On December 16, 1971, Waukesha State Bank obtained trust powers. Ellery Clayton, a local attorney, was hired to establish and operate the trust department. A trust committee was formed and on January 26, 1972, the committee agreed to accept three accounts – a $300,000 estate administration that included ownership of a funeral home and some real estate; a $100,000 probate administration that consisted mostly of bank accounts; and an irrevocable trust that owned a pharmacy and some real estate. Later in the year, the department approved the purchase of the Burroughs bookkeeping system machine and approved collection of an initial fee – a personal representative fee of $9,620.

 

Fast forward 50 years from that very humble beginning, and you see how much the trust department has evolved. We have 25 full-time employees dedicated to trust and wealth management. We administer more than 1,000 accounts, and have in excess of $1 billion under administration. Our wealth management department provides personal trust administration, investment management, retirement plan administration and private banking services. We provide specialty services for estate settlements, special need trusts, directed and delegated trusts, real estate administration, and fiduciary tax preparation. Our trust accounting system provides daily sophisticated principal and income accountings, and can process shadow account statements for trusts invested with outside investment advisors. Revenue collected in 2021 exceeded $6,000,000.

 

As a result of this growth, Waukesha State Bank purchased a building dedicated to house our wealth management team. After a period of remodeling, I am excited to announce that on February 7, Prairie Trust and Waukesha State Bank Wealth Management officially moved from Oconomowoc to our new location at N16W23321 Stone Ridge Drive, Waukesha (shown below). All our department contact information (phone numbers and mailing address) will remain the same at our new location.

Our newly remodeled building has an 8,032-square-foot main floor and a 736-square-foot second floor. In addition, it features a large community room in the basement for hosting trainings and events. After we complete the finishing touches over the next few weeks, we are planning to host an open house at the end of April. Please stay tuned for more information. 

 

And if this is not enough to celebrate, I am also excited to let you know that we have leased space in Madison for a second wealth management office. After we complete some remodeling, we expect to officially open the Madison office by second quarter of 2022.  

 

Thank you for your trust and confidence in recommending our services and helping us to grow. If you know of someone who would like to learn more about our services, please contact our Director of Fiduciary Sales, Terry Doyle, at (262) 953-2435 or tdoyle@prairietrust.com, or if you have an opportunity in Madison, contact our Madison Market Director, Jasper Vaccaro at (608) 535-3040 or jvaccaro@prairietrust.com.