Let BankWest’s investment management and trust pros help you chart your course to success.

Smart investing requires analysis, development and execution. BankWest’s investment professionals will take the time to understand your needs, clarify your goals and evaluate your risk preferences before developing your customized investment plan. With your plan in place, your BankWest professional will monitor your plan’s progress, keep you informed and suggest changes as your situation or market conditions warrant.

In addition to providing in-house investment management services, the BankWest Trust Department partners with Financial Counselors Inc. (FCI) to provide individual security management for high net worth and institutional clients. FCI is a trusted resource with the reliability of a well-established money management firm and the expertise of some of the most innovative leaders in the field.

Investment policy development and review

• Review investment objectives, liquidity needs and risk tolerance
• Define performance criteria
• Conduct periodic reviews

Asset allocation construction and review

• Identify asset classes and investment styles
• Build allocation models to meet risk preferences and return expectations
• Select an investment manager using separate accounts, complemented with mutual funds and exchange traded fund portfolios.

You can preserve your assets, secure your family’s financial future and leave a lasting legacy through estate planning. Estate planning ensures that your directives, paperwork and legal documents are all in place the way you choose. BankWest’s Trust team will meet with you and your other advisors (attorneys, accountants, insurance representatives and family members) to design an estate plan that fulfills your wishes.

Estate planning can be useful to anyone with asset transfer needs, especially if you:

• Own a farm or ranch
• Own your own business
• Have ownership interest in a business or investment property
• Have a child or loved one with a disability or ongoing special needs
• Have remarried — especially if you have children from more than one marriage

BankWest delivers estate planning services backed by experience and based upon proven principles. See our Estate Planning Action Plan.

Your estate plan could:

• Distribute assets according to your wishes
• Keep a family business or property in the family
• Leverage tax benefits
• Protect your heirs from emotional and financial distress
• Determine who will manage your assets
• Preserve the value of your estate
• Determine how your assets are managed if you become incapacitate
• Provide guidance to your heirs or future business managers

Whether you’re accumulating, preserving or passing on your wealth, a trust can be an invaluable financial tool. Trust services help you achieve financial security and peace of mind. This can be achieved through such services as investment or property management, access to tax benefits, retirement planning, estate administration, succession planning, charitable giving, providing for the needs of a family member or another type of professional financial service.

Our experienced trust professionals plan and administer these services for a wide range of individual and business clients.

Why a trust? As you accumulate assets, a trust can help:

• grow assets
• reduce taxes
• protect and manage your property or other investments

To preserve your assets and earnings, a trust can help:

• protect and manage assets
• minimize taxes and paperwork
• maintain financial records
• manage day-to-day financial matters
• establish a business succession plan

When you transfer your assets, a trust can help:

• distribute assets according to your wishes
• protect assets from excessive tax exposure
• protect your heirs from emotional distress
• provide a plan for debt retirement
• assist you in supporting a designated charity

Some give to charities for personal satisfaction, while others donate to satisfy a need in their financial plan. Whatever your reason, BankWest’s Trust professionals will help you decide on the best giving strategies and direct them as you wish.

Your charitable giving plan can establish:

• your giving goals
• the appropriate financial tools to use
• how your gift will impact your taxes
• what types of assets (such as cash, stocks or property) you wish to give
• how long you want to keep giving

The Oahe Foundation

The late Charles H. Burke II was a lifelong community banker and local philanthropist. To help others carry out their philanthropic wishes, Charles oversaw the creation of the Oahe Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) foundation, managed by the BankWest Trust Department. The Oahe Foundation provides a tax-exempt umbrella for individuals and organizations to use in order to establish gifts for charitable, educational and scientific purposes. Any donor making a gift of $500 or more can establish a fund by completing a simple “letter of direction” providing fund distribution instructions. Professional administration of the fund is provided at the low cost of 60 cents annually per $100 (0.60%).

Lifetime gifting

Giving today is always an appealing option. That way you can see the impact and feel the satisfaction of your donation. However, before you give, you need to understand the advantages and disadvantages the gift could have on your financial plan. BankWest Trust representatives can work with you and your tax advisor to help you evaluate the personal and charitable impacts of lifetime gifts.

Charitable trusts

To retain an income stream and establish a gift to charity, you may consider establishing a Charitable Remainder Trust or a Charitable Lead Trust — with the BankWest Trust Department acting as your trustee or agent. Each of these trusts offer a variety of tax benefits and implications that you should discuss with your tax advisor.

A Charitable Remainder Trust allows you or your designee to receive an income stream from the trust, with your charity receiving the remainder of the assets upon your death or when the trust’s term ends.

A Charitable Lead Trust provides an income stream to your charity for a set term, with your beneficiaries receiving any remaining assets when the trust ends.

Public and private foundations  

If you wish to retain a high level of control over long-term charitable giving, you may benefit from using the expertise of the BankWest Trust Department as either an agent of a foundation, or as an advisor to a foundation board.