accounts demystified Assets, liabilities and balance sheets Typically, individuals and companies both have assets and liabilities. An asset can be one of two things. It is either: something you own; for example, money, land, buildings, goods, brand names, shares in other companies, etc., or something you are owed by someone else, i.e. something which is technically yours, but is currently in someone else's possession. More often than not, it's money you are owed, but it could be any- thing. A liability is anything you owe to someone else and expect to have to hand over in due course. Liabilities are usually money, but they can be anything.