Form CRS
Client Relationship Summary March 17, 2025
Southeast Asset Advisors, LLC (“SAA”)
Our firm is registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) as an Investment Adviser.
You have a choice among different types of financial services professionals to assist you with your financial needs. These professionals offer a variety of services and fee arrangements. It is important for you to understand the differences between the services and fee arrangements offered, such as the difference between brokerage and investment advisory services, so that you can make an informed decision. This Summary is designed to help you understand the types of financial services our firm can provide you and the fees we charge for those services. The SEC also provides free and simple tools that allow you to research firms and financial professionals at www.investor.gov/CRS. This site also provides educational materials about broker-dealers, investment advisers and investing.
What Investment Services and Advice Can You Provide Me?
At SAA, we provide investment advisory services to retail investors. We provide portfolio management services in order to implement the investment plan that we develop together with you by investing your assets according to the plan. For this service, we generally require a minimum investment portfolio of $1,000,000. As part of our standard services, we monitor collectively all recommended investments on an ongoing basis, and we review your particular investment account(s) at least quarterly, with interim reviews and updates any time life changes or market conditions call for it. We like to talk to our clients at least annually to check in and make sure we are still on track.
As requested, we provide other general financial services on a project basis, including estate planning, cash flow planning for certain events such as education expenses or retirement, income tax planning analysis and review of your insurance portfolio, as well as other matters specific to you.
We focus our investments on mutual funds and exchange traded funds. We may also utilize individual stocks and other types of investments on a more limited basis in your portfolio. When appropriate, we may recommend the use of third-party managers for part of a client portfolio. Finally, we may recommend private funds to clients who satisfy federally mandated net worth and/or income levels. Some of these private funds are managed by SAA and/or its affiliate (see below for more information).
Most of our clients engage us for discretionary portfolio management. This means that once we agree on an investment plan for your portfolio, we will actively manage your account(s) without contacting you to discuss each investment decision. You may impose certain written restrictions on us in the management of your investment portfolio, such as prohibiting the sale of highly appreciated stocks. You should note, however, that restrictions imposed by you may adversely affect the composition and performance of your investment portfolio. Our non-discretionary assets under management are usually comprised of institutional consulting relationships. Clients who choose a non-discretionary relationship will ultimately make the final decision regarding every investment decision; we must receive your approval for each transaction that we facilitate in your account(s). While we do accommodate these arrangements in limited circumstances, you should know that this can have an impact on our ability to manage your account(s) efficiently and may result in delays in implementing our advice.
By signing our advisory agreement, you will choose whether to grant us discretionary or non-discretionary authority, which will be in effect until either you or we terminate that agreement.
More information is available in our Form ADV Part 2A (our “Brochure”), in Items 4 and 7; please click here for a link to our Brochure or call our office to have a copy sent to you. Here are some questions you might want to discuss with us in more detail:
Given my financial situation, should I choose an investment advisory 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?
Fees and costs will affect the value of your portfolio over time. Portfolio management fees are usually calculated as a percentage of the assets we manage for you and are billed quarterly in advance. This type of fee arrangement provides an incentive for us to encourage you to deposit more assets in your account, which would increase our fees. Consulting and general financial services fees are agreed to in advance of services being provided and are usually assessed on an hourly or fixed fee basis.
In addition to the fees that we charge, your portfolio will incur other expenses assessed by others. The most common examples are brokerage transaction fees (such as the fee that the broker charges to buy or sell a security in your account), fees assessed by the exchanges on which trades are executed, and mutual fund internal expenses. 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. More information is available in our Form ADV Part 2A (our “Brochure”), in Item 5, and we are happy to discuss fee arrangements in more detail with you. For example, you might want to ask:
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 acting as my investment adviser? How else does your firm make money, and what conflicts of interest do you have?
When we act as your investment adviser, we have to act in your best interests and not put our interests 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 can affect the investment advice we provide you. Here are some examples to help you understand what this means.
As described in detail in Item 12 of our Form ADV Part 2A, we recommend that you hold your account(s) at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”), Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC (“Fidelity”) or Raymond James & Associates, Inc. (“Raymond James”), all members New York Stock Exchange/SIPC. These firms offer adviser-based programs. We receive benefits from our participation in these programs, which provides an incentive for us to encourage you to keep your account(s) at Schwab, Fidelity or Raymond James.
As a registered investment adviser, we are held to what is known as a fiduciary standard, which covers our entire investment advisory relationship with you. As a fiduciary, we must eliminate any conflicts of interest or tell you about them in a way you can understand, so that you can decide whether to agree to them.
A conflict of interest exists because SAA is the majority owner and manager of Conifer Advisors, LLC (“Conifer Advisors”), which SAA formed to function as the fund manager of private funds (together the “Conifer Funds”). The Conifer Funds each pay Conifer Advisors compensation structured in two separate components – an asset-based fee based on the value of each fund, and a “performance-based fee” arrangement where Conifer Advisors receives a percentage of the net profit of each fund. In addition, SAA is the Manager of several other private funds in which some qualified clients have invested.
Finally, SAA may enter into other types of performance-based fee arrangements when appropriate in light of client qualification and circumstances. Performance-based fee arrangements create certain conflicts of interest for us. SAA also directly manages some private funds that do not charge any fee. More information is available in our Form ADV Part 2A in Items 10, 11 and 12. To continue this conversation, you might want to ask:
How might your conflicts of interest affect me, and how will you address them?
How do your financial professionals make money?
Our financial professionals are paid a salary and are also eligible to receive bonuses based on new clients brought to the firm and on existing clients retained at the firm, or overall profitability of the firm. Financial professionals who are also owners may also receive their share of corporate distributions. Conifer Advisors pays SAA distributions and fees for services, which also benefits SAA’s principals as owners of Conifer Advisors, thus creating a conflict of interest. As investors in Conifer Funds, the Principals participate in the income/gains/losses from any personal investments in the Conifer Funds. The receipt of compensation based on revenue or profits could influence our financial professionals to recommend that you increase the assets that he or she manages for you.
Do you or your financial professionals have legal or disciplinary history?
No. There is a free and simple tool available at www.Investor.gov/CRS, which you can access at any time to read about our firm and our financial professionals. You might want to ask:
As a financial professional, do you have any disciplinary history? For what type of conduct?
Additional Information
Please refer to our Form ADV (also known as our “Brochure”), as it contains more details on these and other topics. Please call us at (229) 226-8839 or email info@assetadvisor.com to request our latest Brochure and any updated Summary that may be available. You can also visit our website at www.AssetAdvisor.com. Finally, you might want to ask:
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?
Set forth below is the Summary of Material Changes for Southeast Asset Advisors, LLC. These are changes made to our Form CRS that we believe prudent investors may find material.
Date of Change: March 2025
The Form CRS was revised to clarify disclosures regarding the differences between brokerage and investment advisory services and fees. We also clarified disclosures regarding our legal obligations to you.
