Economic Commentary

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 […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces CFP® Certification

Senior Manager Selection Analyst Jacob Barker, CFA, CFP® has been authorized by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board) to use the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and CFP® certification marks in accordance with CFP Board certification and renewal requirements. Jacob has worked at Greenleaf Trust since 2018, and is responsible for supporting the evaluation, […]

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Economic Commentary

When the financial crisis and resulting severe recession took place in 2008, we offered that the recovery would be long in duration and reflected in incremental progress along the way. The essential reason for that observation was the knowledge that the recession of 2008 was not a typical business cycle recession, but rather one that […]

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Economic Commentary

I enjoy the interaction that I get with readers of our Greenleaf Trust newsletter each month. The reactions are usually positive and occasionally challenging, especially when we approach the silly season of political campaigns. I changed the title of my monthly article a few years ago from “Economic Update” to “Economic Commentary” because I felt […]

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Economic Commentary

We have been focusing our commentary on a consistent number of indices and surveys over the past six months, to attempt to gain insight into economic trends in place relative to consumption, production, employment, inflation and recessionary trends. This month’s commentary will be more of the same, with perhaps a little deeper dive into some […]

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Survey Says…

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 […]

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Economic Commentary

The National Bureau of Economic Research officially declares the beginning of a recession well after the actual recession begins. It is always a rear view look and analysis based upon data that is already months old. What we do know is that for the first half of 2022 the US economy contracted from its previous […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces CTFA designation

January 13, 2021 Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust announces CTFA designation Senior Trust relationship associate receives Certified Trust and Fiduciary Advisor designation Kathryn Gadbois Schafer, J.D., CTFA, a senior trust relationship associate in Kalamazoo, Michigan was recently awarded the Certified Trust and Fiduciary Advisor (CTFA) designation from the American Bankers Association. Kathryn is responsible for […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces new hire

Birmingham, MI — September 17, 2012 Greenleaf Trust, the Michigan-based wealth management firm, today announced the hiring of Julie Weston, who has joined the company’s personal trust team. Julie A. Weston Team Service Coordinator Julie is responsible for providing comprehensive support and administrative assistance within the personal trust area. Julie has over seven years of […]

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Economic Commentary

The malaise in current economic conditions seems somewhat omnipresent in most media so it seems the right time to look under the hood and see not only what the current common set of facts are, but also examine what the likely scenarios are for the forward economic cycle. The Weekly Economic Index produced by the […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces CFP® Certification

Trust relationship officer receives CFP® Certification Trust Relationship Officer Cory Spaulding, CFP®, CTFA has been authorized by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board) to use the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and CFP® certification marks in accordance with CFP Board certification and renewal requirements. Cory is responsible for trust administration and holistic wealth management […]

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Economic Commentary

Financial press headlines continue to warn of recession and a slowing of the US and global economy, and we will focus on both in this month’s article. Let’s start with the tool that I believe provides a real time pulse rate for our underlying economy: the New York Fed Weekly Economic Index. Although I have […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces promotion

Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the promotion of Jennifer Reisterer-Brand: Jennifer Reisterer-Brand recently joined our Operations Division, from our Retirement Plan Division, as a Senior Retirement Processing Operations Analyst. Jennifer’s primary responsibility is to lead the processing function for all transactions regarding retirement plans serviced by Greenleaf Trust.  Her responsibilities include processing of defined […]

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Economic Commentary

The New York Fed revised their May 19 Weekly Economic Indicator reading upward to 4.29%; however, their May 26 initial reading declined to 3.52%, reflecting the trend in place. Simultaneously, the Conference Board, as well as University of Michigan consumer surveys, also mirrored a small, but consistent, decline in consumer sentiment and confidence in short […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces new hires

Greenleaf Trust announces the addition of two new teammates in Operations: Mario Campbell joins our Operations division as a trust operations specialist. Mario’s primary responsibilities include document preparation, account opening and maintenance, and assisting the client centric team with the administration of their accounts. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Finance with a minor in […]

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Economic Commentary

It is always helpful to me to scan popular culture media sources to understand what most consumers are reading, watching and listening to. Of course, the source of what people select to read, watch and listen to shapes much of what they end up believing as fact. Early in my education in economics, I was […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces new hires

In addition to the seven new hires and role changes announced last month, Greenleaf Trust is pleased to share six new hires. Please join us in celebrating the following additions: Valerie Martin joins Greenleaf Trust as a team service coordinator on the client centric team. She is responsible for providing administrative support, day-to-day servicing of […]

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Greenleaf Trust named National Best and Brightest in Wellness by the National Association for Business Resources

