Alan B. Lancz and Associates, Inc. (hereinafter “ABL, Inc.” or the “Firm”) is an SEC-registered
investment adviser organized in the State of Ohio. The Firm was formed in 1982, and its principal
owner is Alan B. Lancz.
Alan B. Lancz is the President and sole owner of Firm. He graduated from the University of
Toledo with a B.A. degree (Psychology) and established his own firm specializing in financial
planning and investments in 1980. In 1981, Mr. Lancz became managing executive for the
predecessor of Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. In 1985, Mr. Lancz incorporated this
professional money management entity as a part of ABL, Inc. Since February 27, 2020, Alan
B. Lancz has both his general securities and registered principal licenses with Crescent
Securities, an SEC-registered broker-dealer that is not affiliated with ABL, Inc. Approximately
one year prior Mr. Lancz resigned from International Assets Advisory, which held his licenses
since 2015, MidAmerica Financial Services, Inc. held them the prior ten years and Capital
Investment Group held them for the ten years prior to MidAmerica. Please note that all final
decisions concerning professional money management accounts are made by Alan B. Lancz.
As of December 2023, Alan B. Lancz and Associates, Inc. manages $162,137,398 of assets
on a discretionary basis.
The Firm provides money management services, custom designed to each client’s specific
goals, objectives, and risk tolerance. This ranges from guaranteed accounts and negotiating
the most competitive interest rates and terms to a variety of non-guaranteed combinations,
depending on each client’s objectives. This could encompass equities, fixed income,
alternative investments, currencies, and commodities, among other vehicles, all from a global
perspective. Tax and risk management are critical components of ABL, Inc.’s services.
The Firm also advises both employers and participants on employee benefits, financial,
retirement, and estate planning, on a case by case basis.
ABL, Inc. emphasizes the unrestricted right of the client to specify investment objectives,
guidelines, and/or other conditions for the management of their account. (See Item 13 for more
information).
ABL Portfolio/Wealth Management
Personalized Portfolio(s) are specially designed based on clients’ individual goals, objectives,
risk tolerances and time horizon. This includes independent analysis of current portfolio(s) to
coordinate proprietary portfolios toward clients’ stated goals and objectives. Portfolios may
vary from guaranteed savings to income to aggressive growth, and any combination of these.
Income oriented portfolios may have combinations of various bonds, dividend paying stocks,
preferred stocks, and other types of income vehicles. Goals, objectives, and/or risk levels may
be modified in writing by client at any time.
SOUND Investing Services
"SOUND Investing" is a service offered by ABL, Inc. for investors seeking personalized
investment advice on no-load, lower cost mutual funds, exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), as
well as various other investment vehicles, including individual securities when applicable. This
service can be utilized in conjunction with our advisory managed accounts or separately for
those investors that do not meet the $500,000 minimum for our money management services
or would rather have an asset allocation program of mutual funds, ETFs, Structured Products,
and certificates of deposit (“CDs”).
As part of ABL, Inc.’s SOUND Investing services, clients receive personalized portfolio analysis
along with proprietary, discretionary asset allocation to match each client’s specific goals and
objectives.
Retirement Plan Consultation Services
As part of the consulting services that ABL, Inc. provides under the SOUND Investing program,
ABL, Inc. may provide pension-consulting services to employee benefit plans and their
fiduciaries based upon an analysis of the needs of the plan. In general, these services may
include an existing plan review, asset allocation advice, money management services,
communication, and education services where ABL, Inc. will assist the plan sponsor in
providing meaningful information regarding the retirement plan to its participants, investment
performance monitoring, and/or ongoing consulting.
Upon request, ABL, Inc. will hold educational meetings for the plan employees and provide
information on the plan specifics and allocation choices. ABL, Inc. offers financial education
and investment management guidance in the form of personal consultations through its
SOUND Investing services. ABL, Inc. will also meet with plan participants individually or via
educational webinars and offer personalized information based on their individual objectives.
Clients are expected to notify ABL, Inc. of any changes in their financial situation, investment
objectives, or account restrictions.
Financial Planning Services
ABL, Inc. prepares individual financial plans and/or reports for clients. The report is based
upon the information and assumptions provided by the client. This report provides broad and
general guidelines on the advantages of certain financial planning concepts and does not
constitute a recommendation of any particular technique and does not recommend the
purchase or sale of specific securities. Nor does the plan or report provide legal, accounting,
financial, tax or other advice. Rather, the report and any illustrations therein provide a
summary of certain potential financial
strategies. The term “plan” or “planning” when used
within a report does not imply that a recommendation has been made to implement one or
more financial plans or make a particular investment. One should consult their tax and/or legal
advisors before implementing any transactions and/or strategies concerning their finances.
