January 8, 2021
The news has been dominated lately with the topic of raising the United States’ debt ceiling. It is hard to call the process of doing so, new. In fact, 90 different times in our country’s history Congress has agreed to raise the debt ceiling, which Congress previously established so that the United States doesn’t default […]
Read MoreDecember 8, 2020
The very nature of our business requires that we have a thirst for research and a constant desire to understand whatever is impacting our economic, domestic and geopolitical systems. We always approach that discovery from our clients’ side of the desk. What might our clients be reading or listening to? As a result of their […]
Read MoreOctober 6, 2020
It is now clear that at the current daily average of vaccinations against COVID-19 in the United States, the country will not meet the 70% threshold until early August. The July goal was ambitious and assumed that the early two million per day vaccination rate would hold. The evidence is clear that it did not, […]
Read MoreNovember 6, 2020
The recent surge in the Delta variant of COVID-19 informs us that while we might wish that the pandemic is over, it is not. Let’s set aside the headlines and examine some data to help us determine the state of our current condition. In March of 2020, our research team at Greenleaf Trust adopted the […]
Read MoreOctober 7, 2020
Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of four new team members: Steve McKiddy joins Greenleaf Trust as chief financial officer. Steve provides financial guidance and broad counsel to the Executive Leadership Team at Greenleaf Trust. He leads the finance and accounting organization and directs the company’s fiscal functions in accordance with regulatory and […]
Read MoreOctober 26, 2020
Ondrea Brussee joins Greenleaf Trust as participant services coordinator. Ondrea provides education and communication to participants of various retirement plans serviced by Greenleaf Trust. She also conducts retirement plan enrollment meetings, meets with plan participants, develops education and informational materials, and supports the participant call center. Ondrea has 18 years of internal and external customer […]
Read MoreAugust 18, 2020
Quinn McCormick has been promoted to compliance specialist. Quinn is responsible for assisting with Greenleaf Trust’s compliance and risk management processes through policy and procedure development, regulatory research and implementation, and process improvement initiatives. She has been in financial services with Greenleaf Trust for over five years, and her organizational experience along with her problem […]
Read MoreAugust 31, 2020
Greenleaf Trust announced a number of midyear promotions, including Kim Van Duine’s promotion to Vice President, Assistant Director of Business Information Services, and Andrea Stidmon’s promotion to Senior Trust Operations Analyst, Senior Team Lead. Published in: Corp! Magazine Read the full list of promotions here.
Read MoreSeptember 3, 2020
Progress has slowed in our country’s COVID-19 vaccination rate as of late. Data through June 1st reveals that our seven-day average vaccination rate has slipped to 1.6 million, a decline of more than 50% from our previous high of 4.2 million. Unlike early in the vaccination roll-out, the struggle to get our population vaccinated is […]
Read MoreSeptember 14, 2020
September 14, 2020, Birmingham and Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces new hires Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the additions of three new team members: Vasantha joins as estate settlement associate in Birmingham, MI. She is responsible for providing comprehensive administrative support, day to day servicing of account needs, and driving the efforts of […]
Read MoreJuly 6, 2020
Resilience has always been an important part of our country’s history. The pathway to our current condition has not been simple or easy, but rather gut-wrenching and somewhat terrifying from time to time. A close examination of our country’s history reveals just how much we have overcome and endured during the past 245 years. Global […]
Read MoreAugust 5, 2020
Progress continues to be made in multiple areas in the battle against COVID-19. Through February 28, over seventy five million Americans have received at least one dose of vaccination against the virus, which is about 23% of the current population. The rate of vaccination currently stands at 1.74 million per day; although it is not […]
Read MoreJune 2, 2020
Happy New Year to each of you; we hope 2021 is a fantastic year for you and your family. The year has gotten off to somewhat of a mixed bag. While the much-anticipated vaccine is being manufactured and shipped, the number of those who have actually been vaccinated is far below the initial target and […]
Read MoreMay 1, 2020
2020 will certainly be reflected on as a very unusual year in modern history. Everyone in the United States was aware that we would be in a presidential election year; however, prior to February of 2020 relatively few knew that the COVID-19 Pandemic would insert itself into the lives of nearly everyone in the world, […]
Read MoreApril 2, 2020
We attempted to defer our publishing deadline until the outcome of the 2020 presidential election was determined, but, as you can surmise, as of November 6th the outcome was not known. At this writing, President Trump has won 214 electoral college votes and must be declared the winner in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and […]
Read MoreFebruary 28, 2020
February 2020, Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces two new hires Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of new team members: Alexandria Solis-Mullen, J.D. joins Greenleaf Trust as estate settlement officer. She is responsible for executing estate settlement for the personal trust team. Alexandria earned her J.D. from Western Michigan University Thomas M. […]
Read MoreMarch 13, 2020
As we have done for the past seven months, we will begin by checking in with the New York Federal Reserve Weekly Economic Indicator (WEI) index that attempts to measure data focused on labor, production and consumption. As much as is humanly possible, the data is real time and designed to measure GDP relative to […]
Read MoreFebruary 25, 2020
