Rockside Investments LLC

Rockside Investments LLC is a small independent registered investment adviser that serves individual investors and a limited number of institutional clients, including qualified retirement plans and plan sponsors. The firm provides discretionary portfolio management for individual accounts and retirement-plan advisory services, acting in either a 3(21) advisory capacity or as a 3(38) investment manager and offering pension consulting and plan-related assistance.

The firm’s investment approach emphasizes value investing with a catalyst, implemented through model portfolios that include individual equities, options, ETFs, REITs, treasuries and bonds, with a primary long-term orientation but allowance for shorter-term trades and option strategies as conditions warrant. Rockside may recommend private investments, uses margin/borrowing in managed accounts when appropriate, and offers both asset-based fees and, for qualifying clients, multiple performance-based fee arrangements tied to high-water marks or market benchmarks.

Distinctive features for a solo adviser include the combination of institutional ERISA services and pension consulting alongside individualized wealth management, the explicit use of borrowing and options strategies within separately managed accounts, and the availability of several performance-fee structures for qualified clients. The firm also discloses a prior regulatory settlement: in April 2021 it entered into a consent order with the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation alleging advisory activity prior to holding a valid certificate and resolved the matter by paying $1,250 in past-due licensing fees and a $5,000 administrative penalty.