Steve is the founder of Heartland Trust Company. After working in the trust industry for a regional bank for 18 years, he went off on his own and started North Dakota’s first independent trust company. Thirty years later, he is the CEO and chairman of the board. The company has grown from two people to 25, with over $600 million in assets under management. Steve is very active in the community, spending many years with various local service organizations. He is currently a member of the board for the FMWF Chamber, and an International Director for the Sons of Norway.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
When I’m not at the office, it’s all about family. My wife and I try and spend as much time as we can with the grandkids.

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 has contained a feature on one of our old locations. This is the final installment.

Adapted from Broadridge Communication Services

Approximately 68 million people today receive some form of Social Security benefits, including
retirement, disability, survivor, and family benefits. (Source: Fast Facts & Figures About Social Security,
2019). Although most people receiving Social Security are retired, you and your family members may be
eligible for benefits at any age, depending on your circumstances.

As a company dedicated to serving our clients and community, we are proud to be celebrating our 30th year of business.

Looking back, we are grateful for the strong foundation Steve laid down and Sheryl Bernier helped carry out. When Gary Hanson and Neil Jordheim joined, business development started to really take off. These four, along with Denise Lies, set the tone for how Heartland Trust Company was going to succeed. Their dedication to building trustworthy relationships, being transparent about business practices, and providing excellent service is a model that lives on. It’s a great way to go about life. Not only do we want our clients to sleep well at night, we want to sleep well at night knowing that we are doing business and life in an honest, genuine manner.

Today, Heartland Trust has 22 employees who have a combined 425 years of experience in the financial industry. Over the years, some faces have changed and more bodies have been needed, but many things have stayed the same.

Here at Heartland Trust Company, we are proud of the great reputation we have built in the community over the last 30 years. We know that if we do business the right way, we will be here for a long time. Our mission statement says it all: “We provide a lifelong commitment to the well-being of those we serve.”

Our reputation is everything, and that is why we choose to adopt the fiduciary standard. This means we apply the industry’s highest financial, ethical, and legal standards to the services we provide for our clients. We always act in our client’s best interest, and we would not do it any other way. We do things our own way, and we do it to benefit our clients. And even though trust is our middle name, we do much more than that.

Trust Administration
We started out as a trust company and we continue to provide these high levels of financial and ethical care that these special accounts require. We can serve as trustee, co-trustee, or agent for the trustee (usually for an individual named as trustee who would like assistance with responsibilities such as recordkeeping, asset management, and tax preparation). Types of trusts we administer include:
 Revocable Living Trusts
 Irrevocable Trusts
 Special Needs Trusts
 Charitable Trusts

Oftentimes when I am meeting with clients, we spend a significant amount of time focusing on fully understanding their personal and financial lives. This allows us to make sure that we can holistically address all of their needs, goals, and dreams for the future.

During this process, we discuss in-depth the best ways we can customize a plan to make it all happen.

Two of the most common questions I hear from clients are: 1) What is the difference between a trust and a will, and 2) Why it is important to document my wishes to best care for my family?

Simply defined, a will determines how your assets will be fully distributed after you die; a trust is a legacy to your heirs. Your trust details how your assets will be held and managed for the benefit of your heirs at your direction.

There are many different kinds of trust, each having its own focus and determined impact and benefit.

A properly diversified portfolio should contain a healthy array of different types of investments. One of these investments may be tax-exempt bonds.

What are tax-exempt bonds?
Tax-exempt bonds are municipal bonds. In finance slang, they are commonly referred to as “munis” or “muni bonds”. Municipal bonds are issued by states, counties, municipalities, hospitals, schools, airports, and so on. When you buy these bonds, you are effectively lending money to these government or nonprofit entities. Typical uses for these funds includes construction and maintenance of infrastructure like buildings, bridges, roads, water, sewer, power, etc.

Heartland Trust Company turned 30 this year, and we’ve accumulated a bit of history. Each quarterly newsletter this year will have a feature on one of our old locations.
After about five years in the Lightowler Johnson space, the ever-expanding company was in need of more space once again. HTC found that space a couple of blocks away – the top floor at 120 South Eighth Street. The first floor was home to the Neuropsychiatric Research Institute (NRI).

Adapted from Broadridge Communication Services

You know how important it is to plan for your retirement, but where do you begin? One of your first steps should be to estimate how much income you’ll need to fund your retirement. That’s not as easy as it sounds, because retirement planning is not an exact science. Every situation is different, and your specific needs depend on your goals and many other factors.