February 2020, Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces new hires Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of two new team members: Kristin Bennett, CFP, CPWA joins Greenleaf Trust as vice president, assistant director of wealth management. She is helps lead the Wealth Management team, and specializes in the development of comprehensive wealth management […]
Read MoreJanuary 13, 2020
We now have endured five months of battling the COVID-19 virus and our experience has revealed much about our country and our collective as well as divided political wills. What is our present condition as we approach the sixth month of our battle to defeat the virus? Our economic condition is perhaps the easiest to […]
Read MoreJanuary 28, 2020
January 2020, Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces new hire Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of a new team member: Perry Wolfe joins Greenleaf Trust as senior vice president, executive director of development. He is responsible for overseeing the development, implementation and execution of the overall strategy and growth efforts of our […]
Read MoreFebruary 20, 2020
As we enter our seventh month of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, our current condition appears to be more of the same with conditions changing marginally in some areas. Cases spiked in July and early August and have been trending downward in some regions while remaining stubbornly unchanged in others. As we put […]
Read MoreDecember 20, 2019
Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of a new team member: Alysha Ridderman joins the team as a project manager. Alysha is responsible for executing projects supporting all areas of Greenleaf Trust. She has over ten years of process improvement experience in a fast-paced and rapidly changing industry. Alysha earned her bachelor’s degree […]
Read MoreDecember 16, 2019
Awareness is sometimes a self-inflicted burden. Those of us that research information for a living are bombarded with data that, while informative, can lead to anxiety and increased senses of urgency. The greater experience that you have researching information, the more likely you will discover that the majority of people are living their lives in […]
Read MoreJanuary 2, 2020
Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the following promotions: Peggy Anderson has been promoted to senior vice president, director of operations. Daniel Baker has been promoted to senior vice president, director of business development and trust relationship officer. Karen Baldwin has been promoted to senior vice president, director of human resources. Jacob Barker has been […]
Read MoreDecember 23, 2019
December 2019, Bay Harbor, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces CFP® Certification Wealth Management Advisor Corbin M. Donaldson receives CFP® Certification Wealth Management Advisor Corbin Donaldson, CFP®, MBA at Greenleaf Trust in Bay Harbor has been authorized by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board) to use the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and CFP® certification […]
Read MoreJanuary 2, 2020
With the 2020 Presidential election less than 12 months away, many of our clients have been asking how we think about investments during an election year. As human beings, each person on our team has their own set of political preferences, but as research analysts, we try to approach polarizing topics (like politics) in the most objective […]
Read MoreJanuary 13, 2020
Continuous improvement is one of Greenleaf Trust’s core values – it is a pillar of our culture and has become part of our DNA. Every tangible improvement we have made on behalf of our clients stems from a disciplined review of our practices. As we look for opportunities to serve our clients better, we begin […]
Read MoreNovember 14, 2019
“Opening the economy” is the phrase that seems to be taking up much of the oxygen lately, so let’s spend some time digging into exactly what that phrase means and how we might observe progress in the future growth of our economy. In essence, we want to put some data and facts into the equation […]
Read MoreNovember 25, 2019
Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of a new team member: Doug P. Bajor joins Greenleaf Trust as a senior wealth management advisor. Doug specializes in the development of comprehensive wealth management plans, execution of goal-based planning strategies, and management of client investment portfolios. He has over 38 years of experience in the […]
Read MoreAugust 17, 2019
Internal Promotion August 2019, Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces promotion Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the promotion of Asa M. Davis to Senior Business Process Analyst. After five years of service as Business Process Analyst, Asa Davis has been promoted to Senior Business Process Analyst. He is responsible for identifying business improvements and […]
Read MoreJuly 17, 2019
July 2019, Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces new hire Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of a new team member: Marisol Quiroz joins Greenleaf Trust as a Wealth Management Assistant in Kalamazoo. She is responsible for supporting the wealth management team in the development of comprehensive wealth management plans, the execution of […]
Read MoreApril 2, 2019
I think we can all agree that the crisis we find ourselves in does not come with a step-by-step instruction book of solutions. The way out is complicated, includes self-sacrifice, social order of the highest degree, individual and societal self-discipline and the abandonment of political self-interests. You may observe this list of requirements and say, […]
Read MoreAugust 17, 2019
August 2019, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces new hires Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of three new team members: Tracy Gauthier joins Greenleaf Trust as Assistant Director of Compliance. Tracy is responsible for leading Greenleaf Trust’s compliance and risk management processes through policy and procedure development, regulatory implementation […]
Read MoreOctober 17, 2019
October 2019, Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces new hire Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of a new team member: T’Ausia Bronson joins Greenleaf Trust as a human resources coordinator. T’Ausia is primarily responsible for a variety of administrative, compliance, legal and recruiting tasks. In addition to providing support during the interview […]
