Form 497K EA Series Trust

 

SUMMARY PROSPECTUS

September 28, 2022

 

Altrius Global Dividend ETF

Ticker Symbol: DIVD

Listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market^®

 

Before you invest, you may want to review the statutory prospectus (the “Prospectus”), which contains more information about the Altrius Global Dividend ETF (the “Fund”) and its risks. You can find the Fund’s Prospectus, reports to shareholders, and other information about the Fund, including the Fund’s Statement of Additional Information, online at www.strivefunds.com. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 215-882-9983. The current Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information dated September 26, 2022 are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus.

 

Altrius Global Dividend ETF

 

Fund Summary

 

Investment Objective

 

Altrius Global Dividend ETF (the “Fund”) seeks long-term capital growth of capital and income.

 

Fees And Expenses

 

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You may also pay brokerage commissions on the purchase and sale of Shares, which are not reflected in the table or example.

 

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

 

Management Fee			0.49	%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees			None
Other Expenses1			0.00	%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses			0.49	%

 

1

Other Expenses are estimated for the current fiscal year.

 

Example

 

The following example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. You may also pay brokerage commissions on the purchase and sale of Shares, which are not reflected in the example. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

 

	One Year:	Three Years:
	$50	$157

 

Portfolio Turnover

 

The Fund may pay transaction costs, including commissions when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. At the date of this Prospectus, the Fund has not yet commenced operations and portfolio turnover data therefore is not available.

 

 

PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

 

Altrius Global Dividend ETF (the “Fund”) is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that is designed to provide capital appreciation and income by identifying dividend paying companies with attractive valuations and other financial characteristics. Altrius Capital Management, Inc. (the “Sub-Adviser”) is responsible for the Fund’s security investment recommendations. The Sub-Adviser acts as a non-discretionary sub-adviser and provides its investment recommendations to Empowered Funds, LLC dba EA Advisers (the “Adviser”). In turn, the Adviser makes the corresponding trades.

 

To pursue its objective, the Fund will invest at least 90% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in dividend-paying equity securities. The principal type of equity security in which the Fund will invest is common stock. The Fund invests primarily in the securities of issuers that the Sub-Adviser believes to have attractive valuations, potential for long-term growth, sustainable dividends, and other attractive financial characteristics. The Fund’s portfolio is composed of approximately 45 to 100 stocks (including American Depositary Receipts or “ADRs”). Under normal market conditions, at least 30% of the Fund’s assets will be invested outside the United States. The majority of the stocks normally will have market capitalizations greater than $1 billion at the time of purchase by the Fund.

 

The Fund intends to diversify its investments across different countries, and the percentage of the Fund’s assets invested in particular countries or regions will change from time to time based on the Sub-Adviser’s judgment (as described below). The Fund intends to invest in the securities of companies located in developed countries and, to a lesser extent, those located in emerging markets. The Fund may consider investments in companies in any of the world’s developed stock markets, such as the United States or the United Kingdom and stock markets in the European Union or Asia Pacific. The Fund may invest up to 20% of the Fund’s total assets in emerging market companies, however it is expected that emerging market investments will generally be less than 5% of the portfolio.

 

The Sub-Adviser employs the following three-step approach starting with a global macro (top down) approach, further refined by bottom-up value investment analysis, and finalized by the selection of companies that have been paying and show a commitment, to increasing their dividend.

 

Step 1: The Sub-Adviser first considers its global macro views and identifies sectors consistent with those views based on positive demographics and durable businesses (as defined by the issuer’s market capitalization) with an emphasis on demand changes. Positive demographics include developed, stabilized and growing economies, which are evaluated based on national GDP growth. Sectors are selected based on the Sub-Adviser’s global macro views of the sectors that it believes will benefit from global macro conditions over a minimum of the next five years.

 

Once the global macro sectors are identified, individual securities are evaluated based on their total return (projected dividends plus anticipated capital appreciation), and then evaluated through fundamental analysis.

 

Step 2: From a total return perspective, the Sub-Adviser identifies all sources of a company’s returns, including dividends, which are often overlooked by investors, dividend growth and expected capital appreciation. The Sub-Adviser seeks to identify companies that pay higher than average dividends as compared to the S&P 500 Index or MSCI EAFE Index, and companies that have generally increased their dividends over the last 15 years. The Sub-Adviser considers a company’s balance sheet and cashflow statements to determine how a company has historically grown earnings and how the earnings growth has impacted future dividend payment. The Sub-Adviser may also invest in companies that have shorter histories of dividends if such dividends are stable.

 

Step 3: From a value perspective the Sub-Adviser focuses on above average yielding, durable businesses that it believes are trading below their intrinsic value. The Sub-Adviser in particular considers businesses that have price to cash flow and price to earnings ratios generally below 15x. The Sub-Adviser defines value in three subcategories; (1) classic value – companies selling at valuations relative to their earning power, (2) persistent earners – well established companies that have dependable revenue growth, reliable earnings, and a history (generally over 15 years) of healthy dividend appreciation, and (3) distressed/contrarian – companies that are selling at significant discounts to their intrinsic value due to market inefficiencies driven by irrational sell offs.

