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2019 Q1
Publisher: Lawrence Business Magazine, LLC Ann Frame Hertzog & Steven Hertzog Editor-in-Chief: Ann Frame Hertzog Chief Photographer: Steven Hertzog
Left to Right: Emily Bowersock Hill, Cynthia Yulich, Will Katz, Michele Fales, Ernesto Hodison, Darrin Lutz Photo by: Steven Hertzog
Featured Writers: Dr. Mike Anderson Julie Dunlap Bob Luder Emily Mulligan Patricia A. Michaelis, Ph.D. Tara Trenary Liz Weslander Copy Editor: Tara Trenary Contributing Writers: Courtney Bernard Contributing Photographers: Patrick Connor
INQUIRIES & ADVERTISING INFORMATION CONTACT:
info@LawrenceBusinessMagazine.com
www.LawrenceBusinessMagazine.com Lawrence Business Magazine, LLC 3514 Clinton Parkway, Suite A-113 Lawrence, KS 66047 Lawrence Business Magazine, is published quarterly by Lawrence Business Magazine, LLC and is distributed by direct mail to businesses in the Lawrence & Douglas County Community. It is also distributed at key retail locations throughout the area and mailed to individual subscribers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reprinted or reproduced without the publisher’s permission. Lawrence Business Magazine, LLC assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Statements and opinions printed in the Lawrence Business Magazine are the those of the author or advertiser and are not necessarily the opinion of Lawrence Business Magazine.
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2019 Q1
Contents Features:
9
Lawrence in Perspective: The “First” Lawrence Bank by Patricia Michaelis, Ph.D.
16
One Step at a Time
by Bob Luder
22
Money Talks by Tara Trenary
30
Making the Sale
by Emily Mulligan
34
They Have Your Money
40
6th Annual Foundation Awards
50
Making Your Plan
55
Ready To Expand?
60
Know When To Fold ‘Em
64
Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late
71
Final Plans
by Julie Dunlap
by Bob Luder
by Dr. Mike Anderson
by Liz Weslander
by Bob Luder
by Julie Dunlap
by Julie Dunlap
Departments: 12
Health
73
Local Scene
76 Newsmakers 78
Whose Desk?
Mission:
Lawrence Business Magazine: Telling the stories of people and businesses making a postive impact on Lawrence & Douglas County. /lawrencebusinessmagazine
@LawrenceBizMag
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: LawrenceBusinessMagazine.com/SUBSCRIPTIONS
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LAWRENCE & DOUGLAS CO [IN PERSPECTIVE]
The “first” Lawrence Bank
Using and managing currency in territorial-era Lawrence was very different than today. by Patricia A. Michaelis, Ph.D., Historical Research & Archival Consulting Photos by Steven Hertzog from the Kansas State Historical Society, kansasmemory.org
Today, we take for granted the fact that currency and banks are stable, but this was not the case in the Kansas Territory. The federal banking system wasn’t created until Congress passed the National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864. Until that time, states were responsible for authorizing banks and issuing their own currency. The first bank in Lawrence was founded during this era of territorial and state oversight before federal banks were established. On Feb. 11, 1858, the Lawrence Bank was incorporated by the territorial legislature along with the Bank of Leavenworth and the Bank of Wyandotte. Each of these banks could issue stock worth $100,000 and, divided into shares of $100, were authorized to issue circulating currency. The Lawrence Bank were issued currency in various denominations, but only bills for $1, $2, $3 and $5 are known to survive, according to “Kansas Paper Money,” by Steven Whitfield. These bills had engraved illustrations depicting a prosperous community with agricultural interest, a steamboat, factories and a Native American hunting buffalo. The Lawrence Bank opened for business in May 1860. The bank was located on the east side of Massachusetts Street, across from the Eldridge Hotel. Original incorporators included Shalor Eldridge and James Blood. Principal stockholders were Robert Morrow, Charles Robinson and Robert S. Stevens. The first cashier of the bank was Ethan Allen Smith, who had come to Kansas from Wisconsin. These directors and stockholders were all involved in the development of Lawrence as a prosperous city in Kansas during the territorial and early statehood periods. Their activities and influence circulated throughout the community just as the currency issued by the Lawrence Bank did. The Eldridge name is still known in Lawrence because of the Eldridge Hotel, owned by Shalor W. Eldridge. A native of Massachusetts and a Free State supporter, Eldridge arrived in Kansas City on Jan. 3, 1855. In early 1856, he leased the Free State Hotel in Lawrence. In 1857, he and his brothers built the Eldridge House, which was burned during Quantrill’s raid. Eldridge was elected a city councilman in 1858. In 1857, Eldridge established a daily stage line from Kansas City to Topeka, Lawrence to Leavenworth, and Independence, Missouri, to Weston, Missouri. During the Civil War, he served six months
as lieutenant in the Second Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him a paymaster in the United States army, and he filled that office until he resigned about a year later. In 1868, Eldridge was appointed quartermaster general by the Kansas Legislature. In 1869, he was elected county commissioner of Douglas County and, in the same year, was elected city marshal of Lawrence. James Blood, another incorporator, was also active member of the community. He was born in Vermont, grew up in New York and moved to Wisconsin as a young man. Blood became an agent for Amos A. Lawrence, treasurer of the New England Emigrant Aid Co. (NEEAC) and moved to Kansas in 1854. He assisted the members of the first party of the NEEAC as they settled in Lawrence. He was actively involved with the Free State movement as a supporter of the Charles Robinson faction. He served as treasurer of the Kansas State Central Committee from 1856 through 1857. He was elected to the territorial legislature in Topeka in 1856. Blood was a member of the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention committees on corporation, banking, ordinance and public debt. Other civic duties included serving as the first mayor of Lawrence in 1857, as Douglas County treasurer 1864 to 1868 and as a representative from Lawrence in the 1869 Kansas Legislature. He was also a member of the board of trustees for “The Lawrence University� and its successor, the University of Kansas. During the 1870s, he lived at 1015 Tennessee St., and the striking red brick home still stands today. Charles Robinson is the best known of the Lawrence Bank stockholders. Born in Worcester County, Massachusetts, on July 21, 1818, Robinson was an agent for the New England Emigrant Aid Co. and was involved in bringing people to the Kansas Territory to settle. He was one of the founders of Lawrence and served as governor of the Kansas Territory, the result of an election held by the Free State Party that was challenging the official proslavery government in Lecompton. He was the first governor of the state of Kansas, serving one term from 1861
Original paper currency issued by the Lawrence Bank
through 1863. He is credited by historians for his moderate leadership in helping transition Kansas from its turbulent territorial era to statehood. Another major bank stockholder was Robert Morrow. He was born in Sparta, New Jersey, on Sept. 20, 1825. He moved to Lawrence in August 1855 and was an active Free State supporter. He built the Morrow House in 1856 and opened it in the spring of 1857. (It was burned during Quantrill’s Raid in 1863.) Morrow was a member of the territorial legislature in 1858 and was a member of first state senate that was organized when Kansas became a state. He served several terms on the Lawrence City Council, including one term as president. He served as Douglas County treasurer from 1878 through 1882. Robert Stevens, the third stockholder, was a speculator and a politician who moved to Lawrence from Lecompton. Born in Attica, New York, Stevens emigrated to the Kansas Territory in 1856. Because he had been a loyal supporter of his presidential campaign, President James Buchanan rewarded his loyalty by appointing him special U.S. Indian commissioner. His task was to arrange for the sale of Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankeshaw and Wea tribal lands, ceded to the United States in 1854. Stevens also served as mayor of Lecompton in 1858. Already a stockholder in the Lawrence Bank, Stevens moved to Lawrence in 1862 to become a bank president, and he bought out the other stockholders around that time. Also in 1862, he filled a vacant seat in the Kansas Senate but did not run for a full term. Stevens finished that term not seeking reelection. Stevens was one of the few men spared during Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence in 1863. All of these men were involved in the establishment of the Lawrence Bank, but its existence was short-lived. When Kansas became a state, the bank reorganized under state laws, but Charles Robinson and Robert Stevens became involved in a bond scandal that lead to the impeachment and acquittal of the first state governor on June 29, 1862. Shortly after the trial, Stevens deposited enough U.S. funds with the state to redeem the bank’s outstanding back currency. For a time, the bank operated as an exchange institution. Quantrill’s raiders robbed and burned the bank. It never reopened after the raid but continued to redeem currency presented for payment until it closed for good in January 1864. The short but turbulent history of the Lawrence Bank illustrates that it could be difficult to establish traditional community institutions when founding a new city. While the Lawrence Bank did not survive, the city of Lawrence did, and the founders and stockholders of the bank played important roles in the growth and success of Lawrence as a thriving community in Kansas. p
FOUNDATION
Announces Record Support for Hospital, Honors Community at Annual Meeting by Courtney Bernard
At LMH Health Foundation’s 50th annual meeting on February 28, the foundation announced that it provided a record $3.5 million of philanthropic support to LMH Health patients, programs and initiatives throughout the fiscal year, which ended December 31, 2018. “This is a truly monumental milestone. We are fortunate to live in a community that prioritizes healthcare for all,” said Rebecca Smith, executive director of LMH Health Foundation. “The exceptional generosity of our donors ensures that our hospital and its clinics remain among the very best in the country, positioning LMH Health to deliver the care our families, friends and neighbors need to ensure long and healthy lives.” This record year was made possible by nearly 1,800 donors who contributed more than $3.4 million to LMH Health in 2018 – one of the highest philanthropic giving totals in hospital history. 12
At the annual meeting, LMH Health Foundation also honored winners of the 12th annual Elizabeth Watkins Community Caring Award, which celebrates people and organizations who have provided significant service to LMH Health and community healthcare. Honorees were community members Becky Gibson, Rodger and Sheryl Henry, Dolph and Pam Simons; LMH Health physicians Charles Yockey and Stephen Myrick; and P1 Group Inc., a commercial construction and maintenance firm. The annual meeting kicked off LMH Health Foundation’s anniversary celebration during which the foundation will honor 50 years of community and philanthropic support for LMH Health. As part of the continuing celebration, the foundation will host an event on June 22 at the Forum at KU’s Burge Union.
Here’s a closer look at the Watkins honorees:
Becky Gibson
Becky Gibson is a retired educator who has been very active in the Lawrence community. She and her husband, Harry, have lived in many communities because of Harry’s career, but chose Lawrence as their retirement destination. During the years, Becky Gibson has helped connect community members to the mission of LMH Health unlike anyone else. Her passion for the hospital and healthcare has been inspirational to others. Until recently, Gibson served on the LMH Health Foundation board of directors, which included a period on the executive committee as an officer of the board. She generously used her talent and energy to benefit the organization in many ways. Gibson cares deeply about Lawrence and believes in supporting LMH Health and the community. “It’s truly rewarding that LMH Health has very strong doctors, staff and community support,” she said. “You need to become involved in the community in which you live, supporting what is important to you.”
Rodger & Sheryl Henry
Rodger and Sheryl Henry are important figures in LMH Health’s history. Rodger Henry has been an entrepreneur and developer in Lawrence since 1987, starting out by owning three car washes in town. Sheryl Henry grew up in Lawrence and has been a social worker and homemaker. After opening Lawrence Medical Plaza and Surgical Center at Sixth and Maine streets in 2000, the Henrys helped foster a growing partnership between LMH Health and community physicians. Last year, the Henrys sold the Lawrence Medical Plaza to LMH Health and made a $1 million gift to the foundation through their company, H & S Holdings. The gift supported the planned Orthopedic Center of Excellence at the LMH Health West Campus. “It’s very important for a vibrant community to have a vibrant hospital,” Rodger Henry said. “If you give to the hospital, you basically reach everyone in the community. It is a really great place to put your dollars and energy.” “You’ll never know when you or someone you love will need the hospital,” Sheryl Henry said, “And you want it to be a high-quality hospital. That is really important to us.”
Dolph & Pam Simons
The Simonses have a long history in Lawrence and a long history in support of the hospital. Dolph’s grandfather, W.C. Simons, served on the board of trustees when LMH Health opened nearly 100 years ago. Both Dolph and Pam have served on the LMH Health Foundation board of directors. Simons family members have remained invested in LMH Health, including an extraordinarily generous gift to radically improve what was a small emergency department. The Simons Center for Emergency Medicine opened in March 2008. For generations, the Simons family was synonymous with communication in Lawrence. In 1891, W.C Simons acquired The Lawrence Record, which was the first of many newspapers the family owned and operated in Kansas and other states. The family also owned two cable television stations. Dolph and Pam believe that a thriving hospital is critical to having a good community. “If Lawrence wants to be a model city,” Dolph Simons said, “a good hospital is a critical part of the fabric. LMH Health is an excellent hospital – a far better hospital today with a strong staff and wide range of services.” 13
Dr. Stephen Myrick
In 1982, Dr. Stephen Myrick was recruited to join LMH Health by a longtime local physician, Dr. H. Penfield “Penny” Jones. Dr. Myrick has served in many leadership roles – both official and unofficial – at LMH Health, including as the co-chair for LMH Health Foundation’s annual Penny Jones Open Golf Tournament. Dr. Myrick recently retired as a highly skilled general surgeon at Lawrence General Surgery, but continues to serve patients at LMH Health Wound Healing Center. “I think we’re called to help people,” he said, “and to use our special skill sets to benefit people. What I’ve been seeing at LMH Health leads me to believe that this place is going nowhere but up. We are expanding and always trying to provide healthcare providers and patients with the best experience possible. I want the new west campus to be the greatest place ever for Douglas County and for LMH Health.”
Dr. Charles Yockey
Dr. Charles Yockey has worked for LMH Health for more than 20 years. Not only was he the founder of the hospitalist program, he also established Lawrence Pulmonary Specialists in 2012. Dr. Yockey helped start the Help & Healing Fund in 2006 to directly assist patients in need with medicine and medical supplies. He is a generous supporter of the fund, which has flourished since its inception and helps hundreds of patients each year. “I thoroughly enjoy what I do,” he said. “I wake up early and can’t wait to get to work. It’s a privilege to do what I do. Every day, I use equipment funded through donor gifts to the foundation. It makes my life as a physician better. My wife and I donate to the foundation because we know it will go directly back to patient care – whether it’s for my family or someone else’s family.”
