Important Disclosures

Kowal Investment Group, LLC (“Kowal”) is a Registered Investment Advisor (“RIA”), with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Kowal provides investment advisory and related services for clients in State of Wisconsin and other states. Kowal will maintain all applicable registration and licenses as required by the various states in which Kowal conducts business, as applicable. Kowal renders individualized responses to persons in a particular state only after complying with all regulatory requirements, or pursuant to an applicable state exemption or exclusion.

Certified Financial Planner™ (“CFP^®”)

The Certified Financial Planner™, CFP^®, and federally registered CFP^® (with flame design) marks (collectively, the “CFP^® marks”) are professional certification marks granted in the United States by Certified Financial Planner™ Board of Standards, Inc. (“CFP^® Board”).

The CFP^® certification is a voluntary certification; no federal or state law or regulation requires financial planners to hold CFP^® certification. It is recognized in the United States and a number of other countries for its (1) high standard of professional education; (2) stringent code of conduct and standards of practice; and (3) ethical requirements that govern professional engagements with clients. Currently, more than 71,000 individuals have obtained CFP^® certification in the United States.

To attain the right to use the CFP^® marks, an individual must satisfactorily fulfill the following requirements:

·        Education – Complete an advanced college-level course of study addressing the financial planning subject areas that CFP^® Board’s studies have determined as necessary for the competent and professional delivery of financial planning services, and attain a Bachelor’s Degree from a regionally accredited United States college or university (or its equivalent from a foreign university). CFP^® Board’s financial planning subject areas include insurance planning and risk management, employee benefits planning, investment planning, income tax planning, retirement planning, and estate planning;

·        Examination – Pass the comprehensive CFP^® Certification Examination. The examination includes case studies and client scenarios designed to test one’s ability to correctly diagnose financial planning issues and apply one’s knowledge of financial planning to real-world circumstances;

·        Experience – Complete at least three years of full-time financial planning-related experience (or the equivalent, measured as 2,000 hours per year); and

·        Ethics – Agree to be bound by CFP^® Board’s Standards of Professional Conduct, a set of documents outlining the ethical and practice standards for CFP^® professionals.

Individuals who become certified must complete the following ongoing education and ethics requirements in order to maintain the right to continue to use the CFP^® marks:

·        Continuing Education – Complete 30 hours of continuing education hours every two years, including two hours on the Code of Ethics and other parts of the Standards of Professional Conduct, to maintain competence and keep up with developments in the financial planning field; and

·        Ethics – Renew an agreement to be bound by the Standards of Professional Conduct. The Standards prominently require that CFP^® professionals provide financial planning services at a fiduciary standard of care. This means CFP^® professionals must provide financial planning services in the best interests of their clients.

CFP^® professionals who fail to comply with the above standards and requirements may be subject to CFP^® Board’s enforcement process, which could result in suspension or permanent revocation of their CFP^®.

The Chartered Life Underwriter^™ (“CLU^®”) 

The Chartered Life Underwriter^™ (CLU^®) is a designation of insurance expertise, helping gain a significant advantage in a competitive market. This course of study helps by providing in-depth knowledge of the insurance needs of individuals, business owners, and professional clients.

Program Learning Objectives:

• Provide guidance to clients on types and amounts of life insurance needed
• Make recommendations on aspects of risk management, including personal and business uses of a variety of insurance solutions
• Provide guidance to clients on legal aspects of life insurance contracts and beneficiaries
• Assist clients in making decisions about estate planning, including the proper holding of assets and title to assets, as well as the implications of various wills and trust arrangements on financial, retirement and succession planning issues
• Provide a holistic and comprehensive approach to addressing the insurance planning needs of their clients

Chartered Financial Consultant™ (“ChFC^®”) 

The Chartered Financial Consultant™ (ChFC^®) program prepares you to meet the advanced financial planning needs of individuals, professionals and small business owners. You’ll gain a sustainable advantage in this competitive field with in-depth coverage of the key financial planning disciplines, including insurance, income taxation, retirement planning, investments, and estate planning. The ChFC^® requires three years of full-time, relevant business experience, nine two-hour course-specific proctored exams, and 30 hours of continuing education every two years. Holders of the ChFC^® designation must adhere to The American College’s Code of Ethics.

Program Objectives:

• Function as an ethical, competent and articulate practitioner in the field of financial planning
• Utilize the intellectual tools and framework needed to maintain relevant and current financial planning knowledge and strategies.
• Apply financial planning theory and techniques through the development of case studies and solutions.
• Apply in-depth knowledge in a holistic manner from a variety of disciplines; namely, estate planning, retirement planning or non-qualified deferred compensation.

Accredited Estate Planner^® (“AEP^®”)

The Accredited Estate Planner® (AEP®) designation is a graduate level specialization in estate planning, obtained in addition to already recognized professional credentials within the various disciplines of estate planning. It is awarded by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (NAEPC) to recognize estate planning professionals who meet stringent requirements of experience, knowledge, education, professional reputation, and character, and who commit to the team concept of estate planning. Applicants are required to:

• Have an active practice for a minimum of five (5) years within the following disciplines: accounting; insurance and financial planning; law; philanthropy; and trust services;
• Devote at least 1/3 of one’s time to estate planning;
• Have one or more of the following professional credentials: JD (active law license required if this is the only credential with which you are applying), CPA, CLU®, CFP®, ChFC®, CPWA®, CFA, CAP®, CSPG, CTFA, MSFS, and MST;
• Have three (3) professional references from individuals with whom you have worked with on estate planning cases and assignments; and
• Have a current membership in an affiliated local estate planning council.

