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There are many useful bank management and financial services available for customers. These services provide a sound foundation for financial management and allow you to meet certain financial goals and objectives. Whether it is planning for your retirement, working with the bank’s trust department to organize your estate or send a child to college, these financial services can be managed effectively through your bank.
Establishing a relationship with your bank that goes beyond simple checking and savings accounts is important in order which of these bank management and financial services may be important for you and your family.
Retirement Planning
Retirement planning is the process of establishing savings and investing goals during your working years to meet your financial needs when you retire. A bank’s management team can work with you to establish individual retirement plans that are custom tailored to meet your future financial goals. They can also work with your small business or employer to create different types of retirement accounts such as pension plans and 401(k) plans.
Advantages
•Your bank understands your financial needs and is best suited to counsel you as to the best way to use your money toward retirement.
•You benefit from one-stop-shopping, being able to rely on the expertise of your bank to meet your retirement planning goals.
Disadvantages
•The bank may not have a broad enough range of financial products appropriate for retirement planning.
•Money placed in a retirement plan is restricted from being used for other purposes without being subject to penalties, fees and taxation.
Estate Planning
An estate plan is a critical function of a bank’s trust department. Working in concert with an attorney, accountant and insurance agent or financial planner, the trust department of a bank acts as custodian of the trust and provides the necessary safe housing of important documents and instructions. Regardless of the size of your estate, the bank provides a valuable role in ensuring that the instructions of the estate are carried out.
Advantages
•The bank acts as a central clearinghouse for the estate in the event of your death and helps ease the burden for those loved ones you leave behind.
•The bank can periodically update and keep current information about the various assets other holdings that are housed and mentioned in the estate documents.
Disadvantages
•The bank acts in a fiduciary manner to protect the estate but does not drat the will or provide advice on the estate plan, in order to avoid any conflict of interest.
•There are costs associated with having the bank act in its safekeeping role that can be costly, depending on the size of the estate.
College Planning
As our children get older and ready to go off to college, being able to plan ahead to anticipate and meet the costs associated with school is important. A bank management can provide certain products and accounts (i.e. Section 529 College Savings Plans) as a way to meet the need to fund a child’s education. The bank can work with you to create a systematic savings plan, help you properly fund, and maintain the account.
Advantages
•The bank has the ability to advise and help you organize your finances in order to properly plan to fund a college savings program.
Disadvantages
•The types of products that the bank has available to fund college may be limited or insufficient to fully fund the need.