P1 Group, Inc.
Under Smitty Belcher’s leadership as CEO, P1 Group has become one of the nation’s premier mechanical, electrical and plumbing contracting and service organizations. Nationally recognized for its safety standards, high-quality craftsmanship and diversified capabilities, P1 Group has received numerous awards and celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. P1 Group has supported LMH Health in many ways, including a tremendous amount of participation from company employees in support of major fundraising events, such as Hearts of Gold. P1 Group has been a significant corporate partner for the hospital. “As a Lawrence family, we’ve been supporting LMH for many years” Belcher said. “A community’s hospital ranks among its most important assets, and we are committed to doing our part to help LMH Health thrive. A strong health system not only serves obvious community medical needs, it also helps attracts other businesses and employees to live and work in Lawrence.”
About LMH Health Foundation
LMH Health Foundation, formerly LMH Endowment Association, is a 501(c)(3) that leverages nearly $14 million in philanthropic assets to provide average annual donor support of more than $1.8 million to LMH Health. The organization is governed by a board of directors, which guides programs to grow investments in patient care, community education, charitable care, wellness and more. In 2019, the organization celebrates its 50th anniversary. p 14
One Step at a Time Starting a new business can be a lengthy process that takes planning, diligence and a lot of cash. by Bob Luder, photos by Steven Hertzog
Sitting in a small office space in the back of their new Mass Street gift shop, Chase Blackwood and Scott Lloyd appear to be a couple laid-back, easygoing guys. Talking and smiling easily, chuckling at each other’s comments and recollections, they seem to have the dispositions needed to tackle starting two businesses at once in a competitive Lawrence marketplace.
Most of the time, anyway. “I’m mostly a T-shirt and jeans type,” Blackwood says. “When I went to my first bank asking for money, I wore a T-shirt and jeans. I got turned down.” Blackwood laughs about the memory now, but back then he knew he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. For bank visit No. 2, he wore his best pinstriped suit and successfully secured the loan he and Lloyd needed to start Anomaly, a gift shop that sells anything from books to bath and office supplies, to toys—even gold-colored skulls. The store opened April 21 of last year at the southeast corner of Eighth and Massachusetts streets, and has been going gangbusters since. “It’s a good store for someone who can’t quite figure out what it is they want to buy for someone else,” Lloyd says. Blackwood and Lloyd, who in addition to business partners 16
have been domestic partners the last 10 years, also started Harbor Leaf Tea Co., which sells subscriptions online for exotic international teas and is run out of that small back office. As Blackwood puts it, he and Lloyd were a perfect fit for this particular undertaking. Blackwood was a software engineer who has worked in e-commerce and online retail. Lloyd has worked in traditional retail. Both had a desire to branch out and create a business—or, in this case, businesses—on their own. “Our goal was to run our own business and have more freedom,” Lloyd says. Blackwood adds, “This doesn’t really feel like a job. It’s like working on your house.” Like some of those difficult home projects, starting a business is filled with seemingly infinite tasks and details that almost always seem daunting and, oftentimes, insurmountable. “I don’t think we realized how much work there is to do constantly,” Blackwood says. “I would say the secret is to just take one thing at a time.”
‘
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.. – Steve Jobs
It Started With an Idea
’
Lloyd says the first thing he and Blackwood did in starting the business was to sit down and discuss exactly what it was they wanted to sell. “There was a lot of brainstorming about what’s going to work, what’s feasible,” Blackwood explains. After doing a lot of research online, they wrote out articles of incorporation and a basic business structure. Then they had to decide how they were going to fund everything. “We decided to do a small business loan,” Blackwood says. “So now, we have to convince someone else that we have an idea that can work.” This time adorned in his finest pinstripe, Blackwood took the couple’s 10-page business plan to the second bank and discovered that, for any loan to be finalized, they needed to have a location and signed lease. But the landlord of the building they chose for the location of Anomaly wanted money in hand before signing a lease. Blackwood and Lloyd had enough savings to cover the deposit, and they got their lease and loan. The next step was to find a general contractor to begin creating the space that would become Anomaly. Through a friend, they found someone to come in, tear out the teller windows that remained from a bank, which once occupied the site, and build a new wall near the back that separates the retail space from the office. Blackwood and Lloyd say they did most of the flooring, shelving, painting and finishing work themselves.
Anomaly owners Scott Lloyd and Chase Blackwood talk with customers Jordan Conus and Kylee Clendenen inside Anomaly
The partners worked with their contractor on obtaining all the proper city permits as well as the inspection process. “I took a site plan down to the permit office,” Blackwood says. “They needed to know occupancy, how many people can stand outside for fire codes.” All the contract work was paid for out of Lloyd’s and Blackwood’s own pockets, Lloyd says. The loan money all went toward the companies’ inventories. They say they work with 150 vendors and place orders with about 80 of them on a regular basis. “I spend a lot of time poring over catalogs, going to gift shows,” Lloyd says. “When I find one thing that’s really cool, I find that vendor and then see what else they have to sell.” Remarkably, Anomaly and Harbor Leaf opened about one month after Blackwood and Lloyd secured their loan. “The benefit of owning your own business is that you can throw everything into it,” Blackwood says. “You don’t have to get agreement from a bunch of people to get things done.” During much of the process, Blackwood and Lloyd say they received immeasurable advice and assistance from the Kansas Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the University of Kansas and SBDC regional director Will Katz. “Will was a huge help,” Lloyd says. “He was great to bounce ideas off. He gave us a good direction. At first, we were going to decide on just one of the businesses, but he told us we should do both.” 17
Will Katz speaks at A Million Cups event at the Cider Gallery
Helping Develop Small Business There are about 1,100 Small Business Development Centers across the country, 14 in Kansas, and Katz has been regional director of the center at KU for the last 12 years. He estimates he’s helped some 2,000 clients, including Blackwood and Lloyd, during that time. The Kansas SBDC at KU operates as part of the University’s School of Business and partners in assigning master’s in business administration students with small businesses for internships and/or jobs. Much of Katz’s time, however, is spent assisting people interested in starting companies understand what it takes to put together a business plan and make a business financially viable. “I think the process begins with what I call the three ‘Ms,’” Katz says. “Management. Can you run a business? Marketing. Will people buy your product? And money. Do you have the capital you need to execute your vision?” It’s that third “M” that trips up a lot of prospective entrepreneurs, Katz says. Gaining access to capital can be a difficult challenge. Most find that starting a business is more expensive than originally thought. And you’d better have a great credit score to take to potential investors or banks. “There’s a bit of mythology out there that you start a business with (other peoples’ money),” Katz says. “I have people come in here and say, ‘I want to start a coffee shop on Mass and do it debt-free.’ I ask, ‘Do you have $300,000 readily available?’ 18
Cynthia Yulich, President Emprise Bank
“Finding people who are going to invest in your business is far, far more rare than people think,” he continues. That doesn’t mean Katz discourages anyone from trying. The general macroeconomic climate for new business in Lawrence is better than many other places, he says. Just make sure you’ve done the proper market research and use every tool available to access capital. Being successful in business, he says, comes down to self-awareness, work tolerance, being down to earth and a good communicator, and being a great assessor of risk. “Like anything, make the plan, then execute the plan,” he says. “There will always be deviations. It requires adaptability and resilience.”
Tim Metz (right), Senior Vice President Central Bank of the Midwest jams with JJ Hanson, the owner of Beautiful Music Violin Shop.
Banking on the Bank Tim Metz, senior vice president, commercial lending at Central Bank of the Midwest, says the first step in securing a loan from any bank is pretty cut-and-dried. “The first thing I ask for is a business plan,” he says. “Who, what, why, when. It can be as simple as, ‘What do you want to do? How do you plan to tackle the challenges?’ Basically, I want a story about what you want to do.” Metz says a business plan serves a secondary purpose of being a reference document, of what you intend to do when you open the door of your business that first day. The plan is always flexible, he says, and open to revision annually. But it’s a road map that’s vital to the start of any business. “How do you know where you are unless you know where you’ve been?” he asks. Cynthia Yulich, market president for the Lawrence branch of Emprise Bank, adds that a detailed business plan is the basis for collecting much more information that helps the bank believe any business has a good chance at success. Details such as cost of the start-up, ongoing personnel and capital needs, collateral and bottom-line profit are all important pieces lenders consider, as are understanding an applicant’s education and business experience. “Once the bank and borrower identify gaps in any of these 19
Live music at Shaun & Sons Artisan Pub and Coffee House
areas, they can begin the discussion of what tools are available to bridge those gaps,” Yulich says. “The more prepared a potential entrepreneur is, the more likely the bank will be able to help them reach their goals.”
“just there” following the lead of his partners. By the time he decided to open S&S, he was a seasoned proprietor. He already owned the building and had the available capital to finance the start-up himself.
Metz points out that, according to Small Business Administration statistics, 30 percent of all new businesses fail within the first two years. That number jumps to 50 percent within the first five years and 66 percent within the first 10.
“It’s not always what I’ve done,” Trenholm says, “but if I were to tell someone (how to begin the process of starting a business), I’d say make a plan. You’re not going to get help from a bank if you don’t have a solid business plan.”
“Businesses poised for success are the ones that take the time to do it right,” he says.
“Things are always going to take longer and cost more,” he continues. “There are so many dominos. You’re always waiting for one guy to call you so you can call another.”
Experience Can Help
It’s always nice to have friends to lean on who have prior knowledge about starting a business, and Trenholm says he received a ton of advice from Bob Schumm, a former Lawrence mayor, city commissioner and business owner. But most of the process, from demolition and construction to licensing and permits, he already knew from operating his prior businesses.
There might not be anyone in Lawrence who knows more about starting up a new business than Shaun Trenholm. When he opened Shaun & Sons Artisan Pub and Coffeehouse last year, it was the fourth business he’d started over the last 37 years. It all started when he helped create and open the West Coast Saloon with a couple friends while still in college in 1981. “The Coast,” as locals refer to it, thrives near the corner of 23rd and Iowa streets to this day. There also was Booster Print, a shirt-printing and embroidery business that still exists, and Silver Ridge Catering, which doesn’t, along the way. That led to Shaun & Sons, commonly referred to as S&S, which opened June 6 in the space next door to the west of the West Coast Saloon. Each creation has been its own unique experience, Trenholm says. With the West Coast Saloon, he says he was 20
Still, Trenholm says it was a good three years from the genesis of S&S as an idea in his head to opening for business. In one regard, he agrees completely with the approach Blackwood and Lloyd took in opening Anomaly and Harbor Leaf. “It’s real easy to get caught up in looking down the road,” he says. “It’s important to really focus on one thing at a time.” p
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Top to Bottom Lori and Shaun Trenholm, owners of S&S Artisan Pub and Coffee House. Shaun working the bar pouring glasses of wine. The Knit Wits, a local knitting group works in The Bodner Room at S&S Artisan Pub.
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Dennis Spratt of Junior Achievement holds a class on financial literacy at Southwest Middle School
Money Talks When it comes to educating children about finances, there are many avenues available in Lawrence for both parents and kids. by Tara Trenary, photos by Steven Hertzog
It can be a hard conversation, one many parents may hope to avoid. But if you wait too long to have “the talk” with your kids, one day it might be too late. No, I’m not talking about the birds and the bees, though that conversation is an important one. Parents talking to their kids about finances and money early and consistently might well be just as important to their futures.
always the most successful way to make the most of your money.
The 2017 Forbes article “How To Teach Your Children About Finances … At Any Age,” by Liz Frazier Peck, explains that from college through retirement, every step kids take will be directly influenced by their ability to manage their finances. “So it’s up to the parents to make sure our children have a financial education before going out to the real world, where they will make financial decisions that will affect the rest of their lives,” Peck writes. “The more you integrate finances and money into their everyday life, the more comfortable they will be with personal finance as adults.”
So when it comes to teaching financial fitness to kids, what’s the best approach?
Ernesto Hodison, vice president of commercial lending at Capitol Federal Savings, who works with middle- and highschool kids through the school district, says having a plan is 22
“There is a lot that goes into educating young people to acquire a skill or trade to earn money, but they then must understand how to effectively manage what they earn,” he explains. “Teaching them the relationships of earning to spending to saving is important.”
Hodison explains that each individual is different and has different goals, but there are certain universal understandings that are needed to make solid financial decisions: knowing what gross and net pay are, wants versus needs and debt and credit. But the most important thing kids need to learn, Hodison says, is how to budget. “A budget will keep them on track. A lot of upper-class high-schoolers and college students have jobs, so there is an increased urgency to understand about how to handle their finances. They will need to become selfsufficient in handling their finances and create stability for their financial future.”
Ernesto Hodison, vice president at Capital Federal Savings Bank speaks with students and faculty at Bishop Seabury Academy (Photo courtey of Bishop Seabury Academy)
‘
Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.. – Malcolm X
He says students at the high-school and college stages are preparing for a career and will need to expand their horizons and add in education on life expenses like insurance, retirement and investment. So teaching about finances early on in a child’s life can be crucial.
