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Girard Investment Services, LLC

Form CRS: Client Relationship Summary

June 30, 2020
 
 

Introduction
Girard Investment Services, LLC (“Girard”) is a broker/dealer registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) and Securities Investor Protection Corporation (“SIPC”). As a broker/dealer, we provide brokerage accounts and services to our clients and not investment advisory accounts and services. These services differ, including the related commissions and fees, and it is important for you to understand the differences. This document will give you a summary of the types of services we provide and how you pay.
 
Please note that there are free and simple tools available to research firms and financial professionals at Investor.gov/CRS. This site also provides educational materials about broker/dealers, investment advisers and investing.

Relationships and Services
What investment services and advice can we provide you?
  • We offer brokerage services to retail investors, including buying and selling securities. Depending on the type of transaction, it can be conducted through a clearing firm or directly with a product sponsor. We will discuss your investment goals, financial profile and risk tolerance when we recommend an investment to you. However, we only enter transactions for you on a non-discretionary basis. This means that you may select investments on your own or we may recommend investments for your account, but the ultimate investment decision to purchase or sell an investment will be yours. The investments we typically offer will include mutual funds, exchange traded funds (“ETF”) and variable annuities. We may also offer or accommodate stock and bond transactions. We do not have proprietary products, receive revenue sharing or utilize preferred sponsors so our product offerings are not limited in those respects.
  • We are not required to provide you with account monitoring services. At our discretion, we may voluntarily review your account or do so upon your request, but this is not considered account monitoring. As such, you are responsible for monitoring your account and you will receive account statements at least quarterly which will reflect your account value and activity.
  • Girard has account minimums to open a relationship with our firm and your representative will discuss those minimums with you.
For Additional Information: Please refer to our firm’s disclosure agreement. This agreement expands upon our business, services, account minimums and other important information.
 
Ask your financial professional:
  1. Given my financial situation, why should I choose a brokerage account or service?
  2. How will you choose investments to recommend to me?
  3. What is your relevant experience, including licenses, education, and other qualifications?

Fees and Costs
What fees will you pay?
  • You will pay us a commission each time you buy an investment. You may also pay a commission when selling an investment but that depends on the type of investment involved. Mutual funds pay us an upfront commission called a “sales load” that may reduce the value of your investment upon buying a fund depending on the share class used. Mutual funds and annuities will also pay us an ongoing 12b-1 fee (servicing or distribution fee) that is based on a percentage of fund assets. Stocks and ETFs pay a separate commission each time you buy or sell. Bonds have a fee that is part of the price you pay for the investment each time you buy or sell called a “mark‐up” or “mark down.”
  • Mutual funds, ETFs and variable annuities will charge separate investment management, operational/ administrative and distribution fees. Some investments, such as variable annuities and certain mutual fund share classes, also have surrender charges if you sell the investment within a certain period of time.
  • Other fees you will pay include clearing/custodian fees such as ticket charges, account maintenance fees and account inactivity fees.
You will pay fees and costs whether you make or lose money on your investments. Fees and costs will reduce any amount of money you make on your investments over time. Please make sure you understand what fees and costs you are paying.
 
For Additional Information: Please refer to our firm’s disclosure agreement, product prospectus (for mutual funds, ETFs, variable annuities) and brokerage account transaction/account fee schedule. These disclosures expand upon the fees and costs you will pay for a specific product or service.
 
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?

Conflicts of Interest

What are our legal obligations to you when providing recommendations? How else does our firm make money and what conflicts of interest do we have?
When we provide you with a recommendation, we have to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours. At the same time, the way we make money creates some conflicts with your interests. You should understand and ask us about these conflicts because they affect the recommendations we provide you. Here is an example to help you understand what this means.
  • We have an incentive to recommend that you purchase a variable annuity because, unlike mutual funds, variable annuities do not have commission breakpoints (volume discounts) that reduce the commission percentage you pay. Therefore, we typically receive more in commissions when you buy a variable annuity.
Ask your financial professional: How might our conflicts of interest affect you, and how will we address them?
 
For Additional Information: Please refer to our firm’s disclosure agreement (Fee and Expenses section) which expands upon our conflicts of interest beyond the information provided in this section.
 
How do our Financial Professionals make money?
  • Our representatives are paid a percentage of the commission received by our firm for each investment you purchase. The more transactions you make, the more commissions we and your representative will receive. We therefore have an incentive to encourage you to place transactions. Our representatives are also paid a percentage of ongoing servicing or distribution fees received by our firm from mutual funds and annuities that pay such fees. Because the compensation we receive can vary between product sponsors and by product type, this gives us an incentive to place you with product sponsors and in products that pay us more over those that pay us less.

Disciplinary History

Does our firm or our financial professionals have a legal or disciplinary history?
Yes. Visit Investor.gov/CRS for a free and simple search tool to research our firm and our financial professionals.
 
Ask your financial professional: As a financial professional, do you have any disciplinary history? If so, for what type of conduct?

Additional Information
  • If you would like additional information about our services, please refer to our disclosure agreement or visit our website at www.meetgirard.com. To request an up-to-date copy of this Form CRS go to www.meetgirard.com/disclosures or call us at 215-721-2112.
  • Some of our representatives are able to provide you with investment advisory services through Girard Advisory Services, LLC (“GAS”) which is a registered investment advisor and affiliated company. If applicable, you will be provided with a copy of GAS’ Form CRS at the same time as this Form CRS. You may also obtain a copy of GAS’ relationship summary by calling 215-721-2112.
Ask your financial professional: Who is my primary contact person? Is he or she a representative of an Investment adviser or a broker/dealer? Who can I talk to if I have concerns about how this person is treating me?