The plans and/or reports may be comprehensive or focused on certain specific goals. A
Comprehensive Plan includes up to 16 hours of total effort working on Financial Position,
Insurance Analysis, Tax Management, Investment Analysis and Planning, Estate Planning or
any combination thereof. After the plan is complete and delivered to the client, the client’s
investment advisory relationship with the firm ends. The firm will not automatically monitor or
update the plan. Any plan updates will be a separate and distinct service and will involve a
separate advisory relationship subject to a separate agreement between the client and the firm.
After receiving a financial plan, a client may decide to implement the plan. Implementing a
financial plan involves purchasing products and/or services, separate and apart from the
financial plan itself. Clients may implement the plan through ABL, Inc. or any unaffiliated
financial institution of their choice. Since the financial planning relationship terminates upon
completion and delivery of the financial plan to the client, any implementation of the plan with
the firm or an affiliate is achieved through a separate relationship with the client. The nature
and extent of the separate relationship will depend on the nature of the services and/or
products the client selects and will be clearly specified in the documents provided to the client.
Retirement Plan Rollover Recommendations
If we recommend you roll over your account from a current retirement plan to an individual
retirement account (“Rollover IRA”), managed by ABL, Inc., please know that the Firm and our
investment adviser representatives have a conflict of interest. We can earn increased
investment advisory fees by recommending that you roll over your account at the retirement
plan to a Rollover IRA managed by ABL, Inc. We will not earn investment advisory fees if you
do not roll over the funds in the retirement plan to a Rollover IRA managed by ABL, Inc. Thus,
our investment adviser representatives have an economic incentive to recommend a rollover of
funds from a retirement plan to a Rollover IRA which is a conflict of interest because our
recommendation that you open an IRA account to be managed by our firm can be based on
our economic incentive and not based exclusively on whether moving the IRA to our
management program is in your overall best interest.
We have taken steps to manage this conflict of interest. We have adopted an impartial conduct
standard whereby our investment adviser representatives will (i) provide investment advice to a
retirement plan participant regarding a rollover of funds from the retirement plan in accordance
with the fiduciary status described below, (ii) not recommend investments which result in ABL,
Inc. receiving unreasonable compensation related to the rollover of funds from the retirement
plan to a Rollover IRA, and (iii) fully disclose compensation received by ABL, Inc. and our
supervised persons and any material conflicts of interest related to recommending the rollover
of funds from the retirement plan to a Rollover IRA and refrain from making any materially
misleading statements regarding such rollover.
To the extent we provide you investment advice as a participant in a retirement plan regarding
whether to maintain investments or proceeds in the retirement plan, roll over such investment
or proceeds from the retirement plan to a Rollover IRA, or make a distribution from the
retirement plan, ABL, Inc. acknowledges our fiduciary obligations to you regarding these
activities.
Consulting Services-Corporate
ABL, Inc. offers consulting services for businesses focused on particular issues such as
business strategy, financial modeling, business continuation, business exiting strategies,
qualified retirement plans, non-qualified deferred compensation, and executive/key person
compensation. Compensation will be disclosed to businesses in writing and could range from
hourly fees to granting of advisor shares, warrants, options, or any combination thereof. After
receiving the consulting service, the client may decide to implement the recommendations
resulting from the consulting service. In this case, similar conflicts as outlined under financial
planning above apply. Investment, financial and retirement planning to principals, officers,
executives, and other employees are available on a flat fee or hourly basis.
Pooled Investment Vehicles
ABL, Inc. also provides investment advisory services to a series of pooled investment vehicles
(each a “Fund” and collectively the “Funds”) that are exempt from registration under the
Investment Company Act of 1940. The investment objective of Contrarian Assets Holdings,
LLC (formerly Contrarian Assets Partnership) is to invest in S.T.L. Drilling Fund A, provide tax
advantage through the Intangible Drilling Cost (IDC) deduction and distribute income from
producing partnership wells of S.T.L Drilling Fund. The investment objective of Contrarian
Assets 2 Partnership is to invest in S.T.L. Drilling Fund B, provide tax advantages through
Intangible Drilling Costs (IDC), and pay out proportionate distributions from the fund.