LEADING THE WAY Though parents are usually the primary educators and models for their kids, there are many other ways kids can learn about finances within the community. School is one of the most important of those. Jennifer Bessolo, Ed.D., Lawrence Public Schools curriculum director, explains that the district offers financial literacy curriculum at all grade levels: elementary, middle and high school. “There’s an authentic nature to the work as it’s woven into many of our course curriculums, in addition to stand-alone courses in financial literacy.” She says the district offers a variety of course offerings at all levels, units, partnerships with community businesses and guest speakers, including United Way’s Reality U as well as other local businesses that are part of the Lawrence Schools Foundation LEAP (Lawrence Education Achievement Partners) program. Through the Career and Technical Education Pathway, the district also offers Business, Finance and Marketing Pathway courses for high school students. One of the biggest partners of the Lawrence School Dis-
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trict in regards to financial education in its schools is Junior Achievement. Dennis M. Spratt, Wealth Management Group of Kansas City Inc. and Junior Achievement (JA) Advisory Board member for Lawrence, has taught the eighth-grade Junior Achievement program for the past seven years, guiding students in career exploration, the importance of developing a personal and family budget, using credit cards wisely and the importance of a credit score. “The courses are designed to teach the students the skills and knowledge to be successful posteducation in the real world,” Spratt explains. “I, personally, emphasize to the students to adopt a lifelong learning mind-set to continue to grow in their careers.” Junior Achievement has individual program materials specific to each grade level that meet the curriculum outcomes and state standards for its economic and financial literacy units. Through JA, corporate and community volunteers will work with 6,000 K through 12 students in Lawrence this year providing relevant, hands-on experiences that give students knowledge and skills in financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship. Spratt says he hopes to imbue a basic understanding of making smart academic and economic choices. “Knowledge is powerful in our economic system. Education both in and out of the classroom has shown to be the driving force, along with dedication and hard work, to success in our society,” Spratt explains.
Troop leader Becky Maletsky with Girl Scouts Zoe D, Sammy J, Kellar M, and Gabel P selling Girl Scout cookies on a frigid day in front of Global Café.
“Uninformed decisions about finances can bury young people if they make poor choices about spending and debt,” he cautions. “It is a leading cause of divorce, which causes other family issues that can lead to financial stress and failure. Intelligent choices about one’s finances many times lead to more options in life.” In addition to the current financial education offerings in the schools, Anthony Lewis, superintendent, is working on a partnership with the School of Economics, a nonprofit organization founded in 1994 in Blue Springs, Missouri, with more than 12,000 students that uses reality-based education to teach children how to prepare for their financial futures. Through UMB Bank grants, Lawrence schools will receive discounted student fees at the upcoming Kansas City location, with a 60 percent or more free/reduced lunch rate. Free pilot programs in May will be held to evaluate alignment with the district’s grade-level objectives. “We want to empower our students with how to think through important decision-making regarding finances and financial planning,” Bessolo says. “We know students have more options today than ever before, and we want them to feel prepared to manage finances and, most importantly, feel confident about the decisions they are making.” 24
IT TAKES A VILLAGE In addition to public schools, other organizations throughout the community offer unique opportunities for kids to learn about finances. The Girl Scouts, a K through 12 organization, runs a $2-million business over three months every year. Participants have an opportunity to run their own businesses through the 100-plus-yearold Cookie Program. “Financial literacy is critical for today’s youth, especially girls,” says Gina Garvin, Girl Scouts of Northeast Kansas and Northwest Missouri chief brand and marketing officer. “We are unique because girls have an opportunity to literally run a business at the age of 5, 10 or 15.” Each year, she explains, they build upon their financial savvy while not just learning through a textbook but literally getting hands on. “This program is research-based and helps girls hone five business skills that last a lifetime: decision-making, goal-setting, people skills, money management and business ethics. Female entrepreneurs and business leaders will often state they got their business savvy through their experience in the Cookie Program,” Garvin says. And on the flip side, Boy Scouts also have the opportunity to run their own businesses through their annual popcorn sales, the largest single program the group does involving personal finance. “It’s more than just a fund-raiser,” explains Paul Taylor, Heart of America Council, Boy Scouts of America district executive, Pelathe Scout District. “Scouts go door to door to sell popcorn; they
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Left Mike Everett and Chris Bay of Life, Success and Legacy speak with potential clients at the Pine Landscape Center Outdoor Connection Expo. Right Chris Bay leads a training boot camp at a Life, Success and Legacy seminar in Lawrence.
also set up ‘show ‘n’ sells’ at locations in our community. And now, they have the ability to set up online sales.” Through this program, Scouts are responsible for achieving their own personal goal, which ties in with their unit’s goal, to learn and improve their public-speaking skills, to record and turn in orders, and to deliver the product back to their customers. “It’s a lot of responsibility,” Taylor says. “This last year, Pelathe District, which encompasses Douglas County, Lawrence, Baldwin City and Eudora, brought in over $156,000 in popcorn sales.” Both the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts offer financial-literacy programs where Scouts earn badges by doing activities related to financial planning.
RURAL ROOTS The Douglas County 4-H program also offers an education in financial literacy. Around since 1902, 4-H works with kids aged 5 through 18 providing learning opportunities in a variety of different areas, including foods and nutrition, visual arts, livestock, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and financial literacy, among others. “Teaching responsibility is one of the many goals we have in our program,” says Kaitlyn Peine, Kansas State Research and Extension, Douglas County, 4-H youth development agent. “We start teaching kids around middle school about financials. We encourage saving and planning for college 26
through our teen programs.” Peine believes the best way to teach kids about finances is through hands-on learning. “We encourage record-keeping and for the kids to work with the adult volunteers to balance the checkbook and create monthly treasurer reports.” She explains the group focuses a lot on budgets. “Typically, a group of committee members, including youth and adults, will work together to form a budget. Income and expenses are reviewed on a regular basis,” she adds. Because 4-H clubs (Douglas County has 10) are self-funded, special programs, community-service projects or project-learning experiences require funds to be raised by its members. “We encourage group fund-raisers so the kids gain teamwork, communication and leadership skills,” Peine says.
HEALTHY HABITS Another community-based organization that helps children acquire financial skills is the Bert Nash Community Health Center, a nonprofit mental-health organization founded in 1950 and dedicated to improving the health of Douglas County residents and children through comprehensive behavioral-health services responsive to evolving needs and changing environments. Mac Crawford, Bert Nash child and family outpatient pro-
gram manager, says research done by the organization shows kids as young as 5 years old can begin to grasp the concepts of savings and delayed gratification. “This natural, early development paired with developmentally appropriate ‘deep dives’ into credit, college saving, etc., throughout transition into adulthood is ideal.” Generally, he explains, between the ages of 5 and 18, the key is a step-up system introducing key concepts paired with natural environmental examples on which to build. Bert Nash provides exposure to financial literacy within the population it serves, many of those who face socioeconomic barriers that can work to otherwise impede asset development. “The psychosocial impact that financial uncertainty can have on mental health is also an intersection that many of the individuals we work with would benefit from,” Crawford says. He believes the best approach to teaching financial literacy is through direct practice, accessing community resources, having direct contact with community financial providers and hands-on savings activities, all which Bert Nash provides. Crawford hopes his clients learn “the salience between the idea that efforts put into saving for one’s future can be small and slow, and still have a tremendous impact with time.” The organization is currently working to incorporate a financial-literacy component into a group format that will reach a broad population, as well as planning to expand on this as it addresses the growing need for independent living skills among transition-aged youth. “This program is still in development, but an active role in accessing financial organizations and partners in the community would be a large part of this,” Crawford explains. “Activities around savings and, ideally, a match for certain savings goals would also be a portion. Education around savings, banks, etc., would be the core component.”
A DIFFERENT APPROACH Some may decide to explore alternate avenues of financial education for their families and kids. The Infinite Banking Concept is one of those. The concept addresses many of the financial needs young people are going to face during the course of their lives, explains Chris Bay, Infinite Banking coach with Life Success & Legacy, and former teacher and principal in Lawrence Public Schools. “It is simple, flexible and guaranteed,” he says. “Most people admit that finances are in the top three of life’s stressors. How does that young person’s quality of life change when they have simplified their financial life, established a plan for addressing their debt, current and future finance needs, investments, retirement and financial legacy? It becomes a very peaceful way to live.” The Infinite Banking Concept provides information in a
simplistic format so young people can question what many adults are doing with their money. It encourages young people to “rethink their thinking,” Bay says. He encourages his clients to start an Infinite Banking Concept (IBC) strategy for their children as soon as possible. That involves meeting with a team member who helps them increase their own level of clarity and purpose they have for their life. Then, the Life, Success & Legacy team designs a personalized IBC strategy to support that vision. If the children demonstrate maturity and a willingness to learn and apply the concept, the parent can sign over ownership to the child. If not, the parent can maintain ownership of the strategy but still utilize it. More than a program, our award-winning Bridge to Rediscovery™ lifestyle helps our residents experience success, by focusing on the strengths they have now. At Brandon Woods, your loved one will enjoy our Five Star services and amenities and award-winning care, all at an affordable monthly rate.
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“As an alternative to allowance, I would encourage parents to create a ‘menu’ of learning opportunities for their kids,” Bay explains. “This menu of learning opportunities would include those topics that the parents believe are valuable. The parent then lists a dollar amount next to the learning opportunity that the parent is willing to pay if the child participates.” With his kids, Bay requires they demonstrate their learning in some way, such as watching a video on a topic he wants them to learn. Then, the child demonstrates his or her learning in some format like a paper or demonstration. Finally, they are paid the agreed-upon amount. “When the child wants a toy or to go to the movies with their friends, we don’t have to give them money because we have provided them opportunities to earn money,” he says. “And we are exposing our kids to information we believe is valuable for their development. Now, the parent is getting a little ‘return’ on their money.”
STRIVING TO SUCCEED However parents and kids choose to pursue their education in finances, whether through school programs, community groups or other offerings, it’s imperative to a successful future that children learn early and practice often. JA’s Spratt believes kids ultimately need a basic understanding of how businesses operate along with an understanding of personal income, taxes, budgeting and savings on a personal basis. He encourages young people to choose a career that matches their passions along with their values, interests and skills. “As our society continues to be increasingly debt dependent, we need to teach our youth about the importance of a personal budget, making informed purchase decisions and long-term financial planning,” Boy Scouts’ Taylor adds. Bert Nash’s Crawford agrees. He says education about financial stability is an “extremely vital role of developing into a self-sufficient and successful adult.” p
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Swiping a credit card to pay for a purchase seems simple enough, but the industry behind that simplicity is more complex than it looks. by Emily Mulligan, photos by Steven Hertzog
The cash register is an endangered species. There is no longer a place in retail stores or restaurants for a glorified calculator with a drawer. Instead, touch screens and interconnected point-of-sale systems have taken over, and one local company has almost 20 years of experience with that robust industry. It seems like a straightforward business, to sell machines and software that process customers’ payments for a store or restaurant: Insert the credit card, catalog the payment and the bank should handle the rest, right? But between varying credit card fees, multiple employees and, of course, very pressing data security concerns, the payment processing and point-of-sale (POS) industry is much more complex 30
than it appears. Griffith Payments is a Lawrence company that sells and services payment solutions nationwide. “I can’t even describe to my mother what it is I do. This is not something the general public understands because it’s so behind-the-scenes,” owner Mark Griffith says. Griffith Payments specializes in both the hardware, for which it partners with Harbortouch, and the software, with various partners, involved in processing, encrypting and securing payments. The purpose of the payment solution business, of course,
is for businesses to get paid for the goods and services they provide. Employees need paychecks, the light bill is due every month, and the only way to have money for those things is from customers. “If people want to give you money for something you’ve done, make it easy for them to pay you,” Griffith says. “Sitting there waiting for checks in the mail doesn’t cut it.” Griffith Payments offers every kind of option imaginable for customers to be able to pay businesses—and some options that, truthfully, are not even imaginable because they are so specialized. Griffith’s core business is based around creating a “credit card merchant account”—in other words, allowing merchants to accept credit cards. The two main ways Griffith creates credit card merchant accounts are through touch screen POS systems and online payment gateways. Since its inception in 2000, Griffith has developed software tailored to many specialties, including restaurants, bars, retail shops and salons and spas. The POS allows for employees to log in and place orders, set appointments and track inventory. Business owners also can generate reports as specific as they like in any number of categories, or even categories they invent themselves. Bookkeepers can track credit card fees, taxes and tips, in addition to revenue and costs. The bar software allows patrons to run a tab. The retail software can create a gift registry or track a layaway purchase. Katie Moore owns the downtown kitchen store Delaney & Loew and has been a Griffith customer since the store opened in 2016. “We have 10,000 items in the store to keep track of, and it’s so easy to ring up a sale or do a return. Every employee we’ve had, every time I’ve trained them, their first response is, ‘That’s easier than I thought.’” she says. Payment gateways can either take the form of a traditional online payment “button” or donation “button,” or they can involve more sophisticated Bluetooth methods of transferring payments in a mobile setting. Griffith Payments can establish an e-commerce site or network for the smallest businesses and nonprofits to large-scale online operations. The Griffith network also offers telephone banks for secure payment over the phone or options for selling event tickets online. When a customer is paying with a paper check to a mobile business, Griffith has a system that can process and deposit the payment using just a photo of the check taken by the employee. Rueschhoff and Mobile Locksmiths take advantage of several of Griffith’s payment options to help keep them nimble and make things convenient for their customers. “Getting paid on a job today is so much more simplified. In the past, we had to hope they had cash or that their check was good,” says Don Stowe, co-owner of Rueschhoff and Mobile Locksmiths.
