Disclosures

The “Five Star Wealth Manager” award is administered by Crescendo Business Services, LLC’s dba Five Star Professional (“Five Star”). Jerry Lynch is not affiliated with Five Star. Five Star does not endorse CCM, Triad Advisors, APW Capital or any of its representatives. Jerry Lynch received the Five Star Wealth Manager award from 2012 – 2023. Jerry Lynch 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.

The FIVE STAR Wealth Manager list is created by Crescendo Business Services LLC. It includes less than 6% of  wealth managers in the New Jersey area in 2023. Award candidates are identified by one of three sources; firm nomination, peer nomination or prequalification. Wealth managers were evaluated across ten criteria: (a) Credentialed as an investment advisory representative or a registered investment advisor; (b) Actively employed as a credentialed professional in the financial services industry for a minimum of five years; (c) Favorable regulatory and complaint history review; (d) Fulfilled their firm review based on internal firm standards; (e) Accepting new clients; (f) One-year client retention rate; (g) Five-year client retention rate; (h) non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; (i) Number of client households served. (j) Educational and professional designations. Favorable and unfavorable evaluations are included in the score.

Each wealth manager is reviewed for regulatory actions, civil judicial actions, and customer complaints. A favorable regulatory and complaint history is defined by Five Star Professional to mean that the wealth manager has not:

• Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine
• Had more than a total of three settled or pending customer complaints filed against them with any regulatory authority or through Five Star Professional's consumer complaint process
• Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint filed with a regulatory authority
• Filed for personal bankruptcy
• Been convicted of a felony

Five Star Wealth Managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. Scores reflect an average of all respondents and are not representative of any one client's evaluation. The Five Star award is not indicative of the wealth managers' future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients' assets. Working with a FIVE STAR Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by Five Star Professional in the future. 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 or the magazine. Five Star Professional is not an advisory firm.

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.

After receiving the respective award, Jerry Lynch paid a separate fee to Five Star in exchange for publication of this information. While Jerry Lynch paid this fee after receiving the designation, and not as a condition precedent to receiving the award, the fact that Jerry Lynch 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 Jerry Lynch 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 Jerry Lynch 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 area wealth managers that applied and were named a Five Star Wealth Manager award for the years upon which it appeared are as follows: 2023: 6,606 New Jersey-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 407 (6% of candidates) were named 2023 Five Star Wealth Managers.

Additional information about the Five Star Wealth Manager award and corresponding ranking lists are available at the following link:  https://fivestarprofessional.com/awardwinners/njwm