Read MoreOctober 21, 2019
At this writing, there are six states that have announced the phased reopening of their economies, or what perhaps is better stated as a beginning of reducing previous requirements to stay-at-home that were ordered by the respective governors of those states. These are in addition to the few states that never had stay-at-home executive orders […]
Read MoreOctober 25, 2019
October 2019, Birmingham, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces new hire Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of a new team member: Jeffrey Hoekstra joins the Greenleaf Trust team as a Business Development Officer. Jeff is responsible for new business development with a focus on company-sponsored retirement plans. He has over 13 years of […]
Read MoreMarch 13, 2019
We all run across quotes from a variety of sources during the course of our lives. Some of those quotes stick with us for any number of personal reasons. Close to twenty years ago a person who I think is a really talented behavioral scientist said “Big people share and little people keep secrets.” I […]
Read MoreJuly 16, 2019
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak to two different groups of educational leaders about the implications of artificial intelligence on employment and global economies, principals and superintendents of K–12 systems as well as leadership in post-secondary community college systems. I was able to share with them some relevant information produced by the global consulting […]
Read MoreMarch 13, 2019
As you can imagine, recent events such as the US drone attack that killed a top Iranian military commander, Qassem Soleimani, in Iraq has caused many questions from clients and readers of our newsletter. Nick Juhle and his research team have offered their perspectives and advice with respect to the economic and investment implications of […]
Read MoreJanuary 13, 2020
As you can imagine, recent events such as the US drone attack that killed a top Iranian military commander, Qassem Soleimani, in Iraq has caused many questions from clients and readers of our newsletter. Nick Juhle and his research team have offered their perspectives and advice with respect to the economic and investment implications of […]
Read MoreDecember 13, 2019
Federal Reserve Chairman Powell gave a recent speech titled “Building on the gains from the long expansion.” Within the speech, Powell focused on two important themes: maintaining a stable and reliable pace of two percent inflation and, somewhat surprisingly, spreading the benefits of employment more widely. Part of the Fed’s stated mandate has always been […]
Read MoreMay 15, 2019
Real US economic activity data reveals a continued mixed picture with strength in consumer spending and recession-like weakness in manufacturing. Consumer confidence surveys, both U of M as well as the Conference Board, are weaker and reflect growing concerns and uncertainties in global and domestic sustainability. The concerns seem to be focused on geopolitical hot […]
Read MoreApril 16, 2019
The connection between “Wall Street” and “Main Street” is always up for debate, as is the seemingly different focus between those inside the beltway and those who reside, live and work outside of the beltway. Media is driven by advertising revenue, which is highly correlated to viewership and subscription, whether that media be electronic, digital, […]
Read MoreApril 6, 2018
April 5, 2018, Grand Rapids, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces new hires and promotions Greenleaf Trust is proud to welcome the following new team members: Jacob A. Barker – associate manager selection analyst Stacy L. Beekman – trust relationship officer Thomas R. Christy – participant services coordinator Jennifer L. Dohm – team service coordinator Lisa […]
Read MoreNovember 20, 2018
November 2018 Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces new hires Bradley LaTour, J.D., CTFA, joins Greenleaf Trust as Vice President, Senior Trust Relationship Officer. He provides service for high net worth individuals, including trust administration, tax and estate plan consulting and family governance. Bradley has more than 20 years of experience in trust and wealth […]
Read MoreMarch 5, 2019
March 2019, Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces new hires Patrick Bruining and Mercedes Sims join Greenleaf Trust as a trust operations specialists. Patrick is responsible for cash processing, along with providing support to the rest of the operations team. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration and sports management from Aquinas […]
Read MoreMay 29, 2019
May 2019, Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces new hire Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of a new team member: Mandi Doster joins Greenleaf Trust as a Client Service Representative in Kalamazoo. Her responsibilities include delivering comprehensive administrative support for the Personal Trust Division, providing reception area coverage and assisting in marketing events, […]
Read MoreMarch 20, 2019
March 2019, Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces new hire Beverly Whaley joins Greenleaf Trust as a team service coordinator. She is responsible for providing comprehensive administrative support, day-to-day servicing of account needs, and driving the efforts of the client centric team. Beverly ensures clear, concise communication by coordinating the team’s workflow and acts as […]
Read MoreSeptember 25, 2015
September 2015, Kalamazoo, MI – Rosalice C. Hall has been promoted to retirement plan relationship service coordinator. Rosie works alongside the director and assistant director of the retirement plan division. She is responsible for providing comprehensive support for individuals, retirement plans and corporations. Rosie earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in business administration with […]
Read MoreJanuary 13, 2016
Christopher D. Burns has been promoted to fixed income analyst. His focus is on developing and implementing fixed income portfolio strategies. Carol A. Chandler and Melissa K. Coffin have been promoted to recordkeeping specialists. Carol and Melissa are responsible for Greenleaf Trust’s in-house participant recordkeeping system. Sharon A. Conran, J.D., has been promoted to vice […]
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