Mark Griffith of Griffith Payments in his downtown Lawrence office and going over new software with owners Katie and Brad Moore of Delaney and Loew Kitchenalia
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actual data never touches the point-of-sale system; rather, it is sent separately over the internet. And the third element is point-topoint encryption, which is de-encrypting the data at the other end. Without any one element of the “trifecta,” there is not complete data security. On top of the “trifecta,” Griffith Payments offers what is called Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. In PCI compliance, the practice is to purposefully make data intrusion attempts, at least annually, against each customer to make sure the network is secure. If the intrusion is successful in some way, Griffith Payments notifies the customer of the network’s deficiencies and works with them to correct them. Rueschhoff Locksmith and Security Systems use payment systems from Mark Griffith
Rueschhoff’s customers can pay their monthly bills online thanks to Griffith’s “pay invoice” button on its website. Customers who have locked their keys in their car or locked themselves out of their house can pay the technician with a credit card on-site using Bluetooth payments or the mobile chip reader on the technician’s phone. And out-of-town customers, such as a parent who wants to pay his college student’s locksmith bill, can submit the payment over the phone using one of Griffith’s secure phone banks. An email receipt is generated instantly, which Stowe says gives the parents peace of mind. With massive data breaches making news, Griffith’s clients are very concerned about keeping their customers’ data secure. Mark Griffith notes that none of Griffith Payments’ customers have ever had a large-scale data breach on the company’s equipment or software. “Bad guys are looking at smaller and smaller places. Now, they don’t need an infinite number of credit cards to cause trouble, they just need 10 credit card numbers they can sell. I spend about 10 to 15 percent of my time dealing with potential fraud issues,” Griffith says. There are many layers to Griffith Payments’ data security, starting at the POS itself. Employers can limit which employees can do which operations on the POS—voiding transactions, for example. With access control and the ability to run back-end reports on individual employees, bosses can keep information secure at the retail level. Above the store level, the payment industry has what it refers to as the “security trifecta,” which Griffith Payments provides. The first element to the “trifecta” is EMV, which stands for Europay MasterCard Visa, better known as the chip card. The second element is “tokenization,” which is the encryption of sensitive data at the point of sale. That means the 32
The other aspect of security is that the network has multiple power and internet redundancies, so the system will not fail or go down for long periods.
Although the security is of utmost importance, there are a lot of reasons Griffith Payments has been able to differentiate itself from competitors and succeed in the industry for 19 years. For one, Griffith is a hometown company, with offices in downtown Lawrence. Local merchants and companies know Mark Griffith personally, and many call him directly with even the seemingly smallest of questions. “Having somebody that’s here in town is pretty awesome. Mark came in and did the POS system update himself. Having him be right there and making sure everything was up and running—man, that’s hard to come by,” Delaney & Loew’s Moore says. Mark Griffith insists—and it is clear—that the Lawrence location is just one of the many reasons local merchants use Griffith’s services. “We invest in the hardware, software and training at no cost to the customers. What’s in it for us is the monthly service and the ability to process credit card sales,” he says. Griffith has searched, vetted and assembled a top-notch team of nationwide contractors to handle the various aspects of the POS and payment systems. Businesses have true 24/7 phone support and can talk to a live person. The tech support and customer service can log in to the POS remotely and see exactly what is happening or what the question is, and adjust it right then. Any size of business or nonprofit is within the scale of what Griffith Payments can provide. From one-person, part-time entities to global, multinational operations, Griffith has a product or service that is cost-effective and efficient for that business.
He says that, interestingly, demand for payment services has stayed strong, regardless of how the economy has performed. When the economy is strong, new businesses are opening, and current businesses are expanding their scope, Griffith grows with that. But when the economy is bad, surprisingly, that is also a time that new businesses get started. Griffith says he knows countless customers who have lost a job, only to capitalize on the opportunity to open their dream businesses. Because of that stability and growth potential, the future looks bright for Griffith Payments. The security aspect of the business is ever-changing, so that will be a continually evolving process, staying ahead of the hackers and thieves. Other trends that are starting to unfold are the integration of mobile wallets, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as the presence of RFID (radio-frequency identification) chips in credit cards. Within the calendar year, Griffith hopes to launch a new service that will make online food ordering and delivery more seamless for restaurants. Right now, a restaurant has to have a separate tablet to tabulate online orders from services such as Grubhub and DoorDash—many restaurants have as many as three tablets in addition to their POS for that purpose. Griffith says his company is very close to complete touch-screen integration of all of those companies with Griffith-run POS. For now, there is never a dull moment or an idle day at Griffith Payments, and Mark Griffith wouldn’t have it any other way. “I chose a life of being in service to other people when I was a little kid, and I’m so grateful to be of service,” he says. p
What if you don’t have a bank account or a credit card? • According to US News, in 2017, about 6.5% of Americans did not have a bank account • Many merchants accept EBT for SNAP benefits, processed through the same payment system as credit card payments • Customers can purchase prepaid debit cards at gas stations that function the same as a bank debit card
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They Have Your Money, Do You Know How They Work? What do you need to know about your bank or credit union? by Julie Dunlap, photos by Steven Hertzog
Whether you are a fresh graduate, ready to move on from your parents’ bank, new to town or simply ready for a change, selecting a bank or credit union is one of the most fundamental and important decisions you will make. And with thousands of financial institutions to choose from nationally, dozens of which are in the Lawrence area, it’s easy to get overwhelmed when deciding where to go to deposit and borrow money. A local panel representing four area banks and credit unions answers common questions and offers some insight here into how to choose one that is right for you and your own personal finances. Meet the Lawrence Business Magazine Personal Banking Panel:
Michelle D. Fales, Commercial & Mortgage Services Officer, Envista Credit Union, established in 1957
Chris Kollman, Market President of Lawrence RCB Bank, established in 1936
Many institutions, products and types of transactions are available now. Knowing this, what questions should customers ask of banks and credit unions when opening a personal checking or savings account?
Gutierrez:
We would recommend that they ask to see a rate and fee schedule, as this will show all of the different types of accounts a financial institution provides, along with the fees associated with each account type. As a secondary question, we would suggest asking what the advantages and disadvantages would be between account options.
Newell:
What kind of account is best for me? What fees are the fees associated with my account?
Fales: What kind of rewards will I receive? Because if your checking account isn’t paying you, it isn’t paying attention. Do you offer ATM fee refunds? Envista does, believing every ATM should be “yours.”
Kollman:
Tori Newell, Branch Manager, Silver Lake Bank, established in 1909
What rewards are included with checking or savings accounts? What is the minimum opening amount? What items do you need from me to open an account?
Glynn Sheridan, Market President and Regional
Sheridan:
Director Sunflower Bank, established in 1892
Gabe Gutierrez, Manager - Business Services, Truity Credit Union, established in 1939
When a customer is starting a new banking relationship, they need to know whether they will be able to sit across the table from their banker and look them in the eye. Will their bank be an advisor and a partner for the future?
Left: Michelle D. Fales, Commercial & Mortgage Services Officer, Envista Credit Union Below: Gabe Gutierrez, Director of Business Services, Truity Credit Union
With so many banking services automated and available online, it no longer seems as necessary to find a new bank or credit union when moving to a new town. What are some reasons a person may want to consider changing to a local bank when moving to Lawrence?
Newell:
Lawrence is a small business-oriented, tight-knit community. While a lot of other banks move to digitize their services, we pride ourselves on the fact that when our customers call in, they always talk to a live person. Be it a question about accounts or inquiring about loans, you’ll be on the phone with an actual SLB employee. Additionally, we offer some really cool incentives to our Lawrence customers (including) waiving ATM fees across the country up to a certain dollar amount, internet banking, mobile banking and mobile deposits.
Fales:
At a local institution like Envista, you have “a person.” Someone who takes the time to build a relationship with you. We know who we’re doing business with and are empowered to serve your best interests.
Kollman:
At RCB Bank we build relationships. We are looking to add customers to our RCB Bank family and help them succeed. Of course, local is best and knowing your bankers makes a better relationship, but RCB Bank does offer great online services and over 50 locations across Kansas and Oklahoma, giving you access throughout your travels. We recommend for our customer to visit our location and get to know us. As a customer, you join the RCB Bank family, and we treat our customers as such.
Sheridan:
Employees of local community banks are members of the community themselves, so they tend to be better equipped to understand the specific local needs and businesses they serve. Sunflower Bank encourages employees at all levels of the organization to get involved in the community and donate their time to local causes. We have a great time sponsoring “Mic Drop,” an annual fund-raiser for The Willow Domestic Violence Center. Lawrence Public Schools USD 497 and Perry-Lecompton Elementary participate annually in our ABC program, and we love giving back to them. Our employees also volunteer with worthy organizations: Go Red Lawrence, Douglas County Extension and Independence Inc., a nonprofit assisting those with disabilities.
Gutierrez:
One reason to switch to a local financial institution would be to have that personal connection to be able to turn to. Whether it be from a transaction standpoint, a fraud standpoint or looking at financing options for a consumer or business, we have found that being able to put a face with a name brings the financial relationship to a whole new level. 35
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At its core, banking is not simply about profit, but about personal relationships.. – Felix Rohatyn
Chris Kollman, Market President of Lawrence RCB Bank sitting by the sign for their future home at 3300 W 6th Street
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Most people don’t have much time to spend searching for documents and returning home for forgotten items in order to open a new account. What will people typically need to bring to open a personal account?
Fales:
Driver’s license, opening deposit and any questions they may have.
Kollman:
You will need to bring one form of unexpired identification $100 opening deposit, social security number, and valid mailing address.
Newell:
We require a government-issued ID (such as a) driver’s license, state-issued ID or passport; social security number; and means of first deposit.
Technology has ushered in and allowed for new and ever-evolving services for financial institutions. How do these online and other tech-oriented services benefit the customer?
Kollman:
RCB Bank has the technical services that you’re looking for, including our newest service, an ITM. Our ITMs (Interactive Teller Machines) can do much more than ATMs, including the ability to video chat with a real RCB Banker during video banker hours. You can even deposit cash and checks, withdraw money (in increments other than just $20), cash checks (during video banker hours), transfer money between RCB Bank accounts, make RCB Bank loan payments, view account balances and access recent account activity. Our new Lawrence location, set to open late June 2019, will provide 24/7 secure access to our ITM for RCB Bank customers. Plus, customers have the access to their account whenever and wherever they are through our online banking services.
Gutierrez:
The bigger advantage to online or mobile applications is convenience. You will have access to a “real-time” look at your deposit accounts, which makes doing business from a click of a button easy no matter where you are in the world.
Sheridan:
Technology is a great aid for conducting everyday transactions. Online and mobile banking with check deposit, bill pay and other features, such as those we offer at Sunflower Bank, provide conveniences to simplify customers’ lives.
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In spite of all of these advances and benefits of technology, what can that technology never replace?
Newell:
Technology can never replace the relationships and personal interactions that emerge from small-business dealings. We are an incredibly service-oriented and relationship-driven bank. We like knowing our customers on a first-name basis and sharing that interaction, but we also understand that we need to provide our customers with the modern conveniences of technology. We provide our customers with the opportunity to do their banking online via internet banking, mobile banking, ATMs, etc., but we also have “old-school” customers who would still prefer to call in and get their account balance because of the relationship they have with our customer-service representatives and tellers.
Fales:
With online and mobile services, we make it easy. However, technology can never replace seeing our customers’ smiling faces. We’d love to see you, but we know you don’t always have time in your day to see us. And that’s why our digital services give you the Envista experience anytime, anywhere.
Even with electronic banking, customers may still accidentally overdraw their accounts because of delays in debit transactions, automatic withdrawals and delays in cashing checks. Short of reverting back to handwritten transaction registers, what are some tools customers can use to avoid overdrawing their accounts?
Gutierrez:
Truity Credit Union provides Courtesy Pay (which) covers items up to $800; Sweep account, pulling necessary funds from another account; and/or LineOf-Credit (which) pulls remaining amount needed to cover a transaction.
Sheridan:
Through online and mobile banking, customers can easily monitor their accounts on a daily basis. We additionally provide customers with the option to set up account alerts through online banking to notify them when the account is below a certain dollar amount. However, if they run into a situation where they have inadvertently made a payment without the funds to cover it, Overdraft Privilege and Overdraft Protection are important tools that customers can use to mitigate the effects of the situation. 38
Glynn Sheridan, Market President and Regional Director for Sunflower Bank
What are some other steps customers can take to maximize their own personal banking experience?
Newell:
Develop a relationship with your bank and bank personnel. Ask for help when needed. Whether it’s something as simple as signing on to your online banking or inquiring about the loan application process, we’re happy to help. Ask your banker if there is an account that you’d be better suited for, i.e., CD, money market, savings.
Fales:
Communicate their needs, ask about any service options, keep in touch with “their person” as needs arise.
Sheridan:
The No. 1 thing is to get to know your banker and local banking team—let them learn about you. At Sunflower, we believe that your bank is your partner, and our role is to provide smart solutions and services to match your financial possibility with your financial feasibility. Because every customer is unique, a maximized experience means different things to different people. Talk to your bank, tell them what’s important to you and find out what they have to offer.
Gutierrez:
Provide constructive feedback to help us improve our level of service. Utilize our products and services, and provide feedback to help us understand the positives and negatives from a consumer standpoint. Choose an institution that aligns with your values. Banking can be a very sensitive matter; you want to know that your institution has your best interest at heart.
Kollman:
Experience our ITM! Utilize all of the services available with your account - mobile banking, text banking, online banking, etc. - giving you extra access to monitor your account in hopes of fraud detection if it were to happen. Understand your bank’s rewards schedule and optimize your account to earn you the most rewards. p
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Retired United States Circuit Judge Deanell Tacha, guest speaker at the 6th Annual Foundation awards
6 She repeated several times that she didn’t want to get political. But when it comes to being successful in business in Lawrence, Kansas – or anyplace else for that matter – Deanell Tacha firmly believes a well-worn political mantra holds true. Unity is essential. For any business to thrive, all businesses must work together. Divisiveness and working against each other only leads to chaos and, ultimately, failure. “It takes a whole array of talent to support a community in this ridiculously technological age,” said Tacha, a retired United States Circuit Judge and Dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law, who was the special guest speaker at the sixth annual Foundation Awards held Feb. 27 in The Oread Hotel’s Griffith Ballroom. “Make it your business to know what all the other businesses do,” she said. “It’s not just about Lawrence it’s about the region and state. We have all got to step up.” 40
by Bob Luder, photos by Patrick Conner
More than 200 members of the local business community came together to honor and celebrate each other as Lawrence Business Magazine and Cadre Lawrence, along with presenting sponsor INTRUST Bank, commemorated six years and 567 new jobs created with the Foundation Awards. This year, 11 local businesses were honored with the by-now iconic bricks that serve as the awards. The awards recognize locally owned or franchised businesses that have been open at least three years and shown a 20 percent growth in jobs or added 20 total positions within the past year. “I love small businesses,” Tacha announced in leading off her speech. “In fact, I am the granddaughter, daughter, wife and mother of small business.” Tacha said her son today runs her family’s business, which provides school assembly programs across the country. And, she proudly described a photo that she appears in as a young girl alongside her father and grandfather as they helped build the first interstate highway bridges around
The Red Carpet Radio interviews were broadcast live on KLWN. Hank Booth and Dr. Mike Anderson interviewed this year’s Foundation Award sponsors and honorees.