 

 

The Fund is diversified by issuer, industry, and country. The Fund is further diversified in that at least 75% of its total net assets will be invested in companies that each represent less than 5% of the Fund’s total net assets. In addition, the Sub-Adviser will periodically rebalance its holdings, based on the performance of each security, at which time no one portfolio asset will represent more than 10% of the Fund’s total net assets. The Fund may also invest up to 10% of its assets in cash and cash equivalents as well as securities and other instruments.

 

The Sub-Adviser will generally sell a portfolio investment if an issuer cuts or eliminates its dividend, a company’s valuation exceeds certain metrics, such as the Sub-Adviser’s price targets, price to earnings and/or price to cash flow, which make the security, in the Sub-Adviser’s view, overvalued.

 

Principal Risks

 

An investment in the Fund involves risk, including those described below. There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. An investor may lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the FDIC or any government agency. More complete risk descriptions are set forth below under the heading “Additional Information About the Fund’s Principal Risks”.

 

Dividend-Paying Common Equity Security Risk. In selecting common equity securities in which the Fund will invest, the Sub-Adviser will consider the issuer’s history of paying regular periodic dividends to its common equity holders. Such dividends are not fixed but are paid periodically at the discretion of the issuer’s board of directors. Companies that have historically paid dividends are not required to continue to pay dividends and could reduce or eliminate the payment of dividends in the future.

 

Growth Stock Investment Risk. Growth-oriented common stocks may involve larger price swings and greater potential for loss than other types of investments. Growth stocks tend to trade at a premium when analyzed using traditional valuation metrics such as price-to-earnings ratio and price-to-book ratio. Due to this premium valuation, growth stocks tend to be more susceptible to big price swings. In bull markets, they tend to rise at a much faster pace than the overall market, and they tend to decline at a more rapid rate in bear markets.

 

Value Investing Risk. The Sub-Adviser may be wrong in its assessment of a company’s value, and the stocks the Fund owns may not reach what the Sub-Adviser believes are their true or intrinsic values. The market may not favor value-oriented stocks and may not favor equities at all, which may cause the Fund’s relative performance to suffer.

 

There may be periods during which the Fund is unable to find securities that meet its value investment criteria. If the Fund is selling investments or experiencing net subscriptions during those periods, the Fund could have a significant cash position, which could adversely impact the Fund’s performance under certain market conditions and could make it more difficult for the Fund to achieve its investment objective.

 

Depositary Receipts. In addition to the risk of foreign investments applicable to the underlying securities, unsponsored depositary receipts may also be subject to the risks that the foreign issuer may not be obligated to cooperate with the U.S. depository, may not provide additional financial and other information to the depository or the investor, or that such information in the U.S. market may not be current.

 

Foreign Investment Risk. Returns on investments in foreign securities could be more volatile than, or trail the returns on, investments in U.S. securities. Investments in or exposures to foreign securities are subject to special risks, including risks associated with foreign securities generally. Those special risks may arise due to differences in information available about issuers of securities and investor protection standards applicable in other jurisdictions; capital controls risks, including the risk of a foreign jurisdiction imposing restrictions on the ability to repatriate or transfer currency or other assets; currency risks; political, diplomatic and economic risks; regulatory risks; and foreign market and trading risks, including the costs of trading and risks of settlement in foreign jurisdictions. 

 

 

Emerging Markets Risk. The Fund may invest in companies organized in emerging market nations. Investments in securities and instruments traded in developing or emerging markets, or that provide exposure to those securities or markets, can involve additional risks relating to political, economic, or regulatory conditions not associated with investments in U.S. securities and instruments or investments in more developed international markets. Those conditions may impact the ability of the Fund to buy, sell or otherwise transfer securities, adversely affect the trading market and price for Fund shares and cause the Fund to decline in value.

 

Small- and Mid-Capitalization Company Risk. Investing in securities of small- and mid-capitalization companies involves greater risk than customarily is associated with investing in larger, more established companies. These companies’ securities may be more volatile and less liquid than those of more established companies. Often small- and mid-capitalization companies and the industries in which they focus are still evolving and, as a result, they may be more sensitive to changing market conditions.

 

Investment Risk. When you sell your Shares of the Fund, they could be worth less than what you paid for them. The Fund could lose money due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns. Securities may decline in value due to factors affecting securities markets generally or particular asset classes or industries represented in the markets. The value of a security may decline due to general market conditions, economic trends or events that are not specifically related to the issuer of the security or to factors that affect a particular industry or group of industries. During a general downturn in the securities markets, multiple asset classes may be negatively affected. Therefore, you may lose money by investing in the Fund.

 

Equity Investing Risk. An investment in the Fund involves risks similar to those of investing in any fund holding equity securities, such as market fluctuations, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in stock prices. The values of equity securities could decline generally or could underperform other investments. In addition, securities may decline in value due to factors affecting a specific issuer, market or securities markets generally.

