part of the larger entity. Under LionShare, it will allow the strategies to grow and participate in our scale and increased distribution. Durand Capital Partners will become a core element on the LionShare platform and will be positioned on top of our own models, such as Regalfolios,” states John Kailunas II, CEO of Regal Holdings. “It is our intention to maintain Durand Capital Partners’ vision of capital markets and continue to deepen our bench. Our independent advisors want choices for their clients, and these two strategies complement our current offerings while we build our distribution model.”

For 20 years, Regal has been dedicated to providing a full range of independent services for financial advisors and clients alike. Headquartered in Kentwood, MI, Regal Holdings is comprised of Regal Investment Advisors, Regulus Advisors, Regal Financial Group, Regal Charitable, and its newest entity, LionShare.

 

Securities offered through Regulus Advisors, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Regal Investment Advisors, LLC., an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Regal Holdings, Regulus Advisors, Regal Investment Advisors, and Regal Financial Group are affiliated entities. Registration with the SEC does not imply any level of skill or training.