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Personal Financial Advising

Many clients retain Albion Financial Group to provide personal financial advisory services. These services appeal to individuals and families who value an ongoing relationship with a team of qualified professionals. Typically, our clients have accumulated substantial wealth, or are high-income individuals in the early stages of wealth accumulation.

Members of Albion's professional staff are experienced in all critical areas of personal financial advising:

 

Goal Setting

Financial Planning cannot be performed in a vacuum. At the beginning of the planning engagement, and constantly throughout the process, Albion works to understand your personal financial and lifetime goals. An understanding of who you are and what you would like to accomplish provides the essential framework for your entire plan.

Net Worth and Cash Flow Analysis

With an initial understanding of your goals and objectives Albion turns to an assessment of your current financial situation. This entails a detailed information-gathering exercise uncovering all assets and liabilities to determine your net worth. A cash flow analysis is used to enhance our understanding of your needs.

The information from these analyses is viewed from a variety of perspectives. For example, we may determine that your investment allocation should be changed to better match your stated goals. We may also decide that your annual savings rate should be changed or redirected.

Income and Capital Gains Tax Analysis

Your income and investment structure is analyzed with an eye toward uncovering any tax efficiencies that may enhance your financial situation. This may be simple, such as shifting from taxable to tax-exempt money market funds. A more complex recommendation might involve prepaying certain tax preference items to minimize the impact of the Alternative Minimum Tax.

In all tax issues Albion works with your Accountant to develop a balanced plan that is most suitable for you.

Illiquid Asset Issues

Many of Albion's clients have at least one valuable asset that is relatively illiquid. It may be a closely-held business, a piece of real estate, or a collection of antique automobiles. We analyze the asset in the context of your overall goals in order to ensure that our overall planning advice is appropriate.

In many cases you may have specific goals for your illiquid asset which must be taken into account. For example you may wish to have the closely-held company pass directly to your children, or the automobile collection donated to a specific museum.

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Education Funding

Many parents and grandparents, aware of the rapid escalation of costs for both secondary and higher education, wish to take the appropriate steps to meet education funding needs within their family.

We help you estimate future education expenses, determine reasonable rate of return assumptions, and explore various education funding alternatives including trusts, Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, 529 plans, and Uniform Transfers to Minors Act accounts.

Albion analyzes education funding options in the context of your overall financial picture to assess its impact on your long-term financial plan.

Retirement Planning

The primary financial goal for many of Albion's clients is achieving a comfortable retirement. We can help guide you toward financial independence and a secure retirement through planning that includes detailed analysis and forecasts of your pre- and post-retirement life.

Our professional team reviews your current retirement savings strategies, including 401(k), 403(b), IRA, pension, and social security plans and provides advice to help increase your chances of achieving financial independence.

Albion helps you maintain your standard of living through careful investment management focused on maximizing after-tax income throughout your retirement years.

Estate Planning

Careful estate planning helps you ensure that the assets you have created continue to benefit those people and causes that are most important to you. Without such planning, your estate may be severely diminished by federal and state taxes, with the remainder distributed in ways you might not have chosen.

Albion reviews your current plan with specific attention to the stream of beneficiaries and potential tax consequences. We then recommend strategies, consistent with your goals, that may be implemented to transfer more to your heirs while providing financial advantages to you for your lifetime. Albion works with your estate planning attorney throughout this process.

Personal and Family Risk Mitigation Tools

A review of financial risks is an important part of the planning process. Some risks are difficult to mitigate. However for other risks insurance can be a very useful tool. Albion helps you evaluate your life insurance needs, and compiles a summary of your other policies so the information is readily available in the event of an emergency.

We also evaluate various ownership structures for your insurance policies to help you and your family maximize the benefit that such products provide.

As your primary financial advisor, Albion works with you to maintain a comprehensive list of your personal financial information. Such a list may include investment assets, estate planning documents, insurance policies, safe deposit boxes, names of related parties, and instructions for those who may be required to manage your financial affairs if you are unable. Such information is priceless to those who are working to arrange a smooth transition during a difficult time.

Charitable Gifting Strategies

Once they have sufficient wealth to ensure their own financial stability, many people take great pleasure in supporting charitable causes.

Albion's team has the knowledge and experience to address how charitable giving impacts both your charitable and non-charitable goals. We can guide you through the broad spectrum of philanthropic strategies in an effort to find the most appropriate tools for your situation. Such guidance includes how charitable giving may impact your current and future cash flows, your current and future income taxes, your favored charitable causes, and the estate to be passed on to your heirs.

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