Essex, LLC is a registered investment adviser with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. This registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission does not imply a specific level of skill or training. We also caution that with any investment, there is a risk of capital loss. The employees of Essex, LLC are consultants with decades of experience in the investment management, tax, and estate planning practices. Essex, LLC generally requires that all persons associated with the organization in professional capacities will have at least a college education, although in exceptional circumstances significant business experience may be accepted in lieu of a college degree. Most members of the professional staff have advanced degrees in business or have earned other professional designations. James W. Hartwell, born in January 1966, is the President of Essex, LLC, and the CFO. At present he owns 95% of Essex, LLC. Mr. Hartwell received both his undergraduate degree and his MBA from Mankato State University in 1988 and 1994 respectively. He received his Certified Funds Specialist (CFS) designation in 1994. The Certified Fund Specialist is a designation of the Institute of Business & Finance and is the oldest designation in the mutual fund industry. This designation will help the investment adviser in understanding how a mutual fund investment will interact within the portfolio through the criteria such as alpha, beta, correlation coefficient and how this data can be used in the construction of the portfolio. In 1991 Mr. Hartwell started Essex Financial and in 1997, along with Mr. Arthur Freedman, began Essex, LLC. In addition to his obligations at Essex, LLC he is also a member of the investment committee for the Little City Charity. Arthur A. Freedman, born in December 1949, is a graduate of the University of Illinois and has received his MBA from Northwestern University. In addition, he is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with membership in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Illinois CPA Society. In order to obtain the professional designation of CPA one must have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and the requisite exam on ethics. Once conferred, the CPA must generally complete a designated number of hours of continuing education to maintain the CPA designation. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, (AICPA) is the national professional organization for Certified Public Accountants, (CPAs), in the United States. The AICPA mission is to provide members with the resources, information, continuing education, and leadership that enable them to provide services in the highest professional manner to benefit the public. Prior to the creation of Essex, LLC, Mr. Freedman was a senior partner in the Chicago accounting firm of Friedman, Eisenstein, Raemer, and Schwartz (FERS) where he headed the Personal Financial Planning division. Robert C. Tutela joined Essex in 2016 from JP Morgan Asset Management in New York providing trading, compliance, and operational services for a variety of products to both retail and private bank clients. His experience provides him invaluable knowledge for portfolio management and the overall nature of the Investment Advisory business. He is a graduate from Montclair State University with a B.S. in Finance and Business Administration. He is the Chief Compliance Officer and a Portfolio Manager for Essex, as well as a member of the Investment Committee. Benjamin A. Cairns joined Essex in 2014 and is the Chief Operating Officer of Essex, LLC. At this time Mr. Cairns is an owner of 5% of the company. In addition to earning a Bachelor of Business Administration from Western Michigan University, he is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. The rigorous educational requirement for the CFP® exam has prepared Ben to facilitate clients through all aspects of the financial planning process. Prior to joining ESSEX, he enjoyed a 20-year career in publishing. Ben also serves as a member of the Investment Committee. Edward (Ted) Connolly joined Essex in 2021 as a Portfolio Manager and Financial Advisor. Prior to that he spent 15 years with Iron Financial, a Registered Investment Advisor, where he ran a number of fixed income strategies as well as options, REITs, risk-based ETF’s and mutual fund portfolios. He brings extensive experience as a trader and portfolio manager to his role at Essex. Ted is a graduate of Connecticut College with a BA in Economics and serves as a member of the Investment Committee. Justin T Nolan joined Essex in 2016 from JP Morgan Private Bank where he created and executed financial plans that ensured individual and family wealth preservation and growth. As a third-generation member of the CBOT for over 20 years, Justin built and ran the largest order execution business on the financial floor at the exchange. Since then, Justin’s focus has been private investment and wealth management. With over 35 years of experience in equities, fixed income and alternatives, Justin brings a vast depth of knowledge in market strategy to Essex. Mr. Hartwell, Mr. Freedman, Mr. Tutela, Mr. Cairns, Mr. Connolly, and Mr. Nolan comprise the investment policy committee for Essex, LLC. The investment policy committee will offer advice to our clients on the following types of investment vehicles:
• Exchange listed, over-the-counter and foreign stocks or American Depositary Receipt (ADR) equities
