ValMark Securities, Inc. Select Provider Special
Compensation Agreements
ValMark Securities, Inc. offers a wide variety of financial products, including stocks and bonds, mutual funds, variable and fixed annuities, group annuities, real estate investment trusts, 1031 exchanges, direct participation programs, life settlements, and variable and fixed life insurance. Registered Representatives of ValMark have access to all of these financial products for the purpose of making appropriate financial recommendations of these products to fit their individual client’s financial needs.
To obtain this wide variety of financial products ValMark contracts with and maintains special compensation relationships with a variety of financial product “providers”. These compensation relationships may be termed “revenue sharing”, “special compensation”, “marketing allowances”, or “due diligence compensation.” ValMark, in exchange for such payments, performs various services and assistance in many forms for the product providers, including providing access to representatives for purposes of product acknowledgement, training, education, and marketing, as well as performing product and program reviews and assessments. See the ValMark Securities Sponsorship Program section, below.
In addition, "override" compensation is paid to ValMark Securities by some insurance “carriers”. Override compensation is based upon such factors as aggregate policy premiums paid to a carrier from sales by all member offices of the broker-dealer and aggregate assets placed under financial management from sales by all member offices. The amount of compensation varies among products and carriers.
Such revenue sharing, special compensation, marketing allowance, due diligence compensation or override compensation is paid out of the provider/carrier company’s assets to ValMark. The benefits to the providers are that sales representatives may be more prepared to concentrate on these products when making recommendations to clients. Prior to choosing a particular product, clients should read the product prospectus in order to make a well informed investment decision.
Because ValMark does not pay its registered representatives any portion of the special compensation monies we do not believe that our registered representatives are subject to a conflict of interest when recommending a select provider’s product.
While special compensation agreements with each company vary, the range is generally no more than 2% to 5% of the total compensation paid. Such payments are in addition to any commission; therefore, incentives may exist to sell select providers’ products. For more information regarding special compensation agreements on a specific product, please contact your representative
ValMark receives
certain annual payments from real estate investment trusts
and direct participation program sponsoring companies to
perform due diligence on the product offering.
ValMark has an obligation to
insure that when it permits its registered representatives
to sell these types of products that they meet certain
standards.
Due diligence monies are
intended to compensate ValMark for the use of our resources
to perform this task.
ValMark does not maintain any special compensation relationships with any mutual fund providers.
For a list of Select Provider Companies, click here.
ValMark Securities Sponsorship Program
ValMark conducts three educational sessions per year for its registered representatives and their support staff. These sessions are designed to satisfy the regulatory requirements for continuing education and anti-money laundering, and provide our representatives with a variety of professional development opportunities to further their industry knowledge and investment product and service awareness.
To assist ValMark in the cost of conducting these educational sessions some companies whose products ValMark’s registered representatives sell provide sponsorship money in order to have time to present their products. These payments are made directly to ValMark and are not paid to any of our registered representatives. In exchange for sponsorship money, ValMark permits these companies to attend these educational sessions and, upon request, aid in hosting vendor marketing events.
The increased marketing and education provided by sponsor companies, however, creates heightened awareness among our registered representatives of these companies’ products. Registered representatives may be more likely to concentrate on these products when making recommendations to clients. Prior to choosing a particular product, clients should read the product prospectus in order to make a well informed investment decision
Because ValMark does not pay its registered representatives any portion of the sponsorship monies we do not believe that our registered representatives are subject to a conflict of interest when recommending a product of a sponsor company.
For a list of participating sponsors, click here.