Relationship Details

Customer Relationship Summary

June 24, 2020

About Us

American Century Investments is a leading global asset manager focused on delivering investment results and building long-term client relationships. We deliver a full-range of investment solutions directly to investors through:

  • American Century Investment Services, Inc., which is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a broker-dealer and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and
  • American Century Investments Private Client Group, Inc., which is registered with the SEC as an investment advisor. Brokerage and investment advisory services and fees differ, and it 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 advisor, and investing.

What investment services and advice can you provide me?

American Century Investments provides the following brokerage and advisory services to retail investors.

American Century Investment Services, Inc.

Brokerage Services

  • We offer brokerage services to self-directed investors, including buying and selling securities, such as mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks and bonds.
  • You make the ultimate decision regarding the purchase or sale of investments. We do not monitor your account or investments.
  • The minimum initial investment to establish a brokerage account with us is $2,500. That minimum amount is also required to maintain a brokerage account with us.

American Century Investments Private Client Group, Inc.

Limited Recommendations

  • We also make limited recommendations to investors of one or more American Century family of mutual funds. You can execute this recommendation with the transfer agent for the American Century family of mutual funds or anywhere else of your choosing.
  • You make the ultimate decision regarding the purchase or sale of investments. We do not monitor your account or investments.
  • The account minimum for any of the American Century family of funds which we recommend is generally an initial investment of $2,500 (or $500 with automatic investments of at least $100). Certain account types, such as accounts within an employer-sponsored retirement plan do not have any minimum initial investment amounts.

Advisory Services

  • We offer investment advisory services to investors, including discretionary portfolio management through a wrap fee program. Our wrap fee program includes discretionary investment management, portfolio monitoring and rebalancing and financial planning. Our advice is based on your financial situation, which is evaluated based on detailed information about your personal circumstances like age, investment time horizon, risk tolerance, expectations, and goals.
  • We generally manage our clients' accounts within similarly managed or model portfolios that are comprised entirely of mutual funds and ETFs within the American Century family of funds.
  • If you choose, financial accounts outside of American Century may be aggregated and/or considered in our advice to you. You make the ultimate decision regarding the purchase or sale of these outside investments.
  • We typically require investors to have a minimum relationship size (including assets of parents, siblings and children) of $50,000 held within our model portfolios. This minimum relationship size may be reduced or waived at our discretion.

Conversation Starters to Ask Your Financial Professional

  • Given my financial situation, should I choose a brokerage service? Why or why not?
  • 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?

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

Brokerage Services

Our principal fee is a commission charged on buying or selling securities in your account. The commission rate varies based on the type of account and the type of security involved in the transaction. You will pay the same rate but more overall when you make more transactions, so we have an incentive to encourage you to trade more often.

COMMISSIONS

  • Equity or stock transactions and mutual funds with a transaction fee—starting at $9.95 and generally up to $45.00, depending on your account tier and how you place the trade (online, automated phone system or with a representative).
  • No transaction fee (NTF) mutual funds—no cost to buy, sell or exchange shares of participating funds held for 6 months or longer.
  • Bond transactions in the secondary market (between investors and not directly from the debtor company or bank) - $3.00 to $5.00 per bond with a $35.00 minimum charge and $100.00 to $250.00 maximum charge, all depending on your account tier.

ACCOUNT FEES

  • Account maintenance fee—begins at $50 for certain accounts under $10,000 in assets in the American Century family of funds, and is ultimately waived for accounts at and over $20,000 in assets in American Century family of funds.
  • Annual IRA fee - $50, waived for accounts over $10,000.

COMMISSIONS FOR OTHER SECURITY TYPES, MARGIN FEES AND OTHER ACCOUNT OR SERVICE FEES

  • For more detail about any of the above fees and other fees associated with your account, please see our Fees & Commissions schedule

Important Reminder: Commissions and account fees are separate and distinct from the fees and expenses charged with respect to the underlying investments, such as management fees and expenses charged by mutual funds, ETFs, closed-end investment companies or other managed investments. The specific fees and expenses are described in each fund's prospectus.

Limited Recommendations

We do not charge any fee for providing our limited recommendations. The only fee you will pay if you choose to execute our recommendation is the underlying mutual fund's fees and any account maintenance fee.

FUND FEES

  • The annual fund operating expenses for the funds we recommend range between 0.71% to 1.56%. You pay this annual fee directly as a percentage of the value of your investment.

ACCOUNT FEE

  • The annual account maintenance fee for a mutual fund account in one of the funds we recommend is $25.00. The fund will waive this fee with eligible investments of at least $10,000.

EMPLOYER PLAN FEES

Participants in an employer-sponsored account will pay one of the following fees, depending on the account type:

  • Custodial Fee: Participants in an employer-sponsored plan set up pursuant to a custodial arrangement (such as a SIMPLE Plan) will pay an annual fee of $15 per fund in the account.
  • Participant Service Fee: Participants in a qualified retirement plan (such as a 401(k)) will pay an annual fee of $25.

For additional information, please see American Century Investments Private Client Group's Investment Planner Program Brochure (Items 4.B and 4.C) .

