E.E. Powell & Company Inc.

June 30, 2020

Customer Relationship Summary

Established in 1929, E.E. Powell & Company Inc. is registered as a broker dealer with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is a member of Financial Industry Regulation Authority (FINRA) and Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).  Brokerage and investment advisory services and fees differ, and that is important for you to understand these differences.  Free and simple tools are available to research firms and financial professionals at investor.gov/CRS, which also provides educational materials about broker dealers, investment advisors, and investing.

What investment services and advice can you provide me?

We offer brokerage services to retail investors with no minimum asset requirement.  These non-discretionary accounts are not monitored and are either commission or fee based.  We provide recommendations and security transactions based on the investor’s best interest.  We also provide for the custody of assets.  More information about our services can be found in our Disclosure & Fee Schedule brochure or on our website eepowell.com.

Ask your financial professional:

  • Given my financial situation, should I choose a brokerage service account?
  • How will you choose investments to recommend to me?
  • What is your relevant experience, including your licenses, education, and other qualifications?  What do these qualifications mean?

What fees will I pay?

The primary costs incurred in commission-based brokerage accounts include commissions and trade processing charges involved in buying and selling holdings. Other costs will be incurred such as product-level expenses for mutual funds, exchange traded funds, annuities and other similar investments. Finally, these accounts will incur various account service and custodial fees. The primary costs incurred in fee-based brokerage accounts are asset-based management fees and product-level expenses for certain products. Some fees may not apply or may be discounted based on your type of account.  Other fees are only charged when the associated services are requested or when special processing is required. You may use a combination of account types depending upon your portfolio structure, needs, and financial goals.

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 investment over time.  Please make sure you understand what fees and costs you are paying. 

Commission-based accounts can create conflicts of interest due to the fact that the investor can be charged more when there are more trades in their account(s).  This may motivate the financial professional to encourage the investor to trade more often.  Fee-based accounts can create conflicts of interest by the encouragement to increase your account assets or to recommend riskier investments to increase performance.

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?

What are your legal obligations to me when providing recommendations?  How else does your firm make money, and what conflicts of interest do you have?

When we provide you with a recommendation as your broker dealer, we must 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 interest.  You should understand and ask us about these conflicts because they can affect the investment advice that we provide you.  Here are some examples to help you understand what this means:

Commission-based products encourage more frequent trading in order to increase compensation. 

We are typically compensated more over time through a fee-based account and as a result there is an incentive to recommend this type of account.

We may buy and sell securities to you from our own account, including securities that we buy as part of an underwriting or selling group.  Because we earn compensation, we have an incentive to trade with you on a principal basis and to recommend securities that we hold in inventory.

How do your financial professionals make money?

Our financial professionals receive a portion of the revenue the firm earns from the financial professional’s brokerage services provided to you. 

Do you or your financial professionals have legal or disciplinary history?

No.  Visit www.investor.gov/crs for a free and simple search tool to research our firm and financial professionals.  For additional information, visit BrokerCheck through https://brokercheck.finra.org .

Ask your financial professional:

  • As a financial professional, do you have any disciplinary history?  For what type of conduct?

If you would like up-to-date information or a copy of this disclosure, please call 724-776-7600 where you can request up-to-date information and a copy of Form CRS.

Ask your financial professional:

  • Who is my primary contact person?  Is he or she a representative of an investment advisor or a broker dealer?  Who can I talk to if I have concerns about how this person is treating me?