Abilene, Kansas. That photo today hangs in the Smithsonian Institution, she said. “It is places like Lawrence that can make a real difference in the world,” said Tacha, her broken left arm in a sling, the result of a fall suffered a day earlier. “It’s the right size to be a laboratory to try all different kinds of things.” The crux of her speech centered on what she considers the three characteristics of successful small businesses, all based upon the overarching theme of unity: showing kindness, compassion and understanding of each other, maintaining mutual community support for each other, and remembering that it’s not just about what your business does. “Think about our business community as an organic whole,” she said. “Think about artists working with business. Think about Haskell and all its possibilities. We all need to pitch in and spread out.” Mike Anderson, local television personality and a writer for Lawrence Business Magazine, served as a late fill-in master of ceremonies for the hall of fame broadcaster Bob Davis, who was ill. He also spoke of the importance of keeping business local, pointing out that 80 percent of local job creation is done by existing businesses in a community. One by one, Anderson brought to the podium at the front of the Griffith Room representatives of the honored companies, led by two-time Foundation Award winners Bridge Haven Memory Care, Build SMART LLC and M Cubed Technologies. Robert Wilson started Bridge Haven 12 years ago when he was seeking a different model of long-term elder care for his parents. There is a staff member for every four residents, providing a higher ratio of care and more one-on-one care. “Business is great,” Wilson said. “We’re 100 percent occupied and have a waiting list. We found the sweet spot, found the need.” Medhi Honarvar, president and CEO of M Cubed, said his company’s growth in employees has proven what he already knew. “I’m a business developer, not an IT guy, so I view myself as the least important person on the team,” he said. “The
reason we’re able to grow is 100 percent my people.” Paul Grahovac, vice president of business development and general counsel at Build SMART, said his company has presented to four construction conferences across the U.S. over the last year. “When you’re small, a little growth goes a long way,” he said. “We were 10 employees last year. Now, we’re 20.” Other honorees included The Bates Co., Blue Collar Press, Brand New Box, Drs. Dobbins & Letourneau Eye Care Lawrence, Free State Dental, Koprince Law LLC, Solomon & Associates, Ameriprise Financial and KEA Advisors. The final award of the evening, the Footprint Impact Award, went to The Bates Company. The Footprint Impact Award honors a Lawrence business committed to impacting the community and creating a local footprint of mutually beneficial relationships which strengthen the community. The award is a recognition not of what a business does, but how it does business. How it works locally, how it works to create local business partnerships, philanthropic endeavors, volunteerism, and how much a company’s overall mission is driven by a sense of community and giving back. “The overarching mission of Lawrence Business Magazine is to cover people and businesses making a positive impact on the Lawrence community,” said Ann Frame Herzog, editor-in-chief. “We celebrate these impacts with the Foundation Awards, but especially with the Footprint Impact Award, which celebrates giving back to the local community and working in support of fellow local businesses.” The Bates Co. owners Simon and Codi Bates serve as offi41
Local Business Growth is the Foundation of our Local Economy, Congratulations to the 2019 Foundation Award Honorees
Lawrence Business Magazine & CadreLawrence
Presenting Sponsor:
Brick Sponsors:
Mortar Sponsors:
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For more information: www.LawrenceBusinessMagazine.com
cers on numerous boards throughout the Lawrence area, donate money to many area organizations, and source as locally as possible for their restaurants, which includes Lawrence eateries The Burger Stand at the Casbah and Bon Bon. Other company holdings include The Cider Gallery Event and Art Space the Cider Gallery offices in East Lawrence. The Bateses also encourage their employees to donate time to local non-profit and charitable organizations, allowing them to take time off during working hours to give back to the community. Their mission is to build a socially conscious company that takes care of its staff, customers, vendors and community. “It means a lot,” Codi Bates said of winning the award. “Lawrence has really embraced us. Our mission statement centers around staff first, and this award lets us know we’re taking care of our staff as per our mission.” The central theme of the evening, that of local businesses pulling together for the success of all, was one that makes INTRUST Bank especially proud to be presenting sponsor and part of the Foundation Awards since the beginning six years ago. “We’ve always wanted to recognize the importance of small businesses and the importance of businesses that invest locally,” said Beth Easter, commercial relationship manager. “The amount of jobs these businesses create allow for the continuing prosperity of our community. They continue to invest in themselves which adds to job creation and brings people to town to shop. “These businesses are innovative companies that continue to evolve,” she said, “and we like to be a part of that.”
THE BATES COMPANY – FOOTPRINT IMPACT AWARD
The Bates Co. began with its first business, The Burger Stand at the Casbah, and has since grown to include The Burger Stand at College Hill, in Topeka, Bon Bon!, The Cider Gallery Event and Art Space, and The Cider Gallery Offices, as well as owning the historic buildings in which Bon Bon! and The Cider Gallery reside in East Lawrence. Owners Simon and Codi Bates say their mission is to build a socially conscious company that takes care of its staff, customers, venders and community. Last year, The Bates Company added 22 full-time employees, growing from 111 to 133.
BLUE COLLAR PRESS Blue Collar Press is a merchandising company that runs both online white-label retail stores for international clients as well as on-site screen printing and other garment decorating. Established in 1999, Blue Collar Press was borne out of the Midwest music scene. What started as a small, manual screen press with one operator has blossomed over the years to include four auto presses, three manual presses, embroidery, digital printing and other contract services. Last year, Blue Collar Press added nine full-time jobs, growing from 23 employees to 32. 43
BRAND NEW BOX Brand New Box helps organizations codify processes and systems into value-adding software applications. Its target market is low-level executives starting new initiatives or reaching the limits of what they can build in Excel or within in-house tech teams. The company has been in business six years. Last year, Blue Collar Press added two full-time jobs, growing from four employees to six.
BRIDGE HAVEN MEMORY CARE – TWO-TIME WINNER
Bridge Haven provides family-style assisted living in private residential homes, nestled in well-established neighborhoods throughout Lawrence. It specializes in small, long-term care homes for individuals with Alzheimer’s, other dementia, Parkinson’s and strokes who need care for memory and/or physical needs. Started in 2007, Bridge Haven has taken care of hundreds of individuals for anywhere from one day to seven years. In 2019, Bridge Haven will have three custom-purpose-built homes for a total of 36 residents. Its sole owner is J. Robert Wilson Jr. Last year, Bridge Haven added 13 full-time jobs, growing from 61 employees to 74.
BUILDSMART LLC – TWO-TIME WINNER
BuildSMART is a partnership between PROSOCO and Adam Cohen designed to create durable, energy-efficient construction that is simple, affordable and accessible for any building, architect or owner. BuildSMART makes Passive House levels of energy efficiency not only possible but simple. Its prefabricated components save time and money to build, are easier to erect than conventional construction and are affordable to own. BuildSMART takes pride in the attention to detail and quality it puts in each and every project. Last year, BuildSMART added 10 full-time jobs, growing from 10 employees to 20. 44
FUNERAL HOME & CREMATORY, INC.
Shorty Yost Bart Yost Matt Daigh
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Todd Miller Gayle Davis Curtis Foley Proctor Crow Patty Dardis Rose Foster Matthew Kreek
Taylor Yost Drake Yost Kelly Daigh
DRs. DOBBINS & LETOURNEAU EYE CARE LAWRENCE The Eye Care Lawrence doctors and team provide complete eye health and vision care in a friendly and professional environment. Comprehensive eye care goes beyond a prescription for glasses or contact lenses. Located in downtown Lawrence and in business for more than 50 years, the optometry practice of Drs. Dobbins and Letourneau utilizes the newest and most advanced technology. Whether it’s a routine eye examination or diagnosis and treatment of eye problems and ocular disease, doctors are available six days a week and by phone for emergencies. Last year, Drs. Dobbins & Letourneau Eye Care Lawrence added four full-time jobs, growing from seven employees to 11.
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FREE STATE DENTAL Free State Dental is a locally owned dental office providing services ranging from cleaning and fillings to sameday crowns, dental implants, whitening, veneers and Invisalign, all with the same high-quality customer service patients have come to love. In business for 31 years, Free State Dental recently moved into new office space at 4111 West 6th St. Last year, Free State Dental added four full-time jobs, growing from 12 employees to 16.
KEA ADVISORS
(KEITH ELY & ASSOCIATES INC.) KEA offers management and strategy advisory services for commercial truck dealerships. It has professionals in nine states and provides services to customers nationally and internationally. KEA also serves the business system providers for the industry, truck manufacturers and the industry association (National Automobile Dealers Association and American Truck Dealers [ATD]). It has developed content and taught courses for the ATD Dealer Academy since 1996 and performs research studies on dealership and departmental performance. KEA was awarded the Kansas Small Business Development Center existing business of the year in 2018. Last year, KEA Advisors added nine full-time jobs, growing from eight employees to 17. 47
HEATING & COOLING
Sales
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Sevice
Installation
KOPRINCE LAW Koprince Law LLC is a boutique government contracts law firm. Since opening in 2015, the firm has expanded to 13 staff members to serve the increasing needs of its growing client base. Koprince Law serves a national client base of federal government contractors from its office in Lawrence. Although it is a small firm, it strives to offer clients high-quality legal services most often associated with much larger firms. Last year, Koprince Law added four full-time jobs, growing from nine employees to 13.
M CUBED TECHNOLOGIES – TWO-TIME WINNER
M Cubed Technologies is a business-to-business technology company serving local and regional business with all IT (internet technology) needs. Its philosophy is that if you monitor, maintain and manage your entire network, from your server to your workstation, you will prevent costly downtime some companies face and avoid loss of revenue. The company provides preventive IT every minute and hour of every day, and believes its M techs will already know of potential problems and will have already fixed them. In business for four years, it believes in monitoring, maintaining and managing for peace of mind in your network. Last year, M Cubed Technologies added two full-time jobs, growing from five employees to seven.
SOLOMON & ASSOCIATES, AMERIPRISE FINANCIAL Solomon & Associates delivers personalized financial advice and wealth-management strategies to help mitigate risk and be a steward for its clients’ financial health and well-being. Its financial advisors provide advice to help clients reach goals and realize personal and financial potential throughout their lifetimes. Solomon & Associates has been in business for three years in Douglas County. Last year, Solomon & Associates added one full-time job, growing from five employees to six. p
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Kristine Flynn, Kathy Olds, Emily Bowersock Hill, Amy Clark, and Kaylin Dillon of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
Making Your Plan Retirement – When and Where to Start by Dr. Mike Anderson, photos by Steven Hertzog
Let’s do some word associations. I’ll give you a word or phrase, and you tell me the first word that pops into your head. Portfolio. Nest Egg. 401(k). Roth IRA. What did you come up with? Did these words scare you? Perhaps the word association you came up with was more of a groan. For me, they’re words I’ve largely avoided my entire life—that is, until recently. At 37 years old, I’m now in the savings stages of my life. More specifically, I’m in the retirement-planning stages of my life, and I’m already late. Former University of Kansas professor and board member of the Senior Resource Center (SRC) Dennis Domer explains I’ve been programmed to avoid talking about aging, and age is considered an insult. Therefore, discussions about what finances I’ll need to live off of when I retire are particularly taboo. “The problem is most generations, not just seniors, don’t prepare financially for retirement,” Domer says. People no longer have pensions. So we have to save that much more. He refers to this lack of retirement saving as the 1,000-pound elephant in the room. Domer often meets retirees who have no plan for retirement yet want to keep the same lifestyle they had while working. For him, it’s about not just convincing seniors they need think about their finances but convincing people in their 50s, 40s, 30s and even 20s that a mind-set for saving for retirement has to be adopted. There is now a stronger pressure to save for retirement because the pension era of this country is behind us. 50
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The time to save is now. When a dog gets a bone, he doesn’t go out and make a down payment on a bigger bone. He buries the one he’s got.. – Will Rogers
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SPEND LIKE YOUR COLLEGE YOU English has an experiment: to see if one can truly live off of saving half of his or her income, especially when younger. If you’re still paying debt, then you’ll need more room to save. That will help train your mind-set.
Dennis Domer, retired, teaching his grand kids flyfishing. Photograph courtesy of Marianne Wille
MAKE A PLAN The scary part? How does one plan for retirement? How does one save? I assumed the answer was built into some complex set of algorithms containing systems with a lot of letters and numbers, but really, there is no secret formula that you must have “x” amount of money at “y” age. Regardless of whether you’re 21 or 81, it all comes down to one thing: discipline. “Planning for a successful retirement requires discipline,” explains Emily Hill, a financial advisor and executive director at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. “Building a retirement fund requires a rigorous approach not only to investment strategy but also to cash flow analysis, risk reduction and tax management.” The idea of having discipline is something talked about time and time again. Zak Bolick, financial advisor at Edmonds Duncan Registered Investment Advisors, makes it simple: When it comes to saving money for retirement, “You don’t have to be a genius. You just have to be diversified and not spend more money than you need.” Christopher English, vice president and trust officer of The Trust Company of Kansas, says retirement planning is wealth building. And the process for building wealth means people have to be more savers and less spenders. “Knowing your budget doesn’t have to be complicated,” he explains. “It’s a matter of figuring out what amounts have to go out, and what do I have coming in. The availability of credit puts us in the wrong mind-set. People have become more consumers than savers. The hardest thing about saving is getting started and making yourself do it.”