 

Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed and may not meet its investment objective based on the Adviser’s or Sub-Adviser’s success or failure to implement investment strategies for the Fund. The Sub-Adviser’s evaluations and assumptions regarding investments may not successfully achieve the Fund’s investment objective given actual market trends. In addition, there is the risk that the Sub-Adviser’s investment process, techniques and analyses will not produce the desired investment results and the Fund may lose value as a result. Absent unusual circumstances (e.g., the Adviser determines a different security has higher liquidity but offers a similar investment profile as a recommended security), the Adviser will generally follow Sub-Adviser’s investment recommendations to buy, hold, and sell securities and financial instruments. However, the Adviser may deviate from Sub-Adviser recommendations due to a clear error in a particular recommendation, compliance concerns (e.g., concentration limits), liquidity concerns, authorized participant-related concerns, or due to regulatory requirements.

 

ETF Risks

 

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Authorized Participants, Market Makers and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as Authorized Participants (“APs”). In addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events occur, Shares may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these services, or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their functions.

 

●

Premium-Discount Risk. The Shares may trade above or below their net asset value (“NAV”). The market prices of Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in NAV as well as the relative supply of, and demand for, Shares on the The Nasdaq Stock Market® (the “Exchange”) or other securities exchanges. The existence of significant market volatility, disruptions to creations and redemptions, or potential lack of an active trading market for Fund Shares (including through a trading halt), among other factors, may result in the Shares trading significantly above (at a premium) or below (at a discount) to NAV. If you buy Fund Shares when their market price is at a premium or sell the Fund Shares when their market price is at a discount, you may pay more than, or receive less than, NAV, respectively.

 

 

●

Cost of Trading Risk. Investors buying or selling Shares in the secondary market will pay brokerage commissions or other charges imposed by brokers as determined by that broker. Brokerage commissions are often a fixed amount and may be a significant proportional cost for investors seeking to buy or sell relatively small amounts of Shares.

 

●

Trading Risk. Although the Shares are listed on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active or liquid trading market for them will develop or be maintained. In addition, trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted. In stressed market conditions, the liquidity of the Fund’s Shares may begin to mirror the liquidity of its underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than the Fund’s Shares, potentially causing the market price of the Fund’s Shares to deviate from its NAV. When buying or selling Shares of the Fund in the secondary market, you will likely incur brokerage commission or other charges. In addition, you may incur the cost of the “spread” also known as the bid-ask spread, which is the difference between what investors are willing to pay for Fund Shares (the “bid” price) and the price at which they are willing to sell Fund Shares (the “ask” price). The bid-ask spread varies over time based on, among other things, trading volume, market liquidity and market volatility. Because of the costs inherent in buying or selling Fund Shares, frequent trading may detract significantly from investment results and an investment in Fund Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments due to the associated trading costs.

 

New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors have no track record or history on which to base their investment decision. There can be no assurance that the Fund will grow to or maintain an economically viable size.

 

Geopolitical/Natural Disaster Risks. The Fund’s investments are subject to geopolitical and natural disaster risks, such as war, terrorism, trade disputes, political or economic dysfunction within some nations, public health crises and related geopolitical events, as well as environmental disasters, epidemics and/or pandemics, which may add to instability in world economies and volatility in markets. The impact may be short-term or may last for extended periods.

 

PERFORMANCE

 

Performance information is not provided below because the Fund has not yet been in operation for one full calendar year. When provided, the information will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing how the Fund’s average annual returns compare with a broad measure of market performance. Past performance does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Performance information is available on the Fund’s website at www.altriusfunds.com or by calling the Fund at (215) 882-9983.

 

Investment Adviser & Investment Sub-Adviser

 

Investment Adviser:	Empowered Funds, LLC dba EA Advisers (“Adviser”)
Investment Sub-Adviser:	Altrius Capital Management, Inc. (“Sub-Adviser”)

 

Portfolio Managers

 

James M. Russo, Founder and Chief Investment Strategist of the Sub-Adviser, has been primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund since 2022.

 

Mr. Russo provides his recommendations to Messrs. Brandon Koepke and Richard Shaner, Portfolio Managers of the Adviser, who, since 2022, have also been primarily and jointly responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund.

 

 

Summary Information about Purchases, Sales, Taxes, and Financial Intermediary Compensation

 

Purchase And Sale Of Fund Shares

 

The Fund issues and redeems Shares on a continuous basis only in large blocks of Shares, typically 10,000 Shares, called “Creation Units,” and only APs (typically, broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem Creation Units. Creation Units generally are issued and redeemed ‘in-kind’ for securities and partially in cash. Individual Shares may only be purchased and sold in secondary market transactions through brokers. Once created, individual Shares generally trade in the secondary market at market prices that change throughout the day. Market prices of Shares may be greater or less than their NAV. Except when aggregated in Creation Units, the Fund’s shares are not redeemable securities.

 

Tax Information

 

The Fund’s distributions generally are taxable to you as ordinary income, capital gain, or some combination of both, unless your investment is in an Individual Retirement Account (“IRA”) or other tax-advantaged account. However, subsequent withdrawals from such a tax-advantaged account may be subject to federal income tax. You should consult your tax advisor about your specific tax situation.

 

Purchases Through Broker-Dealers And Other Financial Intermediaries

 

If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary, the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend Shares over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

 

 

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