We all endure challenges and adversities at certain points of our life. These obstacles bring out the best and worst of us: our patience, fortitude, empathy, and compassion. By facing difficulties head-on and overcoming them, we evolve into better individuals who overcome future obstacles with clarity of confidence and strength of resolve that comes from knowing we have been through the worst and prevailed.
Audwin Levasseur is amongst the many leaders who has seen the ups and downs of life and has fought hard to win over his adversities. His will to overcome his family’s financial hurdles empowered him to turn his pain into his power and master the fronts of finance and law. He currently leads by example with the position of Family Wealth Advisor at Axial Family Advisors in Florida, United States.
Taking on the Challenge
Audwin, in his early years, saw his family struggling to keep up with their financial needs. He remembers distinctly how his mother moved to the United States with a dime in her pocket and how he used to make jokes with his older brothers that they were so broke, they had to save to be poor.
Due to such circumstances, everything Audwin did, whether scholastically, athletically, or virtually, was modeled after his mother’s work ethic. He saw how his mother put it all on the line for the family, and his brother was working two to three jobs just to put food on the table. In those years, there was only one thing that stayed on top of Audwin’s mind — financially taking care of his mother. And that became his relentless goal.
Audwin learned arduously and graduated with High Honors at Rutgers University and then went on to get a Law Degree at the Columbia Law School. With a preference towards Finance and Law, Audwin sought to bridge the gap between both and eventually helped his family grow and protect their assets.
Following his education, Audwin commenced his professional journey with a private legal practice in the New York-Jersey metropolitan region that eventually continued for over a decade.
During his stint, he honed his skills and became an expert in complex civil litigation and commercial transactions, primarily in matters related to antitrust, insurance, and business-to-business transactions, employment, and real estate. He also obtained substantial experiential knowledge in wealth maximization and asset protection using insurance and an array of other asset vehicles before joining Axial Family Advisors.
It’s a Matter of Perspectives
Audwin Levasseur describes the modern world to be in a rapidly changing business environment facing the consequences of the pandemic and the unpredictability of domestic and foreign legislative affairs. As such, it wouldn’t be possible for a single individual to navigate through contemporary legal and financial systems and at the same time provide comprehensive optimal solutions to clients. That’s why Audwin leads through a ‘systems approach’ to client servicing, wherein professionals form an ecosystem and come to gain insights on financial matters from a variety of perspectives.
In Audwin Levasseur’s dictionary, the situation is similar to a hospital where a patient comes under the supervision of multiple doctors who weigh in with their professional opinions prior to the patient’s surgery. In the same context, financial professionals come together to offer a unique solution to the problem. Each client scenario is reviewed by a team of professionals who collaborate to provide insight on the client’s needs and may even bring in outside professionals to assist when necessary. The involvement of insights gained from multiple perspectives brings life-changing results for the client.
Audwin has a unique role to play in this robust ecosystem. He is brought in to assist on matters involving a mix of law and finance. His focus is on estate planning, asset protection needs, and tax mitigation strategies for high-net-worth individuals and small businesses. His legal background comes as beneficial as it caters to attention to detail, assessments of risk, cost-benefit decision making, and white-glove client service all translating from law into financial services. Furthermore, his work in real estate transactions, asset protection, estate planning, and litigation also empowers him to serve clients better.
And when it comes to operations, this team of seasoned professionals serve clients throughout the nation with a laser focus on helping families and small businesses. They actively stay abreast of changes in the tax code, evaluate potential impacts, and deliver proactive financial plans—through in-depth tax and wealth retention advice, income tax planning, personal finance and retirement planning, and estate planning.
Additionally, Axial’s professional relationships with CPAs, attorneys, and CFPs enable its wealth advisors to bring cutting-edge strategies in those areas to fruition.
A Lesson to Succeed
While coming out of poverty has been a significant hurdle in Audwin’s life, he also describes the loss of family members and prioritizing mental and physical health as his biggest roadblock. Over the years, he has learned that our mind and body also needs to be monitored, serviced, and protected, just like any other asset. This learning is something that Audwin wants upcoming young leaders to remember.
And for those who want to make a career in financial services, his advice is to remain inquisitive, solution-focused, and actively seek insight across institutional lines. He wants them to remember that they are never too gray in the hair or long in the tooth to learn from their peers.
The Road Ahead
Audwin’s professional journey in Law and Finance grew up in both institutional and entrepreneurial settings. Like any other world leader, he had his ups and downs and reached a proverbial fork in the road where he had to trust his instincts to chart his own course for success. And for the forthcoming years, he would continue to trust his instincts to take his business to new heights.
His biggest strength for the future is the size of Axial. Due to its sheer size, the business is large enough to handle high-net-worth individuals, small businesses, and complex matters. At the same time, it is small enough to offer personalized service. Audwin Levasseur also pays gratitude to each member’s commitment toward success and looks forward to the days when the company provides phenomenal service to clients nationwide.
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