Think about how you lived in college. That’s right, remember the dinners you had, the car you drove, the clothes you bought. You were resourceful. Then you got your first major job, which came with the taste of sweet money. You started making more, and, therefore, you wanted to spend more. Ramen turned into salmon, the 1990 Honda Accord turned into an Acura, and now you have four velvet sport coats. (Side note: I love the way they feel, and I’ve also discovered that people like to rub your arm when you wear velvet.) That is what these investment professionals are talking about. In grad school and college, you don’t require that much. No one is saying you should go back to that 1990 Honda and eating plain ramen. You should, however, get back into that saving mindset. As English puts it, “the earlier you start investing, the better. The first thing people do when they get inheritance or more money is to buy something. Break that ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ mentality. Those who want to build wealth need a game plan, and that involves putting money away.”
WHERE TO PUT YOUR MONEY After talking with various wealth-management experts, the plan becomes simple. If you’re at the pre-retirement age: Contribute the maximum your company allows to your 401(k) each year. If you can’t do that immediately, the idea would be to start as high 51
as you can, then add a percent at the first of every year. Make it incremental. Edmonds Duncan’s Bolick explains to his clients that they shouldn’t impair their lifestyles to save for retirement, but it’s extremely important to participate as much as possible. Most individuals might not be at the point where they are putting away 15 to 20% of their income. Without discipline, it could take 20 years to get to that point. But the important thing is to start saving today. By not participating in your company’s 401(k), you could be missing out on getting more money from your employer. In your 401(k), you are given different investment options. Bolick and his team recommend choosing a Target Date Fund inside retirement accounts. The date one chooses should be targeted to the day he or she intends to retire (dates are labeled in five-year increments). Generally, Bolick advises everyone to choose a year as far out as they can, at least an age you intend to retire. These funds rebalance and move risk as you grow closer to that targeted retirement date so you don’t have to. Besides focusing on your 401(k), Bolick urges clients to focus on their debt. He tells them to make as much of a payment as possible on all debt or more on higher interest rate debts while still saving for retirement. For example, if your car payment is 7%, and your student loan is 4%, don’t be afraid to carry your student loans for a little longer while you extinguish your car loan. Then, when that car is paid off, take that payment and apply it to your student loan or savings. “Stay used to not having that money,” he says. “So many people will pay off a credit card or car loan, and add it to their cash flow and spend it.” You have to have discipline and the right mind-set, which are paramount to saving for retirement.
THE TIME IS NOW Servicing debt is not an excuse to stop saving. Bolick says you should be doing both, and having some debt is normal. Getting a mortgage and having a car loan are reasonable. But don’t wait to make more money to save for the future. The time is now. “Time in the market will get you further along than timing the market,” he says. Most individuals in their 20s, 30s, 40s or 50s should be growth-oriented. They have decades of investment on the horizon ahead of them. An individual in this situation can afford the ups and downs, and sways of the market. “The fact of the matter is nobody knows what is coming next,” Bolick says. For people in their 30s, 40s or older, these market corrections are not only completely normal, but they are really good for saving plans, he continues. That is, if they’re systematically investing in a 401(k), IRA or both. Zak Bolick outside the Edmonds/Duncan Registered Investment Advisors office on Mass Street
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“When the stock market is down, you’re still buying every month. It shouldn’t stress you out when it goes down,” Bolick continues. “When it goes down, you are still buying more shares as if the stock market simply went on sale. When the market goes up, you buy fewer shares but are still buy-
Chris English, Senior Vice President & Trust Officer, The Trust Company of Kansas
ing. If you’re contributing every month to your funds, it shouldn’t stress you out.” You control the market, Bolick says, but the one thing you can control in the stock market is cost. “Make sure you are aware of what you are paying in terms of internal fees and annual fees for your retirement accounts outside of your 401(k).” English agrees. He argues those at pre-retirement age should always start with savings then get into an investment account—in the market or mutual funds to be put in monthly. “As long as you’re putting monthly funds into it, you don’t have to worry about market swings,” he explains.
A RESILIENT PORTFOLIO This time in the market, perspective is consistent across investment professionals. A recent New York Life Investments (NYLI) report shows how the volatility experienced in 2018 was neither exceptional or unusual. Despite massive swings in the market, patient investors who remain fully invested still saw exceptional returns with their portfolios in every decade since 1940. Volatility is actually the status quo. It will sometimes be tough to see prices swinging, even daily. However, any short-term volatility disappears with a long-term view. A resilient portfolio can easily weather volatility. 53
In his article, “5 Lessons About Volatility to Learn From the History of Markets,” on Visual Capitalist, a media site that creates and curates visuals on business and investing, editor-in-chief Jeff Desjardins highlights the findings of the New York Life Investments study by arguing that a resilient portfolio is obtained through diversifying between different asset classes (i.e., municipal bonds, government or corporate bonds, equities). Specifically, he says, there are three traits to look for in these assets: 1) low correlation with the market (these assets zig when others zag) 2) defensive or noncyclical (you often find this trait in bigger companies with conservative balance sheets and durable competitive advantages, i.e., stocks in health care, consumer staples, telecoms) 3) generates cash flow (found in stocks that pay dividends or bonds that pay interest). Yes, investing in equities comes with risks, but since 1925, they have clearly offered the best return on investment over government bonds and cash. As stated in the NYLI report, “If stocks offer the best long-run gains—and volatility is an unavoidable aspect of investing in stocks— then we must learn to accept volatility for what it is. Even better, we must learn to build resilient portfolios that can weather any storm, minimizing these effects.” This means that planning for retirement might involve takings risks. But volatility reminds us that rewards wouldn’t exist without risk.
SAVE FOR LIFE One doesn’t stop investing even when he or she retires; prudent investing strategies are necessary well into retirement and throughout the rest of his or her life. For example, social security: Should you take social security when you can or wait? Generally, the recommendation is to take it, because it takes the pressure off of your savings for that amount. This is where advisors can tell you when to lean in and out of different areas of the market. There certainly is value working with financial professionals who live in that world every single day. If they know your goals (i.e., what you are saving for and what your retirement lifestyle is going to be), they can adjust that plan to your goals, and you can live off your retirement the way you intend. These professionals can take one more thing off your plate. As Morgan Stanley’s Hill explains, “I have known a few people who have the time and the temperament to maintain both the perspective and the necessary attention to detail over decades. Most, however, are better off partnering with an advisor who can make sure they develop a thorough plan and stay the course.” Saving, planning and investing are not some dragon we have to slay. Regardless of age, it is important to save. That doesn’t mean not having fun: just be sure to budget for fun. Retirement age me wants money for his umbrella drinks, and I definitely don’t want to let him down. p 54
Nancy Longhurst, General Manager, The Olivia Collection at the newly designed and renovated Jayhawker bar at the Eldridge Hotel on Mass Street
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Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely..
’ Ready To – Karen Kaiser Clark
by Liz Weslander, photos by Steven Hertzog
Expand?
Local bankers and businesses give their insights on what it takes. When it comes to expanding your business, cash is king, realistic goals are essential and a strong team will take you far.
Business Expansion Loans While the basic first step when applying for a business-expansion loan is to present your recent tax returns and financial statements from the past few years, getting a loan requires a lot more than simply having your financial papers in order. When considering a loan, banks want to work with companies that have done their research. They’re looking for a complete picture of the whats and whys of the expansion, as well as some realistic ideas of how the company plans to pull it off. “The key question is what is the purpose of the loan, and the next question
is how are you going to pay that money back,” says Les Dreiling, president and chief executive officer of Great American Bank, 888 New Hampshire St. “You’ll want to do a two-year financial map with month-to-month cash flow projections. You don’t want to be overly optimistic or pessimistic, just give a realistic look at projections.” Beth Easter, commercial relationship manager at INTRUST Bank, 901 Vermont St., says that in addition to solid research, business owners looking to expand should ideally come to the bank with some cash to put on the table. “Most bankers will talk about you needing to have some skin in the game, so usually if there is an expansion of some sort, then we would recommend that a business owner would also contribute 20 to 30 percent of their own cash toward that expansion,” Easter says.
The absence of a realistic plan and a lack of cash reserves are often signs that a business is not currently in a position to expand, Dreiling and Easter agree. Dreiling says business owners will sometimes maintain they would not need to borrow money if they had excess cash, but a major pitfall he sees with expanding businesses is when they go in with overly optimistic projections and not enough cash to deal with unforeseen obstacles. “You don’t want to go into expansion when you are heavily in debt and don’t have any liquidity should the expansion take longer than you thought,” Dreiling says. Easter says that because businesses often have large amounts of cash when first starting out, she will some55
Top to bottom: Les J. Dreiling, President and Chief Executive Officer at Great American Bank Darin Lutz, owner of Alpha Roofing conducts an early morning meeting in their new spacious offices, Darin in his office at his desk Opposite pg: Les greeting client Paul Werner of Paul Werner Architects, the architect of their newly remodeled bank on New Hampshire Street. .
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times advise new business owners to set aside some of their start-up cash to use as collateral for a line of credit. “That way they don’t put all their eggs in one basket,” she explains. “They may not ever use the line of credit if everything in the business goes exactly as planned, but if they do need it, it’s already in place. It’s not ideal to be coming to the bank to establish a line of credit when you’re out of cash.”
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Having an established relationship with a bank is also nice, because it provides an opportunity for a business owner to talk regularly with the bank about future plans, which makes it easier to be both realistic and proactive about what they need to have in place when they are ready to expand. “It really helps if a business can come in and talk with us before they need money,” Easter says. “When they are asking questions like ‘What should my cash flow be?’ and ‘What should I be able to show you at the end of the year if I want to expand?’, it helps everyone set expectations from the beginning.” While Dreiling often works with businesses with which he has an established relationship, he says business owners looking to expand will sometimes come to Great American Bank because they are not getting what they need from larger banks. “Sometimes we will get someone who has been banking with a big bank, and maybe the big bank isn’t into the $300,000 loan or what have you, so as a community bank, we can pick up a niche that way,” Dreiling says. “We know the community, and sometimes it helps to deal with a community banker versus an out-of-town bank in North Dakota or St. Louis.”
Success-Story Wisdom Darin Lutz, owner of the residential and commercial roofing outfit Alpha Roofing, knows firsthand the many factors that go into growing a business. When he started the company is 2005, it was just Lutz working with one crew, while his wife did books out of their home. When a hailstorm tore through Lawrence in 2006, he had no choice but to expand. “That’s pretty much what expedited Alpha Roofing’s footprint in Lawrence,” Lutz says. “We went from $500,000 in revenue to $3 million in the second year of business. I had 57
to add people right then and there to handle the workload.” Although circumstances beyond Lutz’s control jump-started Alpha Roofing’s expansion, Lutz says he is a big believer in slow growth. One of the first people he hired was operations manager Yvonne Ruder, who took on handling the financial end of the company. Lutz says Ruder has been a key collaborator in steadily growing the company. “I’m a slow-growth guy. For me to hire someone is a big deal,” Lutz explains. “I don’t just grab warm bodies because we need them. There’s lots of discussion and numbercrunching before we add someone. Even though the need might be immediate, it’s just not something we jump into.”
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Alpha Roofing currently has 12 in-house employees and recently moved into a larger office building. It now does business throughout northeast Kansas and runs up to 10 crews during the busiest times of year. The careful hiring of top-notch employees goes hand in hand with the other factor that Lutz attributes to his successful growth—a sincere commitment to providing quality work and customer service. “As the work poured in, we found we needed to add people in order to manage the quality of work we were doing,” Lutz says. “If you mess something up, it’s going cost you money, but it may cost your reputation if you don’t handle it properly. I have to see my customers at Hy-Vee. I coach their kids. My kids go to school with their families. I just really care what people think about us.” Nancy Longhurst, general manager of The Olivia Collection, a management company that includes The Oread Hotel, The Eldridge Hotel and The Eldridge Extended, is also a seasoned veteran when it comes to business expansion. She is just coming off an eight-month renovation at The Eldridge, 701 Massachusetts St., which included an overhaul of the hotel’s bar and restaurant. Longhurst also oversaw the development of The Eldridge Extended, 201 W. Eighth St., which opened in 2007. However, the largest expansion project under Longhurst’s belt is The Oread Hotel, 1200 Oread Ave., which was constructed from scratch between 2008 and 2010.
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Longhurst says organization and communication were crucial to her success during the two years it took to build the hotel, and these two elements hinged on having a solid group of people working with her. “You need to have those key people in place in advance so that you can sit down and have weekly meetings where everyone is talking to each other, so that things are not falling through the cracks,” Longhurst says.
2735 Iowa Street, Lawrence KS 58
INTRUST’s Easter says that, as a banker, a common pitfall she sees with expanding businesses is when they fail to develop a broad understanding of all the processes, costs and time required on the expansion. When Longhurst describes what it took to get The Oread up and running within a two-
Beth Easter, Intrust Bank, Commercial Relationship Manager .
year time frame, it’s clear she had thorough understanding of the process. “Opening a brand-new hotel from scratch is a lot of work, because there are a lot of moving parts,” Longhurst says. “Not only are you working to prebook business, but you have an entire hotel to staff, plus deciding what your reservation system is, what your accounting system is, what you restaurant point-of-sale system is, what your clock-in system is—and those things all have to tie together. It’s a big process. We took every bit of those two years to get it done.” Longhurst’s successful expansion projects make sense given her experience and expertise in the hospitality business. However, Easter says she’s seen successful businesspeople run into trouble by trying to expand into a niche where they have limited expertise. “Sometimes a business owner is doing really well with Concept A, and then a friend or somebody else comes along with Concept B, and because the business owner has been so successful with their original concept, they want to invest in something new that they really don’t have as much knowledge on,” Easter says. While the temptation to expand his business beyond roofing is always there, Lutz says his commitment to quality has helped him avoid this pitfall. “The structure we have right now works well for the jobs we have coming in, but I don’t think we’ve perfected what we do,” he says. “A lot of roofing companies want to expand into other things like siding or windows, but I’d rather continue to improve on what we are already doing.” p 59
Bob Schumm, hanging out on Mass St.
