While everybody needs to plan for retirement, women often face special challenges when planning for this time of life. 

For one, their careers are more likely to be interrupted to care for children or elderly parents. Even if women stay in the workforce fulltime, they tend to earn less than men, on average. As a result, their retirement plan balances are often lower. 

In addition to earning less, women generally live longer than men. This means having to stretch potentially limited retirement savings and benefits over many years.

Don’t dismay. Here are a few tips to help yourself or the women in your life manage these challenging financial realities. 

Participate In Retirement Planning. 

You may be balancing so many responsibilities that you haven’t given retirement planning much thought. Or maybe you’d rather let your spouse take on these duties. That’s understandable, but it’s critical for women to take an active role in planning for retirement. Married or not, make sure you are well-informed and are able to make financial decisions that benefit you. 

Adapted from Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions

It’s generally a good idea to review your employer-sponsored retirement savings plan at least once each year and when major life changes occur. If you haven’t given your plan a thorough review within the last 12 months, now may be a good time to do so.

Have you experienced any life changes?

Since your last retirement plan review, have you experienced any major life changes?

For example, did you get married or divorced, buy or sell a house, have a baby, or send a child to college? Perhaps you or your spouse changed jobs, received a promotion, or left the workforce entirely. Has someone in your family experienced a change in health? Or maybe you inherited a sum of money that has had a material impact on your net worth. Any of these situations can affect both your current and future financial situation and should be considered as you review your retirement savings needs.

In addition, your annual review is a good time to examine the beneficiary designations on your plan account to make sure they reflect your current wishes. This is particularly true if your marital situation has changed. With most employer-sponsored plans, your spouse is automatically your plan beneficiary unless he or she waives that right in writing.

Say, for example, you remarried and you would like your children to remain as primary beneficiaries on your retirement plan. In that case, your spouse would need to waive his or her right to the assets in writing.

HTC Team News 

• Missy Zarak has been promoted to the position of Trust Officer. Congratulations, Missy!
• Heather Jung joined Heartland Trust Company as a Retirement Services Administrative Associate. She brings over 13 years of experience assisting plan sponsors, financial advisors, and third party administrators with retirement plans.

• Shara Fischer, Relationship Manager, obtained her Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC) designation. Professionals with this designation concentrate on retirement planning by focusing on client-centered, problem-solving. Congratulations, Shara! 
• The HTC team has opened numerous “satellite offices” since March. These offices include our employees’ kitchens, home offices, living rooms, and spare bedrooms. Here’s a glimpse of how we are working from home to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Meet Gary Hanson

Gary Hanson is the senior vice president and a director at Heartland Trust Company. He has been an integral part of the growth and success of Heartland Trust over the years. While now enjoying a certain amount of “flex-time,” he continues to be in the office almost every day.

What do you do at Heartland Trust?

Along with ongoing business development responsibilities, I managed the Retirement Services Division at Heartland until 2014. My current responsibilities at HTC include account administration, client relationships, leading the corporate finance team, and serving on the executive committee.      

Tell us about yourself.

I am originally from Crookston, Minnesota, and, except for a two-year break, I have been in the Fargo area since graduating from Moorhead State University in 1972 with an accounting degree. My wife, Ruth, and I live in West Fargo, and our daughter, Rachel Clarke, and family live in north Fargo, while our son, Ben, and family live in south Fargo.     

Heartland Trust Company turns 30 this year, and we’ve accumulated a bit of history as we enter our fourth decade. Each quarterly newsletter this year will have a feature on one of our old locations.

Shortly after Heartland Trust opened its doors for business at the same location as Busy Bubbles Car Wash & Laundromat, it was clear the growing company needed more office space.

By Brian Halverson, President

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is a hot topic in today’s business world, and rightfully so. It is your ability to express and control your own emotions and also your ability to understand and interpret other people’s emotions. Why is this so important, you may ask? Just watch an episode of The Bachelor or Bachelorette. Many of our own problems we bring onto ourselves.

As humans, it is impossible to get every decision just right or have the proper reaction to everything. It’s hard work balancing a sick kid, getting everyone out the door in the morning and on time, dealing with a flat tire, meeting deadlines, dealing with health issues, etc. This is where having the ability to be vulnerable is so important. If you are aware you made a poor decision or said something out of line in a meeting, recognize that and have the courage to admit it. It’s far better for your team at work or your family if you address it, put it behind you, and move on. If you don’t, it will linger on and not only affect your performance but those around you.

At the end of the day, we all want to be happy and that starts with ourselves. In my mind, being vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it’s about showing strong character.

Businesses that sponsor 401(k) plans are required to run annual compliance tests to ensure that their plan meets the regulatory requirements to maintain their qualified status. In order to run these tests, your Third Party Administrator (TPA) will request certain information from you such as a complete census file. This file includes important information on each employee who received a paycheck from you during the year, regardless of whether or not they are eligible to participate in the plan. Your census information should be compiled and forwarded to your TPA within a month following your plan year-end to ensure that the proper tests are run and any necessary corrections to testing failures are completed timely.   

Adapted from Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions

On December 20, 2019, a $1.4 trillion spending package was enacted that included the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, which had overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives in the spring of 2019, but then subsequently stalled in the Senate. The SECURE Act represents the most sweeping set of changes to retirement legislation in more than a decade.

While many of the provisions offer enhanced opportunities for individuals and small business owners, there is one notable drawback for investors with significant assets in traditional IRAs and retirement plans. The elimination of the “stretch IRA’” could cause far-reaching change to many financial and estate plans. Individuals will likely want to revisit their estate-planning strategies to prevent their heirs from potentially facing unexpectedly high tax bills.

All provisions took effect on or after January 1, 2020, unless otherwise noted.

Heartland Trust Company turns 30 this year. As we celebrate this milestone, we’ll include a feature on one of our old locations in each quarterly newsletter. 

Steve Halverson, chairman of the board and former president, was approved for a charter by the North Dakota Department of Financial Institutions in August 1989 to start an independent trust company. Office space for the upstart trust company was found in the same building as Busy Bubbles Car Wash & Laundromat at 2102 12th Street North in Fargo. Steve’s father, Hans Halverson, owned the building and let Steve use the space for several months while he was getting everything ready. The charter was officially granted on January 18, 1990. Doors officially opened for Heartland Trust Company on January 23, 1990, and as Steve likes to add, “the door didn’t open, and the phone didn’t ring.”

The year 2019 was a solid one for investors. A year after one of the worst fourth quarters since the Great Recession, stocks rebounded to close 2019 with several major indexes reaching record highs. 

During the year, investors faced a yield curve inversion for the first time since 2007, a slowing economy, and a constant barrage of positive and negative information on the trade war with China. Nevertheless, investors stayed the course for most of the year, pushing stocks to their best year since 2013.

Each of the benchmark indexes listed here closed 2019 in fine fashion, led by the tech stocks of the Nasdaq, which gained more than 35.0%. The large caps of the Dow (22.34%) and the S&P 500 (28.88%) also fared well by year’s end. The small caps of the Russell 2000 began the year on a tear, ending February up almost 17.0%. However, the small-cap benchmark index pulled back some in March, but remained a steady gainer for much of the rest of the year, closing 2019 about 24.0% ahead of where it started.