Rich Gartelmann, CFP®
Senior Vice President and Head of Wealth Management
This year marks a milestone for our wealth management group: 100 years of offering the services and guidance that family legacies are built on. The services we offer, and the sophistication of the advice you receive, have changed dramatically over that time. What started out as an offering of traditional trust services has evolved to cover more than just the needs of the wealthy few. Today, we offer services that help people of all ages and financial circumstances build and sustain their wealth over their lifetimes and often well beyond.
What Are Trust Services, Anyway?
While these days, we—along with most banks and financial companies—use the broader and more accurate term of “wealth management” to describe what we do, providing traditional trust services remains fundamental to that.
Trust services involve more than just managing money and providing investment recommendations. Our role in our clients’ lives, or those of their loved ones, is defined by a legal agreement: a trust document. That role is legally binding and may include holding and accounting for assets as a fiduciary, managing an estate’s assets after a client’s death and providing heirs (including charities) with a steady income stream.
In many cases, we serve as the trustee of an estate, or co-trustee with a family member, and oversee the distribution or sale of assets—from homes, boats and securities to farmland, family businesses and paintings. Depending on an agreement, or sometimes by court order, we may be asked to perform as a legal guardian for those clients who no longer feel confident they can manage their finances alone or those unable to make sound decisions for themselves. In these cases, we make sure bills are being paid on time and service providers are engaged when needed.
The services we provide each client or family are customized to their situation and needs as well as the directions outlined in their trust agreement. Taking on such a big role within a family requires us to be unbiased and focused on the best interests of all involved. It also requires us to function as fiduciaries. That means, legally, we can’t put our company or our individual career interests above those of our clients. Nor, have we. Trust services literally require a high level of trust in your wealth managers. In that respect, nothing much has changed over the past 100 years.
What Has Changed
The biggest change since we added the “& Trust” to our name in 1919 is the degree to which technology has enabled us to do so much more for so many more clients, their families and even their companies.
Today, through River Street Advisors, we offer financial planning and investments services to help you build your wealth, along with our traditional wealth management services. We also help many business owners in our communities offer retirement plans to their employees so they can save and build for their own futures.
Helping people at the most personal level of their lives plan for and live out their futures—and then see future generations do the same–is what wealth management is all about. As a group, we look forward to being part of the continuum of wealth managers that will be doing just that for the next 100 years.
For more information on how we can help you shape your future and family legacy, visit us here or call 630-906-2000. We can’t wait to talk to you about the plans you have.
River Street Advisors, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Old Second National Bank is a registered investment adviser and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that any specific investment or strategy will be suitable or profitable for a client’s investment portfolio. There are no assurances that an investor’s portfolio will match or exceed any particular benchmark.
Not insured by the FDIC nor any govt agency; Not a deposit or other obligation of, or guaranteed by, the depository financial institution; Subject to investment risks, including possible loss of principal amount invested.
The White house has reached a tentative budget agreement that includes a $1.38 billion border security deal that would prevent another government shutdown. The compromise detailed funds for 55 new miles of barriers along the border in Texas and passed the House 300 to 128 and the Senate 83 to 16. After signing the deal, President Trump hosted a televised announcement in the Rose Garden where he stated that he would sign a declaration of a national emergency at the border. This would give the government access to billions of dollars to fund the construction of the full border wall.
Western nations continue to push for the resignation of socialist leader Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela as hundreds of thousands of protestors blanketed the streets of Caracas last weekend. The protestors are in support of self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido. The United States has announced that military intervention in Venezuela is an option and have placed extreme sanctions on the country and the state owned oil firm PDVSA, whose 2026 maturity debt is now trading at 23.75 cents on the dollar. The new sanctions have crippled the liquidity on Venezuelan sovereign debt and has caused JPMorgan to consider removing the securities from its popular emerging-market bond indexes. This action would force the largest holders of Venezuelan sovereign debt to sell in a market where it is unclear if there is any buying interest for the securities.
President Trump is optimistic that the world’s two largest economies could reach “the biggest deal ever made” and confirmed that a U.S. delegation will visit China in mid-February for a new round of trade talks. The feeling is mutual. China’s trade delegation said the latest negotiations with the U.S. in Washington made “important progress” and focused on three key themes – “trade, structural issues and enforcement.”
President Trump reached a deal with congress today to open and fund the government until February 15th. The hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers during the 34 day partial government shutdown are expected to receive back pay. The bill that was agreed upon does not include $5.7 billion for a border wall. President Trump stated that if there is no agreement on border wall funding by February 15th, either the government will shut down again, or he will take executive action to provide funds. This announcement today comes after two bills failed to pass the senate yesterday, and the unscheduled absences of Transportations Security Agents caused a brief ground stop a LaGuardia airport in New York this morning.
Robert M. Duplessis, CRISC, CISM, CBVM
China’s chief trade negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He, will come to Washington D.C. for the next round of trade talks on January 30-31. The visit comes after some surprisingly negative economic data coming out of China this week that showed sharp contractions in both imports and exports. The poor numbers have led to stimulus measures such as tax cuts by the People’s Bank of China and figure to make it even more pressing for some sort of deal to be struck. The U.S. side isn’t necessarily presenting a unified front however, with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin saying that Washington could ease tariffs on China, while U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer pushed back on this suggestion and continues to take a hardline stance.
With no end in sight, the partial government shutdown now ties the record for longest in American history, on its 21st day. Effects of a lengthened government shutdown are forgone pay from millions of federal employees, delayed business permits and visas, delayed IPO’S, and mergers and acquisitions. Withheld pay from federal employees could potentially impact consumer spending, a significant portion of the United States economy. Fitch’s global head of sovereign ratings stated that the United States triple-A credit rating could be in question because of the inability to pass a budget. The two government parties remain at an impasse over President Trump’s request for border wall funding.
President Trump said that he had a “very good call” with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday regarding trade and that “big progress” was being made. Earlier this week, China released disappointing manufacturing data that showed a contracting Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index, rather than growing. However, Chinese Services Purchasing Managers Index jumped to a six-month high. This morning, China’s commerce ministry announced that vice-ministerial-level trade discussions will be held with the United States on January 7-8 in Beijing. The meeting is a continuation of an ongoing effort to reach a deal on trade during a 90-day truce period that postponed additional tariffs until March 1st.
The U.S. federal government will remain closed until after the new year as negotiations over a budget deal have made no progress. According to the Department of Agriculture, the new $12 billion trade aid relief package that includes government payments to farmers will be temporarily suspended as the federal shutdown continues. Also, some economic data figures normally published by the U.S. Commerce Department will not be published during this time. Negotiations for a budget deal remain at a standstill as President Trump refuses to budge on a deal without border security funding, while Democrats continue to strongly oppose funding a wall. Democrats will assume control of the House on January 3rd and have discussed plans for a budget deal, however, none of these plans include $5 billion for a border wall.