Securant Bank & Trust‘s wealth management division, launched last December, recently added trust services to its portfolio with the hiring of John Lohre.
Lohre and the other members of the bank’s wealth management team work from Securant’s Elm Grove location at 12960 W. Bluemound Road. The new branch opened in February.
"John was the last piece of the short-term puzzle," said Steve Corbisier, head of the division.
Securant Bank & Trust decided to create a wealth management division to offer additional services to its clients, as well as an opportunity to add fee-based service lines, he said.
"We start with financial and retirement planning," Corbisier said. "There are four major questions that we feel are being asked at various dinner tables every evening – ‘Do we have enough money to do something like retire, buy a vacation home or send the kids to college?’ Second is ‘If something were to happen to me, what’s going to happen?’ Third is ‘Do I have a plan in place to reduce taxes for my heirs or how do I pass money to the next generation?’ And the last is ‘How do I get started?’"
To answer those questions, Securant’s wealth management group offers financial planning, investments, trusts and private banking services. Although many of the largest banks in the Milwaukee market are offering those services, the bank feels its community banking approach will help it win new customers.
"Our bank service model is to add services to meet the largest local, regional or national players in our market," Corbisier said.
Lohre, who will lead offer the division’s trust function, said Securant will differentiate itself from larger competitors by servicing smaller accounts and offering services bigger banks do not.
"We will offer investments in mutual funds and single-issue securities," he said. "We will also do irrevocable life insurance trusts – and many of the larger banks won’t do those. When you’re a community bank you have to pick up things your larger competitors aren’t willing to do."
Securant’s wealth management group does not have a specific net worth its clients must have – but the bank assumes that it will see many investors with a $300,000 to $1 million net worth, Lohre said.
"If you walk into the other large banks, they usually have larger thresholds," he said.
Securant is currently marketing its wealth management services to its existing clients. The bank may begin marketing to external clients later this year.
"The initial play was to provide (those services) to our existing clients so they can gain access to services that were not offered," Corbisier said. "We’ll spend most of this year working on that, and we will start to tactically determine what degree we’re going to do proactive PR and a marketing play."
For more information, visit www.securantbank.com.