Greenleaf Trust named National Best and Brightest in Wellness by the National Association for Business Resources September 28, 2021, Kalamazoo, MI – Greenleaf Trust, a Michigan-chartered wealth management firm with $15 billion in assets under advisement, announced that it has been recognized as a National Best and Brightest in Wellness. The 2021 winning companies were […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces new hires

Greenleaf Trust adds to the Birmingham and Kalamazoo teams: Emily Wedes joins Greenleaf Trust as a team service coordinator on the client centric team. She is responsible for providing comprehensive administrative support, day-to-day servicing of account needs, and driving the efforts of the client centric team. Emily ensures clear, concise communication by coordinating the team’s […]

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Economic Commentary

We are marching incrementally towards the benchmarks that are necessary to reach an immunity level that will restore a good deal of a “new normality” to our daily lives. I intentionally used the term “new normality” as the evidence seems clear that while we are all done with COVID-19, it is also clear that COVID-19 […]

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Michigan Economic Update

In the summer of 2019, we intended to create an annual series of Perspectives articles updating our audience on the outlook for the Michigan economy. But, as the poet Robert Burns said, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. In 2020, tracking the economic and market impact of COVID consumed our […]

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Economic Commentary

For the past twenty-four months and twenty-four newsletter articles, I have led with COVID-19 related data. The reasoning was that our economic recovery would depend upon our progress at defeating the pandemic created by the COVID-19 virus. This month, while the impact of the virus remains with us, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has replaced the […]

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Economic Commentary

Happy New Year to all! I hope that you were able to celebrate the new year with reflective gratitude and the grace of optimism as we look forward to the promise and challenges of 2022. This column is written and published each month just as it has been for the past thirty years. Wow, how […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces CFP® Certification

Senior Wealth Management Associate Brian Farrell receives CFP® Certification Senior Wealth Management Associate Brian Farrell, CFP® has been authorized by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board) to use the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and CFP® certification marks in accordance with CFP Board certification and renewal requirements. Brian has worked at Greenleaf Trust since […]

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Greenleaf Trust Receives Honor as Best and Brightest Companies to Work For® in West Michigan

Greenleaf Trust, a Michigan-chartered wealth management firm with nearly $15 billion in assets under advisement, announced that it has been recognized as one of West Michigan’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For®. Best and Brightest Companies to Work For® evaluates employee feedback based on key measures such as engagement, compensation, benefits and employee solutions, […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces new hire

Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of a new team member: Sarah Pease joins the Greenleaf Trust finance team as a financial accounting analyst. She is responsible for day-to-day accounting and related analysis.  Sarah also helps ensure compliance with regulatory and governing reporting requirements, manages accounts payable, and supports vendor-related processes. She has […]

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Economic Commentary

The popular culture media would have us believe that we are losing the COVID-19 battle, have lost all momentum in vaccinations, and are falling on economic hard times. It seems that we should test these themes with an examination of facts and raw data. As the sage mechanic might say, “Let’s lift the hood and […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces new hire

Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the addition of a new team member: Ebenezer Musookho joins the Greenleaf Trust team as a junior research associate. He is responsible for supporting the research team by leveraging systems and data to facilitate portfolio analysis.  He maintains portfolio performance reporting models and drives continuous improvement initiatives focused on […]

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Economic Commentary

The Delta variant of COVID-19 has now been joined by Omicron, the latest variant that was first observed in South Africa in recent weeks. As with previous variants of the original virus, Omicron is thought to more easily spread particularly among the unvaccinated populations. As of this writing, the current initial as well as booster […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces promotions

Greenleaf Trust is proud to announce the promotions of the following teammates: Salena Al-Saadi has been promoted to Senior CRM Engineer. Anne Bohl has been promoted to Wealth Management Coordinator II Chris Burns has been promoted to Vice President, Investment Strategist and Senior Fixed Income Analyst Hanna Channell has been promoted to Senior CCT Specialist […]

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Required Testing in Qualified Retirement Plans and Solutions to Consider

This time of year retirement plan providers are gearing up to complete the annual Actual Deferral Percentage (ADP) tests for qualified retirement plans. This test in particular can be very impactful to certain plan participants. This is a non-discrimination test for 401(k) plans mandated by the IRS to ensure that a plan does not unduly […]

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Survey Says…

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 […]

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Economic Commentary

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 […]

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Economic Commentary

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 […]

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Economic Commentary

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, […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces new hires

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 […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces new hire

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 […]

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Economic Commentary

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 […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces promotions

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 […]

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Greenleaf Trust Announces Promotions

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.

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Economic Commentary

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 […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces new hires

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 […]

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Economic Commentary

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 […]

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Economic Commentary

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 […]

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Economic Commentary

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, […]

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Economic Commentary

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 […]

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Economic Commentary

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 […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces new hires

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 […]

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Greenleaf Trust announces new hires

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. […]

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Economic Commentary

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 […]

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