WEALTH STRATEGIES:
PLANNING FOR TOMORROW Photos Linda Carfagno
Left to right: Chris Garcia, VP of Operations, Wealth Strategies; Robert Joseph, VP of Trust & Investment Services; Bill Zaleski, Chief Wealth Strategies and Fiduciary Officer
Bill Zaleski, Chief Wealth Strategies and Fiduciary Officer
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t’s never convenient to think about money and the future but, as most of us know through either personal or secondhand experience, it’s absolutely necessary. Bill Zaleski, Chief Wealth Strategies and Fiduciary Officer at Los Alamos National Bank, brings four decades of experience to guiding clients toward sound planning and peace of mind. LANB’s Wealth Strategies Department is comprised of three different financial management practices: trusts, investments and private-client services. “In my 40 plus years of experience, our mission hasn’t changed, but how we carry it out has,” Zaleski notes. “Things have sped up so much. But at the end of the day, our goal in Wealth Strategies is still to help folks attain their financial goals for the future, and those goals can be anything from helping people start an education plan for their children or grandchildren, to helping plan for retirement or manage assets.” Zaleski has been in the wealth strategies arena his entire career. After working for several banks in Massachusetts, he was recruited by Merrill Lynch. “We started building personal trust companies on the principle of bank reciprocity among states,” he explains. From there, he was recruited by New York Life Insurance to
build a trust company from the ground up. He also worked at community banks around the country before landing in sunny Santa Fe. Zaleski’s staff of investment, trust, financial planning and private client services professionals covers LANB’s entire footprint with offices in Los Alamos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The department includes three trust officers, two of whom are former attorneys. This allows LANB to work better with the attorneys who draft your trusts or wills. The most recent addition to Wealth Strategies is the private client services team, comprised of four seasoned bankers. Their goal is to help clients navigate through the multitude of other financial and banking services LANB offers, in order to help clients build, maintain and pass on their wealth. The management team has over 100 years combined experience in wealth management, and holds such distinguished credentials as JD, LLM, CFP and CTFA. “I am extremely proud of the depth, breadth and experience of the team we have at LANB. This level of expertise is unusual for a community bank,” said Zaleski. “You don’t have to be a millionaire to benefit from our services,” Zaleski says. “The most important thing we do
is build a relationship. It’s ideal to start when a client is younger. I have a financial planner who will sit down with a couple or an individual and ask what they envision. When do they want to retire? How much after-tax income do they think you’ll need? We can start to put a plan together that outlines what they can start doing now to achieve those goals. The earlier we get to know someone, the better off we’ll be to make decisions down the road.” What makes LANB unique? “The thing that sets community banks apart is our commitment to personalized service,” Zaleski explains. “With LANB, you’re going to be assigned a private banker, trust or investment officer, and that person will be available just about 24-7.” It’s this outlook—which prioritizes clients’ financial health at every turn—that puts LANB’s Wealth Strategies department above the bar. As Zaleski says: “At the end of the day, it’s about: How can we help you?”
Los Alamos National Bank 301 Griffin St. 505.662.5171 LANB.com