Know When To Fold ’Em
Recognizing the right time to get out of a business is a huge part of making the next phase of life seamless. by Bob Luder, photos by Steven Hertzog
As longtime owner of two venerable Mass Street eateries, there probably isn’t anyone better versed on how to run businesses and run them successfully in Lawrence than Bob Schumm. Veteran residents of the area are familiar with the Mass Street Deli, once located near tenth street on the city’s main drag, and Buffalo Bob’s Smokehouse a few blocks north. Schumm owned each enterprise for 37 years and also served three terms as Lawrence mayor while doing so. In more than four decades in the restaurant business, you learn more than a few tricks of the trade. That includes when to get out. As the classic country song goes, “You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em,” and as the millennium entered its second decade, Schumm surveyed the local restaurant landscape and decided the time was right to transition out of the only business he’d known. “It was a combination of things,” Schumm says. “I was ready to retire. The restaurant market was softening. It was getting too crazy. Buildings that had longtime restaurants in them were being retrofitted or torn down.” 60
Schumm’s decision to step away from the restaurant business presented a whole other set of questions and options that face business owners every day who decide it’s time to transition to another phase of life. Do I sell the business whole? Break it up and sell it in pieces? Hand it down to children or other relatives? Walk away entirely? Fortunately for Schumm, his answers presented themselves readily and clearly. His children, who all had worked in one or both of the restaurants at one point or another in their young lives, went on to their own careers outside the food-service business. And Schumm found there was no shortage of eager buyers. In 2010, he sold the building that housed Mass Street Deli, which he’d owned since 1973, and all the restaurant’s equipment. Today, Genovese, an Italian restaurant, resides in the space. “I didn’t want to sell the building,” Schumm says, “but as they say, I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
He held on to Buffalo Bob’s Smokehouse for four more years, but, as he put it, “In 2014, I decided it was time to go do other things. I’d been in the restaurant business 44 years. That’s a long career.” He liquidated Buffalo Bob’s but kept the building. The space was divided into two new restaurants—Mass Street Fish House, at 719 Massachusetts St., and Lady Bird Diner, at 721 Massachusetts St. There also is a mercantile/clothing establishment at 717 Mass, and Schumm rents 31 office spaces on the second floor of the building, adding to his second career of managing commercial real estate and making for a nice retirement. “Really, I’m still in the restaurant business,” he says, laughing. “It’s just that, now, I’m at the top of the food chain.” Schumm says it was to his advantage that his children weren’t interested in assuming ownership of the restaurants. “I could make my decision based solely on the facts and keep emotion out of it,” he says. Schumm’s transition out of his longtime businesses proceeded smoothly, but, the fact is, not everyone is so lucky.
Start Thinking About It Early Gary Summers, a certified exit planning advisor with SS&C Solutions Inc., with offices in Lawrence, Topeka, Meriden, Shawnee and Salina, understands that most people are so excited about starting a company then so immersed in the day-to-day functions, contemplating an exit strategy becomes an afterthought. But he encourages business owners to develop a solid exit strategy sooner than later. “It can be daunting, and a lot of people don’t think about it,” Summers says. “We encourage people to start early. There is a lot to consider.” Summers recommends the formation of an exit plan—or, at least thinking about formulating one—as many as 10 years from when the owner plans to step away. After all, he says it’s only the single most critically important financial event one experiences in life. Some tax and wealth-building strategies take time. Starting earlier creates more options and produces better outcomes. The sooner a good exit plan is hatched, the higher probability there is for creating lasting wealth for the owner and family.
Gary Summers, SS&C Solutions
Summers explains that a thorough and well-executed exit plan can allow the business owner to get maximum value for the business during the transition, reduce risk and ensure the ability to remain in control of the process until ready to move. What’s your business worth? What do you want it to be worth? How do you recognize when it’s the right time to leave? All of these questions can be answered with a solid exit plan that includes a team of advisors, including a lawyer, accountant, financial advisor, insurance professional and tax advisor. One of the myriad reasons Summers, who acquired SS&C Solutions in October 1984, knows of what he speaks is that he recently went through an exit strategy of his own. Just last December, he sold his remaining shares of stock back into the company’s employee stock-ownership plan. “There’s no better teacher than the experience of going through that,” he says. “I’m functioning now as an employee and working more with companies on succession plans.” Both of Summers’ children—daughter Michele Hammann and son Greg—work for the company. In fact, Summers technically works for his daughter today. Both Summers children are employee shareholders in SS&C Solutions, and Summers says it was an important part of his exit plan to sell his stock interest back to all company employees, not just those in his own family. “I’ve always been a proponent of employee ownership plans,” he says. “I brought that concept from Oklahoma City (where he was a CPA for a large firm back in the early 1980s). Before even talking to my kids about succession plans, we talked about doing this here.” 61
L to R: Jordan Hulet, Mark Harrington, Wally Meyer and Denton Zeeman of KU’s Red Tire Wally Meyer, Director of entrepreneurship programs at KU and Director of the RedTire program
REDefine Your ReTIREment Small, rural companies in the area and throughout Kansas that have no succession plan in place can find assistance with RedTire, one of the entrepreneurship programs at the University of Kansas School of Business. Wallace Meyer Jr., director of entrepreneurship programs at KU, started RedTire about five years ago after learning during a visit to western Kansas about the problem of small- to medium-sized companies shuttering because of lack of succession plans. “The problems were not with the businesses themselves,” Meyer says. “The baby boomer generation worked very hard to establish these small to mid-size businesses, and now it’s time that they want to retire. But they couldn’t find buyers.” Enter RedTire, which acts as a matchmaker between qualified Kansas Regents school graduates and alumni who have the expertise and ambition to run rural businesses where existing owners desire an exit. “Keeping these businesses alive is particularly important for smaller Kansas towns that depend on the essential services these businesses provide,” Meyer says. “Not only do communities lose essential services when these businesses shutter, they also lose the tax base.” He continues, “Being an entrepreneur, the thought occurred, we have a void here that needs to be filled. And here we are (at KU) with a reservoir of talent. RedTire is the connection between the reservoir and void.” RedTire screens businesses to identify purchase opportunities and alumni or graduating candidates as re62
placement owners. It matches qualified replacement managers with those opportunities. It provides financial projections and valuation for selling businesses, helps in negotiating purchases and monitors managers through successful transitions. And it’s all done by KU business students. “It provides a great learning experience for students,” Meyer says. “Students prepare financial projections and valuation of businesses. I think one of the reasons we’re so successful is that there’s a natural credibility. All of our students are completely objective partners.” There is no cost for businesses and buyers to participate in RedTire. Expenses are covered by a grant from the Economic Development Administration with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the KU School of Business. As of Aug. 17, 2018, the program has had 56 completed transactions totaling gross revenues of $57 million and 465 jobs saved. It’s had 177 program participants and currently is assisting 121 firms throughout the state. Valley Feed & Supply, located in Bonner Springs, is one of those successfully completed transactions. The business had been in the Stubbs family since 1923. But when Neal and Marty Stubbs, third-generation owners, decided it was time to sell and retire, their children had their own careers, and they didn’t have a buyer. Through a letter received through the KU Alumni Association, they contacted RedTire in August of 2014. “(RedTire) did a very thorough evaluation and appraisal of the business,” Neal says. “Through their website, we found our buyer.”
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Invest in yourself. Your career is the engine of your wealth. . – Paul Clitheroe
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Stubbs says he closed on the sale of Valley Feed & Supply in January 2018. “Because we did spend quite a lot of time on this, it helped me in transitioning out of the business,” Neal says.
Changing Landscape of Business Some businesses, such as Valley Feed & Supply, transition because it’s the owners’ choice. Still other owners are told when it’s time to step away by economic and cultural changes that make staying near impossible. It was announced late last year that Prairie Patches, a mainstay at 821 Massachusetts St. for 26 years and in business for about 45, was closing in early 2019. Cinda Garrison, who owned and operated the variety store throughout, credits her age (76) and a pair of aching knees as reasons for selling her building and liquidating all her merchandise. But as she tells the Lawrence Journal-World in November of last year, a changing business landscape also led to her decision. “I don’t know who my customer base is anymore,” Garrison says. “Buying habits have changed so much over the years. I don’t sell a lot of things that you need but rather stuff that you want. My older women don’t really want stuff anymore, and my young women don’t really want things either. They want experiences.” Garrison says she doesn’t know what kind of business will go into the space at 821 Mass. She thinks the market for personalized retail items, like clothing and other gear, will bounce back. Things like that always come and go in cycles, she says. But she knows she won’t be a part of it. Her transition out is complete. For those who work with the RedTire program, SS&C Solutions or any other number of ways, when it comes to leaving a company you’ve helped build and grow, some transitions will go more smoothly than others. All probably come with at least some degree of melancholy and nostalgia. “You can say it is with much sadness that I’m closing,” Garrison tells the Journal-World. “I love people and love my customers, and love being in downtown Lawrence. But at some point, it becomes time.” p
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What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.. – Pericles
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DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE Estate planning may seem daunting, but it’s crucial to making the process of distributing assets to heirs after death uncomplicated. by Julie Dunlap, photos by Steven Hertzog
What do Prince and Aretha Franklin have in common with more than half of all adults in America? Like most Americans, neither megastar had a will, leaving friends and family with the arduous, expensive task of sorting out their estates.
A married person with a surviving spouse and surviving children: Spouse receives 50%, children receive equal amounts of the remaining 50%.
Lawrence attorney Matt Hoy, of Stevens & Brand, LLP, cautions the living not to do the same as these dearly departed dynamos did.
A person with no children and no surviving spouse: The estate is divided in equal parts to the nearest surviving relative(s), such as parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, as applicable, depending on the deceased’s family tree.
Whether it be a multimillion-dollar estate or simply the clothes on one’s back, Hoy emphasizes that almost everybody owns something, explaining, “(Writing a will) is an opportunity to create the property law for their property when they die, and that will becomes the law.” Hoy goes on to explain that without a will, the deceased’s property becomes subject to intestate succession, meaning a court-appointed administrator will be tasked to assess the value of the estate, pay off creditors and distribute the remaining property to the legal heirs according to state law. Right now in Kansas, assets are distributed to the nearest relative(s) according to the following: A married person with a surviving spouse and no children: Spouse receives 100%. 64
A person with children but no surviving spouse: Children receive equal amounts of 100% of the estate.
This may be exactly what a person wants, but often a person’s circumstances and family dynamic at the time of death are a bit more complicated. Blended families, parents of children with special needs or complex ownership of shared assets, for example, can tie up an estate and a family for years, leaving survivors to manage far more than grief from the loss of a loved one without a signed will. Additionally, the process of even the simplest distribution is severely slowed when no legal directive exists. Writing a will may seem daunting, but with careful thought and proper planning, it can be much more streamlined than most people fear. One of the first steps in the process is to determine which belongings, financial accounts, pieces of property and other items are part of your estate. The types
Matt Hoy, Attorney at Stevens & Brand, LLP
Mike Davies, Senior vice president and trust officer at The Trust Company
Richard Zinn, Attorney at Barber Emerson, LC
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of properties (land, art, collectible cars, CDs, stocks, etc.) and the total value will help determine the best way to allocate your estate. Careful consideration needs to be given to selecting the executor of your will, which is the person who will oversee the execution of your plans after you pass, similar to the courtappointed administrator but chosen by the creator of the will rather than appointed by strangers according to law. “Is it somebody you trust? Is the person responsible?” Hoy asks, emphasizing that no matter who you choose, you share your plans openly with your loved ones so there are no surprises after your death that may cause discord or confusion. Be open with your attorney, as well, adds Lawrence attorney Dick Zinn, of the law firm Barber Emerson, LC, explaining, “Your lawyer cannot understand your planning needs unless you carefully think through your wishes and expectations, and communicate them not only to your lawyer but to others involved with your estate and financial planning.” Zinn strongly recommends making your wishes known to a planning team, perhaps bringing your financial planner, CPA, attorney and others who are part of your current management team together to make sure everyone is aware of your wishes and plans. Zinn also emphasizes that equal care should be given to selecting someone to act as power of attorney over one’s personal finances and health care. “The health-care power of attorney is a critical document because it describes not only who will be responsible for a person’s health-care decisions but also end-of-life issues.” As time rolls on after signing these important documents, Hoy recommends checking in on them periodically, particularly after one of life’s “mile markers,” such as the death of a parent, the birth of a child or grandchild, or getting married. “When there’s a significant occurrence, it’s appropriate to pull the documents out, dust them off and ask if this is still consistent with what you want, or have things changed?” Hoy explains. Financial assets are not the only pieces of the estate, however. Sentimental items such as a wedding dress or photo album, and even the keepers of online accounts, digital information and social media passwords are important to formally delegate.
Kansas Legal Services, located in Topeka, may be able to offer assistance in planning, as well, particularly for parents of minors and senior citizens, at a reduced rate. (Visit www. kansaslegalservices.org for more information.) While a will may be the more widely known legal directive, there are other vehicles for estate management more and more people are using, including a traditional trust. Mike Davies, senior vice president and trust officer with The Trust Company, smiles while explaining the origins of the trust. “Trusts date back to medieval times,” he shares, “when, at the landowner’s death, all of his property was forfeited to the crown constituting the ultimate estate tax. A solicitor thought to himself, ‘What if I don’t own (my property)?’” The solicitor created a trust to own property with a trustee (similar to the executor of a will) to act under the trust contract so that the creator of the trust owned no property in his own right to be forfeited to the crown upon his death. Roughy 800 years later, this solicitor’s idea works very much the same way. A person may opt to move all of his or her assets to a trust created by an agreement between the creator and the trustee. The trust owns the property, and the trustee dispenses money and allows the creators to live in and use the property as directed until the time of the creator’s death. The trustee then distributes the remaining estate according to the creator’s wishes expressed in the trust agreement. Many may think of a trust as a tool only for those wishing to avoid estate taxes currently imposed on estates worth more than $11.4 million in 2019. “The modern trust, in and of itself, does not avoid estate tax,” Davies notes, but there are a number of other advantages to having a trust as opposed to solely having a standard will. “A trust helps you avoid probate,” says Chris English, vice president and trust officer with The Trust Company of Kansas (TCK), “and if you become incapacitated while you’re alive, the trustee (similar to an executor in duties) can carry out your wishes.” English explains that, while a will does save the survivors time, stress and money in distributing the deceased’s assets, a trust can do more than a will.