Advisory Services

We charge a single advisory fee (wrap fee) based on the value of your assets under management with us. The single fee includes our services, along with any underlying trading costs, commissions, and custody services related to our recommendations. Fees are calculated and deducted on a quarterly basis in advance. The daily market value of the assets under management as of the end of the last business day of the calendar quarter is used to calculate the fee for the next quarter.

ADVISORY FEE

  • The annual advisory fee is 0.90% on the first $5 million of assets under management and 0.70% on assets under management over $5 million.
  • As a wrap fee program, our advisory fee covers most underlying transaction costs, commissions, and the brokerage or custody fees of your underlying investments within our model portfolios. In addition, because of our affiliation with the advisory to the American Century family of funds, we quarterly reimburse the Advisory Fee paid for the prior quarter and additional amounts, if any, in an amount totaling the underlying management fees paid over the course of the quarter from holdings a Client has in American Century family of funds within the model portfolios.
  • The more assets there are in your account, the more you will pay in fees, and we may therefore have an incentive to encourage you to increase the assets in your account.

OTHER FEES

  • In addition to the above fees, there may be other costs assessed, which are not included in the advisory fee, such as charges for transactions executed outside of our recommendations, costs associated with exchanging currencies, wire transfer and electronic fund fees, paper mailing fees, transfer fees, margin and other borrowing costs, other service fees or other fees required by law.

For additional information, please see American Century Investments Private Client Group's Wrap Fee Program Brochure (Items 4.B and 4.C) .

Conversation Starter to 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?

Brokerage Services

  • We do not provide recommendations. The way we make money creates some conflicts with your interests. You should understand and ask about these conflicts because they can affect the services we provide you. Here are some examples to help you understand what this means.
  • Our primary source of revenue is commissions from transactions from our clients. Therefore, we have an interest in you making transactions that may conflict with your interests.
  • In addition, while we generally sell investor or no-load funds, certain funds may pay us for selling their funds or for an investor continuing to own their fund, and therefore, we have an interest in having clients purchase or continue to own these funds, which may conflict with your interests.

What are your legal obligations to me when acting as my investment adviser? How else does your firm make money and what conflicts of interest do you have?

Limited Recommendations

  • When we act as your investment adviser, we have to 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 interests. You should understand and ask us about these conflicts because they affect the investment advice we provide you. Here are some examples to help you understand what this means.
  • Our limited recommendations include only investments in mutual funds from the American Century family of funds. Because of this affiliate relationship, we have an incentive to recommend that you invest in such funds. This may conflict with your interests.

For additional information, please see American Century Investments Private Client Group's Investment Planner Program Brochure (Items 4.B and 4.C)  and the SEC's website at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov .

Advisory Services

  • When we act as your investment adviser, we have to 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 interests. You should understand and ask us about these conflicts because they affect the investment advice we provide you. Here are some examples to help you understand what this means.
  • The model portfolios included in our advisory services include only investments in mutual funds and ETFs from the American Century family of funds as underlying investments. Because of this affiliate relationship, we have an incentive to recommend that you open or invest through your advisory account with us. This may conflict with your interests.

For additional information, please see American Century Investments Private Client Group's Wrap Fee Program Brochure  and the SEC's website at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov .

Conversation Starter to Ask Your Financial Professional

  • How might your conflicts of interest affect me, and how will you address them?

How do your financial professionals make money?

Brokerage Services

  • The compensation structure for financial professionals providing brokerage services is largely determined by job function and business unit. Brokerage financial professionals are compensated primarily with a base salary. In addition, they are eligible to participate in our company-wide incentive plan. Incentive compensation is calculated and paid annually based on individual and company performance and is not directly linked to sales, existing assets or differentiation among products, other than as one of many factors in company performance. Incentive plans are designed to encourage registered representatives to establish and maintain strong customer relationships, to align with their long-term interests and provide them with the best possible service.

Limited Recommendations and Advisory Services

  • The compensation structure for financial professionals providing our limited recommendations and advisory services is based on their ability to meet certain established goals for customer service and assets brought into the American Century complex of services. Assets are measured as assets invested by a customer who is working with or assigned to a particular financial professional minus assets withdrawn by the same customer over a period of time.
  • These financial professionals are also eligible to participate in our company-wide incentive plan. Incentive compensation is calculated and paid annually based on individual and company performance and is not directly linked to sales, existing assets or differentiation among products, other than as one of many factors in company performance.
  • There is no direct compensation related to the provision of our limited recommendations or our advisory services.

Do your financial professionals have legal or disciplinary history?

Visit Investor.gov/CRS  for a free and simple search tool to research us and our financial professionals.

Brokerage Services

  • American Century Investment Services, Inc. - Yes. The firm was fined for state securities registration violations in 1973 and 1994.
  • Financial professionals registered with American Century Investment Services, Inc.—Yes.

Limited Recommendations and Advisory Services

  • American Century Investments Private Client Group, Inc.—No
  • Financial professionals registered with American Century Investments Private Client Group, Inc.—Yes

Conversation Starter to Ask Your Financial Professional

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

Additional Information

For additional information about our services, please visit our website at americancentury.com. If you would like additional, up-to-date information, please call 1-888-327-2001. Download a printable version of this form .

Conversation Starter to Ask Your Financial Professional

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