• Warrants

• Corporate debt
• Commercial Paper
• Certificates of deposit
• Municipal Securities
• United States Government or Agency debt
• Option Contracts
• Futures Contracts on tangibles or intangibles
• Investment Company securities including mutual fund shares, variable insurance contracts and variable annuities. None of the employees of Essex, LLC are registered representatives of a broker/dealer. A broker/dealer is one who makes a market, or maintains an orderly market in a security, and will buy and sell securities from their inventory. Essex, LLC does not make a market in securities, nor do we underwrite new issue securities. Essex, LLC primarily provides investment management services, but also provides advice through consultations which may involve tax or estate matters and not involve securities. Some of our investment adviser representatives will only provide comprehensive investment management services which will include portfolio management, and financial planning. Depending on the advisor you elect to work with, you may pay a higher fee that will be fully disclosed in our agreement with you. Essex, LLC acting as a fiduciary providing fiduciary investment advice covered by the fiduciary rule ensures adherence to the Impartial Conduct Standards – to provide advice that is in your best interest, receives only reasonable compensation for doing so, and does not intend to make any materially misleading statements. All clients have varying investment objectives, time horizons, and risk tolerances. At Essex, LLC, upon consultation with the client or potential client, we will construct an investment portfolio in an attempt to achieve those objectives. Essex, LLC manages client accounts on a discretionary and a non-discretionary basis. This gives Essex, LLC the authority to supervise and direct the investment of the client’s account without prior consultation with the client. The Essex, LLC trading authority may be made subject to conditions imposed in writing by the client, e.g., where the client restricts or prohibits purchases or sales of certain securities. For example, the client may have inherited securities from a relative, a client may own stock in the company for which they work, or the client would prefer to avoid investment in various sectors of the market such as tobacco or alcohol related securities. The investment advisory services consist primarily of a portfolio management service that allocates and periodically re-allocates the client assets among various investment securities. The client assets will be invested in stocks, exchange traded funds (ETFs), bonds and investment company shares (mutual funds). Based upon a review of the client’s investment objective, risk tolerance and financial and tax situation, Essex, LLC will create a model client portfolio. Clients with similar characteristics will receive similar portfolio recommendations and investments. Any investment additions deemed as materially complex in nature respective to expenses or conflicts of interest will be presented prior to the time of transaction. Additionally, Essex LLC documents and addresses any and all material conflicts of interest with you, requires our representatives do not receive compensation that incentivizes recommendations that may not be in your best interest, and designates a responsible party to oversee the adherence of these terms. Essex, LLC does not participate in any “wrap fee programs”. A “wrap account” investment program is a consulting relationship in which a client’s funds are placed with one or more money m a n a g e r s , a n d all the administrative and management fees, along with commissions, are wrapped into one comprehensive fee. Essex, LLC manages all client investment accounts directly. Essex, LLC offers the use of a third-party platform (Pontera) to facilitate management of held away assets such as defined contribution plan participant accounts, with discretion. The platform allows us to avoid being considered to have custody of Client funds since we do not have direct access to Client log-in credentials to affect trades. We are not affiliated with the platform in any way and receive no compensation from them for using their platform. A link will be provided to the Client allowing them to connect an account(s) to the platform. Once Client account(s) is connected to the platform, Adviser will review the current account allocations. When deemed necessary, Adviser will rebalance the account considering client investment goals and risk tolerance, and any change in allocations will consider current economic and market trends. The goal is to improve account performance over time, minimize loss during difficult markets, and manage internal fees that harm account performance. Client account(s) will be reviewed periodically, and allocation changes will be made as deemed necessary. Assets Under Management Essex, LLC manages investment accounts on a discretionary and a non-discretionary basis. As of December 31, 2022, Essex, LLC managed approximately $392,397,145 in assets for 1607 accounts. Of this amount, $364,140,701 was managed on a discretionary basis for 1575 accounts and $28,256,444 are assets, of 32 accounts, upon which we provide consultation. Of these assets, $66,249,750are considered custodial due to new interpretations of the custody rule, however Essex has no physical custody of client assets.