“Who do you want managing your Facebook or other social media accounts, as well as your other digital assets after your death?” Zinn asks.
“A trustee acts on behalf of the grantor (the person who created the trust) in both life and after death following the wishes of the trust,” English says, while “the executor of a will has no power given to them by the document until the person has actually died.”
A basic comprehensive estate-planning package, which includes a will, general power of attorney, medical power of attorney, a living will and assignment of guardianship for children (if needed) typically starts at roughly $1200 to 2000 locally, possibly higher for more complicated estate planning.
While a person is still alive, a trust can provide financial support to the grantor, and the appointed trustee can more smoothly transition to the role of power of attorney, if needed. After the grantor has passed away, the remaining survivors are able to bypass the costs and typical four-month delay of probate court all wills are subject to.
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A living trust may also help prevent elder abuse by naming a successor trustee who may ensure assets are readily available to care for the grantor if and as he or she becomes in need of costly care. A trustee may be a corporate fiduciary, such as a bank or a trust company, or it may be an individual, but the duties are extensive and possibly more burdomson than most individuals realize. Those interested in creating a trust should consider the duties imposed upon a trustee when deciding who to appoint. Professional fiduciaries who have the power to act as trustees are trained to hire the necessary appraisers and agents to secure, value and sell property; collect and centralize money from various accounts; and disperse the assets accordingly. Sometimes the property can be unusual. English recalls one client who was a celebrity impersonator and left behind various costumes that needed to be valued and sold as part of the estate. Trusts may be handed down through or even skip generations, commonly dissolving roughy 21 years after the death of the last named beneficiary. Davies outlines several charitable options that are available, as well. “Charitable unitrusts allow people to donate an asset such as land to a charity while living subject to a trust agreement with the charity,” Davies explains. He goes on to say that
the named charity may then “direct an annual percentage of market value of the donated property to be paid back to the donor for a specific period of time, usually until his or her death.” With this sort of arrangement, the charity retains the residual value of the donated property for its own use. The donor-directed accounts have become a particularly effective option since a 2017 change in standard deductions took effect. “A significant lump sum is donated up front to a donor-directed fund with an organization,” Davies says, allowing the money to be distributed to charities over the years according to the donor’s directives. Similarly, private foundations may be established to help finance charities at the direction of a board. These and other charitable-trust options allow people to direct taxable assets to charities, helping the donor’s favorite charities while potentially providing a tax savings for the donor or the donor’s estate. Hoy, Zinn, English and Davies agree that however a person decides to designate the estate, the most important thing the person can do is to talk openly about his or her wishes with loved ones. For more specific information about estate planning, consult with an estate-planning attorney or a trust officer. A clear, thorough will and/or trust may be the most thoughtful legacy a person can leave behind.
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Ask the experts:
What happens to my debt after I die? Dick Zinn explains that debts incurred by the deceased are usually paid off with the money from the deceased’s estate. Secured debts (such as a mortgage) are paid off according to the terms of the agreement at the time the debt was incurred. Unsecured debts (such as cell phone bills, credit card bills, hospital bills) require more effort, with a burden of responsibility on the executor and/ or trustee to publish a death notice and potentially reach out to known creditors after a person’s death. The creditor then has a finite period of time to file a claim and collect the money. If an estate’s value is less than the amount of debt owed, the remaining debt is written off. Zinn also notes that a 401(k), IRA (individual retirement account) and life insurance may be exempt from claims to creditors.
What else should I have besides a will? Matt Hoy advises anyone aged 18 and older to have not only a will but general power of attorney, medical power of attorney, a declaration regarding dying wishes (sometimes referred to as a living will) and guardianship of minors
(when applicable) in place. These documents allow parents or other designated loved ones to make decisions for an adult should that adult become incapacitated. He notes that physicians will not necessarily talk with parents regarding their adult child’s medical condition without this sort of legal authority to do so. While it may not be the going-away-to-college gift kids dream of, it is an important one to consider. Power of attorney documents may be downloaded from online legal sites, but Hoy strongly recommends consulting with an attorney prior to signing anything.
What is the best way to decide how much of my estate to allocate to a charity?
Mike Davies recommends working with a percentage rather than a dollar amount. A person may have an estate consisting of stocks, land and other assets subject to changes in value over time. For example, a $100,000 donation upon death to a charity may seem just fine when an estate is valued at $1,000,000 at the time a will is drafted, but if the value of the assets drops to $200,000 by the time of death, other heirs are looking at receiving only 50% of the inheritable amount as opposed to the 90% originally envisioned. By simply designating a percentage, you can guarantee a charitable donation and maximum inheritance will be left to everyone you care about. Davies adds that this can be designated in a will without the need for a charitable trust.
Do I really need to involve an attorney or trust company for this? Chris English emphasizes that when any service is needed, whether it be the need to install a new toilet or secure the property of the deceased, it is always best to hire a professional. English and others in his industry are certified through trust schools of banking, having undergone rigorous training and testing to be able to maximize a person’s estate for decades after the person has passed; attorneys are trained and educated during three years of law school and required to pass the bar exam before practicing law. Friends and family may kindly be willing to serve in this role, but only a trained professional will be equipped to carry it out efficiently, thoroughly and with longevity. p
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Bart Yost, Director at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home and Crematory
Final Plans by Julie Dunlap, photos by Steven Hertzog
When it comes to estate planning and management, a person’s final farewell is often the first order of business surviving loved ones are tasked with carrying out. This emotional and urgent step can be made much easier on family and friends by pre-arranging the funeral, yet a striking minority in the Lawrence area take advantage of this opportunity. “I would say probably 20-25% pre-arrange their funerals,” says Bart Yost, Director at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home and Crematory. Yost has worked for the family-owned business since 1978, serving as funeral director for the past 25 years, and has assisted countless numbers of people with funeral arrangements. The cost can be intimidating, with full funeral packages in the area ranging roughly $6,000 - 25,000. Services may include everything from picking up the body of the deceased to embalming/cremation to the visitation, funeral, and burial. But in the end, pre-arranging can save the survivors time and money. “When somebody comes in (to pre-arrange a funeral), we sit down and go through the service as if it were happening in three or four days, talking for 30-45 minutes about their wishes,” Yost explains of the process. “If they decide to pay for it then, they pay the current price.”
pay for final arrangements for transportation, funeral, and additional services after their death. The pre-pay option is most popular with people approaching retirement age and with people wanting to spend down their savings in order to qualify for skilled nursing care assistance. As Yost explains, “The state of Kansas will allow them to buy their funeral services and not count it against them as an asset.” In addition to seeing people take advantage of the pre-pay option, Yost has noticed other trends in funerals in recent years. “(The rate of) cremation is definitely rising,” Yost says, adding that cremation is typically about 35% less expensive than traditional burial. He also notes a decade-long trend for a full funeral with the body embalmed and in a rented casket and later cremated for private burial, with approximately 90% of traditional funerals involving an open casket. With so many options available, Yost has a simple list for people to consider before they come in, including writing out a short outline of their lives with information others might not know about them but may be recognizable to others who read the obituary and to know their own finances and budget. p
The payment is typically made through a pre-need insurance company, allowing a person to lock in that current price. When the person passes, Yost says, “We re-add the service at the time of need and any extra (funds) go back to the estate, and any overages are written off.” Families may make changes to the arrangements with any additional purchases charged at the current rate. Yost has found many people opt to pre-pay for the casket and basic burial services, allowing the surviving family to make and 71
2019 MIDWEST SPORTS PERFORMANCE CONFERENCE A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO COACHING THE MODERN ATHLETE: Developing the Building Blocks for Athletes at All Levels
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Jake Sharp, Founder of Sharp Performance Jim Steel, Strength & Conditioning Manager Whitney Rodden, Head Strength & Conditioning Coach, MidAmerica Nazarene Ross Schwisow, Asst. Principal & Athletic Director, Basehor-Linwood High School Scott Caufield, Head Strength & Conditioning Coach/Coaching Education Mgr, NSCA Cory Schelsinger, Associate Olympic Sports Performance Coach, Stanford Univ Luke Bradford, Assoc. Director-Sports Performance, Univ of Kansas
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THE LOCAL
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LMH HEALTH ANNUAL MEETING
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THE CHAMBER ANNUAL MEETING
photos by Carter Gaskins, Gaskins Photography
THE LOCAL
[SCENE]
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THE SIXTH ANNUAL FOUNDATION AWARDS
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NEWS [MAKERS] PEOPLE ON THE MOVE Jay Taylor Joins Colliers International Colliers International is pleased to announce Jay Taylor has joined their team as an Associate Broker. Taylor returns to Lawrence after five years in Kansas City working in the private club industry at Shadow Glen Golf Club. Prior to his time at Shadow Glen, Jay worked as the Director of Sales and Markeing at Alvamar Country Club in Lawrence. He joined the Colliers team after longtime agent and Senior Vice President, Marilyn Bittenbender announced her retirement at the end of 2018. “I could not be more thrilled to come back and contribute to my hometown again,” Taylor said, “I’ve been wanting to be back in Lawrence since I left.” Taylor will join Allison Vance Moore and Kirsten Flory in the local office of Colliers International, a leading real estate firm representing the Kansas City metropolitan area and Douglas County. Taylor currently serves on the Cottonwood Foundation Board and is a 2012 graduate of Leadership Lawrence. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas.
Envista’s Secily Rees Receives Community Involvement Award Secily Rees, Member Service Specialist for Envista Credit Union, has received the Ken Norton Community Involvement Award for her outstanding dedication and commitment to community involvement and volunteerism. In 2018, she volunteered 389 hours to the Lawrence and Topeka communities. Rees is a longtime volunteer for the Topeka Civic Theatre and the Lawrence Theatre. Rees’ passion for theater began at the age of six when she auditioned for her first community theater production at the Topeka Civic Theatre. Since then she has been involved with countless productions, helping in multiple aspects from being on stage, to designing wigs, costumes, painting sets, helping with fundraiser initiatives and children’s arts programs.
Scott Solomon Honored As Top Best-In-State Wealth Advisor by Forbes Magazine Scott R. Solomon, CRPC® a Private Wealth Advisor with Ameriprise Financial in Lawrence, KS, was named to the list of “Best-in-State Wealth Advisors” published by Forbes magazine. The list recognizes financial advisors who have demonstrated high levels of ethical standards, professionalism and success in the business.
LMH Health Foundation granted $2 million by the Sunderland Foundation of Kansas City The LMH Health Foundation has been awarded a $2 million grant from the Kansas City-based Sunderland Foundation to support the LMH Health West Campus expansion. This is the largest gift in LMH Health Foundation history. The new, state-of-the-art facility will have a strong emphasis on outpatient services, including family and internal medicine, orthopedic and sports medicine, physical therapy, and women’s health services. It also will include outpatient surgical capabilities. The campus will be near Kansas Highway 10 and Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence. Earl Reineman, major and planned gifts manager for LMH Health Foundation, said, “This gift for the new LMH Health West Campus is an acknowledgement of how important the project is. The Sunderland Foundation recognizes that the LMH Health West Campus will greatly enhance the delivery of medical care to the people we serve. But they also recognize that it will strengthen the hospital in ways that help sustain the mission-driven care we provide, such as charity care, community outreach and crisis care for mental health and substance use.” 76
Gould Evans names new Associate Principal Gould Evans is excited to announce the promotion of Kelly Dreyer to Associate Principal. He has already made significant contributions to the firm, and embodies and shapes our values in a distinct and complementary way. We celebrate his growing role in the advancement of our practice, as we work to leverage design thinking to address the increasingly wide range of challenges that face our clients and communities.
Local Rabbi Recognized in Top 50 by Prominent Jewish Publication for His Impact on Jewish Campus Life at KU Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, a Jewish campus leader at KU, was recognized by the Forward newspaper as one of the 50 most influential American Jews in 2018. He was featured for his 13 years of work with Jewish students on the University of Kansas campus. The nomination noted that Tiechtel, together with his wife Nechama, have worked diligently to provide a welcoming atmosphere for Jewish students at KU. He leads educational programs and classes, and has created a foundation of learning and values on campus.
GRANDSTAND WELCOMES NEW HIRES, ADVANCEMENTS Jamey Steinhauser joins the Grandstand team as Chief Operating Officer. He comes to Grandstand from Flint Hills Resources in Wichita, where he spent several years in leadership positions. Jamey brings extensive experience in managing P&L with specific emphasis in sales, portfolio management, strategy development, and leadership. Grandstand also welcomes Dan Zarazan as Sales Manager. Dan brings a wealth of strong management and sales consulting skills to the Sales team, with the goal of creating additional connectivity within the department. Kim Jones is taking on the role of Creative Projects Account Manager. Kim joins Grandstand’s in-house creative agency, 88 Design Group, with a proven ability to balance creativity and analysis, as well as manage customer relationships. Jamie Gomez was promoted to Director of Sales in January, 2019. Within her previous role as Assistant Director of Sales, Jamie has helped cultivate a Customer First mentality both within the Sales team and across the company. Her expert communication and project management skills and her ability to motivate and delegate align well with Grandstand’s plans for continued growth and improvement.
92nd KANSAS RELAYS – April 17 - 20, 2019
Rock Chalk Park, 6100 Rock Chalk Drive, Lawrence KS 66049 For tickets and information: KansasRelays.com
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WHOSE DESK ? Be the first to correctly guess which local business figure works behind this desk. Winner receives a $50 gift card to 23rd Street Brewery. facebook.com/lawrencebusinessmagazine
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