Terms of Use

Please read these terms and conditions of use (“Terms”) carefully before using the Website located at kowalinvestmentgroup.com (“Website”) or any of the information or services provided by Kowal Investment Group, LLC (collectively “Kowal”, “we”, “our”, “us”) in connection with the Website. By using the Website, you acknowledge that you have read and understood these Terms and accept to be legally bound by them. If you do not accept and agree to these Terms, you are not an authorized user of the Website or any of the information or services provided by Kowal in connection with the Website and should promptly terminate all use thereof. The terms “you” and “your” mean you and any entity you may represent in connection with the use of the Website. You may use your browser to download or print a copy of these Terms for your records.

Kowal reserves the right to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms at any time for any reason. We suggest that you review these Terms periodically for changes. Such changes shall be effective immediately upon posting. You acknowledge that by accessing our Website after we have posted changes to these Terms, you are agreeing to these Terms as modified.

These Terms were last updated on August 25, 2020.

Risk Disclosures

Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk. Therefore, it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy will be profitable. 

Asset allocation may be used in an effort to manage risk and enhance returns. It does not, however, guarantee a profit or protect against loss. Performance of the asset allocation strategies depends on the underlying investments.

This Website is intended to provide general information about Kowal and its services. It is not intended to offer or deliver investment advice in any way. Information regarding investment services are provided solely to gain an understanding of our investment philosophy, our strategies and to be able to contact us for further information.

Market data, articles and other content on this Website are based on generally available information and are believed to be reliable. Kowal does not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this Website. The information is of a general nature and should not be construed as investment advice.

Please remember that it remains your responsibility to advise Kowal, in writing, if there are any changes in your personal/financial situation or investment objectives for the purpose of reviewing/evaluating/revising our previous recommendations and/or services, if you would like to impose, add, or to modify any reasonable restrictions to our investment advisory services.

Kowal will provide all prospective clients with a copy of our current Form ADV, Part 2A (“Disclosure Brochure”) and the Brochure Supplement for each advisory person supporting a particular client. You may obtain a copy of these disclosures on the SEC Website at http://adviserinfo.sec.gov or you may Contact Us to request a free copy via .pdf or hardcopy.

Privacy Disclosures

Kowal is committed to safeguarding the use of personal information of our Clients that we obtain as your Investment Advisor, as described in our Privacy Policy.

Kowal does not collect personal non-public information through this Website; however, the Advisor may collect information from you on application forms, agreements, profile or investment policy statements, and other documents received or processed in relation to services we provide. We also may collect information from other sources.

We do not respond to “do not track” requests because we do not track you over time or across third party Websites to provide targeted advertising. We may track you across our Website to help us improve our content.

We may use “cookies” and similar online technologies to keep, and sometimes track, information about you regarding your usage of our Website. Cookies are small data files that are sent to your browser or related software from a Web server and stored on your device. Cookies help us to collect information about your usage of our Website, including date and time of visits, pages viewed, amount of time spent on our sites, or general information about the device used to access the site, such as the browser used. You can refuse to store or delete cookies by configuring your web browser settings. Most browsers and mobile devices have their own settings to manage cookies. If you refuse a cookie when on our Website, or if you delete cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of our Website, such as having to re-configure preferences.

When you are on this Website you may have the opportunity to click-through to other Websites, including Websites operated by unaffiliated third parties. These sites may collect nonpublic personal Information about you. We do not control sites operated by these entities and are not responsible for the information practices of these sites. This Privacy Policy does not address the information practices of other Websites. The privacy policies of Websites operated third parties are located on those sites.

For a copy of the Kowal Privacy Policy, please click here.

Email Disclosures

Kowal often communicates with its clients and prospective clients through electronic mail (“email”) and other electronic means. Your privacy and security are very important to us. Kowal makes every effort to ensure that email communications do not contain sensitive information. We remind our clients and others not to send Kowal private information over email. If you have sensitive data to deliver, we can provide secure means for such delivery.

Please note: Kowal does not accept trading or money movement instructions via email.

As a registered investment advisor, Kowal emails may be subject to inspection by the Chief Compliance Officer (“CCO”) of Kowal or the securities regulators.

If you have received an email from Kowal in error, we ask that you contact the sender and destroy the email and its contents.

If you have any questions regarding our email policies, please Contact Us.

Social Websites

Kowal may utilize third-party Websites, including social media Websites, blogs and other interactive content. Kowal considers all interactions with clients, prospective clients and the general public on these sites to be advertisements under the securities regulations. As such, Kowal generally retains copies of information that Kowal or third-parties may contribute to such sites. This information is subject to review and inspection by the CCO of Kowal or the securities regulators.

Information provided on these sites is for informational and/or educational purposes only and is not, in any way, to be considered investment advice nor a recommendation of any investment product. Advice may only be provided by Kowal’s advisory persons after entering into an advisory agreement and provided Kowal with all requested background and account information.

If you have any questions regarding our policies, please Contact Us.