Overview
Form ADV Part 2A, Item 4
Liberty Asset Management, Inc. (“Liberty” or the “Adviser”) offers portfolio investment
advice and ongoing supervisory services to clients. James Mosteller is the principal owner
of Liberty. Liberty has been in existence since May of 2005.
Liberty provides investment supervisory services to clients on a discretionary and non-
discretionary basis. It is the intent of Liberty to involve the client in the planning,
implementing and execution of their financial goals and objectives. Liberty clients include
individuals, pension and profit sharing plans, and corporate and trust accounts. The
accounts are managed based on the stated objective of the account holder (i.e., capital
appreciation, income, growth, capital preservation).
Liberty provides advice by developing a financial blueprint to meet the needs, goals and
objectives of each individual account holder. Liberty accomplishes this primarily by the use
of in person meetings, a review of their financial and legal documents and the
development of an investment policy statement. In this way Liberty determines if there are
any client restrictions regarding particular securities or types of securities, and if so, a
procedure to ensure they are adhered to.
The following services are included in the investment advisory services provided by
Liberty:
Establishing acceptable investment allocations based on the risk tolerance of the
account holder;
Monitoring and adjusting investment allocations as and when necessary; and
Evaluating and reporting to clients on the performance of their investment account.
The amount of detail and the depth of analysis done for each client will vary depending
upon the needs and desires of each account holder. Some of the areas that can be
addressed in the planning process are:
Tax and Cash Flow Management: Examination of budget needs and benefits of tax
planning.
Estate Planning: Examination of current estate tax liability and projection of future
taxes due upon death. Analysis of the remedies available to provide the estate with
the means of satisfying any estate taxes due without any undue hardship.
Retirement: Analysis of current retirement plan(s), design and implementation of a
plan necessary to achieve the desired retirement lifestyle.
Investments: Liberty focuses on providing the client with educational material and
meetings designed to fully explain the different investment vehicles available and the
benefits and drawbacks of each. This educational process will be ongoing
throughout the Adviser/client relationship.
Liberty may also work with a client on a
more limited basis where Liberty is focused on a
specific area of concern for the client such as retirement or education planning. In this
instance Liberty may evaluate a client’s current 401(k) plan or existing investment portfolio
with the intention of giving the client an opinion of the overall structure of the account(s)
in question. Additional services may include discussions on how a particular benefit plan
works, mortgage options and basic family budgeting.
Generally, Liberty will only provide investment advice on open-end mutual funds and
exchange-traded funds.
Liberty does not act as an adviser or subadviser in any wrap fee program and does not
sponsor any wrap fee program.
Liberty has no authority to vote proxies on behalf of advisory clients.
A client may terminate the advisory relationship with a written notice delivered to:
Liberty Asset Management, Inc.
6723 Kingery Highway
Willowbrook, Illinois 60527
Attn: Compliance Officer
Any such notice shall include the account number(s), name and address of the client, and
must be signed by all registered account holders. Clients will only be charged through the
date of termination, as evidenced by the date such request is received at the office listed
above and fees will be prorated accordingly.
Note that clients may, by law, terminate the advisory agreement within five working days
of signing the agreement without loss of any fees paid in advance.
ERISA Plan Services
Liberty Asset Management is a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security
Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA) with respect to investment management services and
investment advice provided to ERISA plan clients, including ERISA plan participants.
Liberty Asset Management is also a fiduciary under the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) with
respect to investment management services and investment advice provided to ERISA
plans, ERISA plan participants, IRAs and IRA owners (collectively, “Retirement Account
Clients”). As such, Liberty Asset Management is subject to specific duties and obligations
under ERISA and the IRC that include, among other things, prohibited transaction rules
which are intended prohibit fiduciaries from acting on conflicts of interest. When a
fiduciary gives advice in which it has a conflict of interest, the fiduciary must either avoid
or eliminate the conflict or rely upon a prohibited transaction exemption (PTE).
Assets Under Management
As of December 31, 2022, Liberty had $99,522,301 under management in 429 accounts on
a discretionary basis and had $7,869,181 under management in 43 accounts on a non-
discretionary basis.