Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/13/2023

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We were clients of Acute Wealth advisors for 16 months from Sept. 2021 until January 2023. We became clients because Acute wealth advisors claim to be fiduciary's who specialize in retirement planning for people 50 and over and grow and protect principle with an emphasis on lowering investment fees and tax efficiency. We anticipated a downturn coming in the stock market and that's why we became clients. Acute wealth advisors claim to manage risk and protect principle. During one of our initial meetings with ********************* he said he should be able to grow our portfolio about $100,000 to $150,000 a year. Almost immediately the mismanagement of our accounts began. Around Sept. 2021 while Acute wealth advisors began moving our accounts over, **************** or Acute wealth advisors failed to manage the transfer of assets in a way to not affect contributions to our *************** accounts. 2021 contributions had already been made for 2021 and copies of all accounts had been made to **************** at the first meeting. The non retirement account was sold for the transfer which resulted in our income now being too high to allow for the 2021 contributions and the contributions had to be withdrawn and additional tax paid on a tax free account. During 2022 our accounts lost well over $200,000 and we were kept in bonds during a period of historic inflation. The investments inside our non retirement account was turned over nearly 5 times with some securities being sold and re bought just days later at a loss. In 16 months we paid this company nearly $21,000 to lose over $200,000 in just 12 months and mismanaged the transfer which affected our *************** contributions and caused us additional tax plus a lost year of investment on the **** ****** We went with Acute wealth advisors to keep from riding the market down and back up and all we did was ride the market down. We are in much worse shape due to their mismanagement of our accounts. As someone in our 60's we may never recover completely from their mismanagement.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/08/2023

  When ********************** first became our client in August of 2021, we suggested making changes to his portfolio to reduce risk and diversify his investments.  These changes were made before the downturn in the markets in 2022.  Our portfolio is designed to reduce risk during volatile environments but does not  guarantee that no losses will be experienced.
  
   In August of 2022, ********************** sent an email because he was concerned about his accounts and thought that he would have been better off had he simply continued to self-direct his investments.  We emailed him back the same day with a comparative analysis demonstrating significant relative outperformance of the investments managed by Acute over the period from August 2021 through August 2022, relative to the performance of Mr. ********** pre-existing portfolio holdings over the same period.  We then spoke to ********************** the following day to further discuss Mr. ********** concerns, Acutes role in managing risk and limiting losses in down market environments (like those experienced in 2022), and the concept of losses brought on my natural movement of the securities markets.  After seeing how much he would have lost had he not hired Acute to manage his funds, ********************** expressed his satisfaction for our quick response and acknowledging that we had helped him mitigate losses to his investment portfolio.
  
  Mr. ********** allegation that his portfolio was kept in bonds during a period of historic inflation reflects a misunderstanding of his portfolios contents.  In November of 2022, ********************** was concerned about his funds being allocated to bonds.  We explained to him that the portfolio contained  short-term bonds and treasuries (similar to a money market account).  ************** generated an excellent return for very little risk and were included in our portfolio for the explicit purpose of avoiding further downside risk, as ********************** had expressly desired.
  
  When ********************** became a client we specifically told him that we do not provide tax services but we did explain that liquidation of the non-qualified accounts and realization of the long term capital gains therein would result in a tax being due from ********************** in the year of sale (2021).  To avoid absorbing all of the capital gains and resulting taxes in a single tax year, we had specifically recommended to ********************** that only 50% of the long term capital gains should be recognized in the 2021 tax year.  We further explained that as a result of the proposed transactions, ********************** could expect to owe approximately $15,000 of long term capital gains taxes for 2021.  ********************** explicitly agreed to this strategy, and assured us that he would be able to pay the estimated taxes and would work with an accountant to properly file his taxes.  In January of 2022, ********************** authorized **************** to liquidate the remaining portion of his non-qualified account(s) and complete the planned account transition, incurring the remaining 50% of discussed long term capital gains taxes in the 2022 tax year.  It wasnt until later in the year, that ********************** filed his taxes and realized his income exceeded that limits that allowed for *************** contributions.  ********************** was well aware of the tax effects of his decision to liquidate his non-qualified accounts and explicitly agreed to the recommendations we proposed to absorb the long-term capital gains equally across the 2021 and 2022 tax years. He had also been advised that Acute and **************** were not tax advisors or accountants. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/08/2023

  Acute Wealth Advisors 60/40 approach to investing, like we were initially placed is a cookie cutter approach to investing and is outdated. Although adjustments were made to our portfolio it was too little too late and we disagree with their response that the short term bonds generated excellent returns. Acute wealth advisors advertise their use of tax efficiency in the recommendations and it's all over their website and frequently talked about on their radio show but then they back away from their advice that they are not tax accountants. We regret the move to Acute Wealth advisors as the worst mistake of our lives and leaving them was one of the best decisions. While we may have suffered greater loses on paper while being self directed, we would not have lost a year of investing on our **** *****, would not have paid the *** a huge tax bill ****** was greater than the $15K that was referenced) and our accounts would have bounced back with the gains made in 2023. The only people who made money on our accounts was Acute Wealth advisors and the ***.  Since our initial complaint additional information has come out that their company telephone number was found on our credit report and identity theft has occurred by someone. That information will be reported to Law enforcement for identity theft and fraud. We didn't get anything for our $21K that was spent on this company. We didn't intent to get any satisfaction with the complaint and we were able to stop the bleeding of our accounts by simply moving away from their management. We are money ahead in just not paying $1300 a month to watch our accounts dwindle. We do not need further response from this company and we are glad to have severed ties with them.  We simply didn't get what they advertise. Lower risk, tax efficiency, protection of principle or lower fees. Thank you and good riddance.