Overview
Sterling Investment Advisors
, LLC
(SIA) was established in 1996 by James G. Jones, CFA, CKA® as a
registered investment advisor under the Investment Advisor Act of 1940. Jones is the principal owner
of the firm. Jones, Tara Parson, CPA, and Troy Bethards, DBA are Investment Advisor Representatives
(advisors) of the firm. The firm is located in Bolivar, Missouri and does not have any other locations or
affiliated companies.
The firm’s primary business is providing investment management advisory services. As a registered
investment advisor, SIA
is required to act as a fiduciary; putting the client’s interest ahead of its own.
The firm is committed to creating individual, well-diversified portfolios with varying levels of expected
risk and return depending on the client’s needs.
The investment management advisory service begins when an advisor meets with the client to discuss
the client’s return objective, risk tolerance (both ability and willingness), liquidity needs, time horizon,
legal constraints, taxes and any unique circumstances. Should a client consider transferring funds from
a qualified plan to a rollover IRA, a diligent and prudent effort will be made to obtain current plan in-
formation and compare the expenses against the offered IRA. The analysis is shared with the client for
evaluation in the transfer decision.
In most cases a multi-year cash flow projection is created which reflects the client’s particular circum-
stances. In these cases, a monte carlo simulation is generated using portfolios with different risk and
return characteristics. A monte carlo simulation is a process of evaluating how well a portfolio
achieves the client’s goals and objectives under many different economic scenarios. By evaluating the
relative performance of the different portfolios, the advisor is better able to formulate a recommenda-
tion.
Once chosen and implemented, the portfolio is reviewed for possible rebalancing every quarter. In ad-
dition, it is important to update a client’s investment plans at least annually. The annual review is
based upon current account values,
updated client goals and objectives, and return and risk expectations
that reflect the current economic conditions. It is at this time the advisor determines whether he/she
will recommend a portfolio change. On infrequent occasions, the advisor may, for a variety of reasons,
recommend a change to the portfolio prior to the annual review.
Of course there are many assumptions made in the investment management planning process. These
include: the timing and size of future cash flows, expected future inflation rates, the expected return
and risk of portfolios, and future tax rates among other things. There is a level of uncertainty regarding
each estimate. While the advisor takes care to make estimates he/she believes are reasonable and con-
sistent with finance theory, they are estimates. As estimates they can be wrong. The investment man-
agement process, including the annual reviews, cannot guarantee a client’s goals and objectives will be
achieved.
Clients may request specific individual securities be purchased and integrated into their billable portfo-
lios. The advisor will determine if these requests are compatible with SIA’s investment philosophy,
and if not, the investment management contracts will be terminated.
SIA may establish discretionary separate accounts for clients which are not subject to billing. These
accounts facilitate certain client objectives which may include, but are not limited to: money market
funds and/or short-term securities held for liquidity purposes, and individual security holdings with
trade restrictions which are not integrated into billable portfolios.
The advisors also provide financial consulting services on an infrequent basis. From time to time an
individual will request advice on financial topics without engaging SIA for investment management
services. In these cases the advisor may elect to provide those services on a per-hour fee basis. These
consulting services represent less than 1% of the firm’s total revenue.
As of December 31, 2023, SIA managed a total of $180,157,026. All funds were managed on a discre-
tionary basis.