September 4, 2025 • 38 mins
- On today's show Dayna talks about investments with Pam Berry and Michael Kiefer with First Financial Trust
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello, Southeast Texas, Welcome to the Dana Simmons Show.
We have an exciting lineup for you today, but before
we get to that, I want to give you an
update on how's the market. So for us in Southeast Texas,
we are seeing things begin to pick up ever so slightly,
which you know, I'll take it. Even though it's not
(00:20):
gangbusters like we were two or three years ago. We
are seeing buyers start to come out with that interest
strate for mortgages dropping just a hair anticipating what could
be a very busy spring. So if you are thinking
about buying, I would say let's jump into it now
before everyone else jumps into it with you. We have
(00:41):
a very good inventory of properties out there. What you're
seeing is over a six month inventory depending on price point.
So if you are thinking about is it the right
time for you, let's visit. You can give our office
a call at four nine eight six six eight three
two six, or go to Danissimmons real Estate dot Com
(01:04):
and let us help you. Also on our show today,
we have first Financial Bank Trust and we're going to
start with Michael Keefer. Now, Michael, you are fairly new
to the trust department, but before we get into what
is first financial trust, tell us a little bit about
who is Michael Keefer.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Sure, thanks for asking. So I grew up in Beaumont.
I like to tell people that I was born in
New Jersey, but I moved here as soon as I
was smart enough to know where I was.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I was.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I was a year and a half old when dad
got transferred down here.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
That's pretty pretty pretty quick to learn that.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Absolutely, So, you know, I graduated from Westbrook, went to Lamar,
spend a little bit of time, you know, at Lamar
working on my accounting degree. Then I actually took a
year off and went through the Lamar University Regional Police
Academy and worked for Beaumont p D for a year.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I did not know that about you.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, so got a secret background.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Then I went back to Lamar, finished my accounting degree,
and then I worked in public accounting for thirty four
and a half years before I retired earlier this year.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah. And so you've been here a while in Southeast
Texas and I'm raised a family here. You have a
beautiful daughter.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Absolutely. Yeah. So my daughter, Tabitha is just finished her
bachelor's degree at SFA she likes to call it Stephen F. Austin,
I call it so far.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Away when she's your only one, that's so far away. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So she's now back at Lamar working on her master's
degree in speech pathology. And so I tell people that
she's getting a degree. You know, she's going to do
something that she excels at. She's going to teach kids
to talk back.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Well, you know my daughter is a speech pathologist. Oh,
she went to Lamar and got her master's there as well,
and so worked in a couple of different areas, was
a director of rehab over at Bondvie out in Port
Author and has now decided after being in the real
(03:12):
estate business with me for all of her life, in
the last four or five years, she's come back and
now she works with me. So you never know what
could happen. Absolutely. Yeah. You also have a beautiful wife.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, I've been married to my beautiful wife, Cindy four.
I like to call it thirty to life. You know,
it's been it's been thirty three years. But I don't
know why she thinks it sounds like a sentence. But
happily married, you know, live in Beaumont. The whole time,
you know, since you know, since we were well, she
was born here and then we go to church here
(03:46):
at Boma Bible Church. Been there for almost twenty years
or so.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Love that church. You have some of the most incredible
people there, and your pastor is a wonderful man. So
if you don't have a church to attend this Sunday, listen,
consider a Beaumont Bible. Tell everyone where it is on
Highway one oh five.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, so it's seventy eight seventy Highway one oh five,
just a little bit west of Major Drive past Rigor
Lumber right before you would get to the Windomere subdivision
and a little bit before Legacy.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah. And so what are your service times there?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
So the Sunday school starts nine to forty five and
the worship service starts at ten forty five. Okay, great,
love to have anybody.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And it's still is it still Pastor.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Land he's just retired, so he's pastor emeritus now okay,
And so we have a new young pastor, Jamie Nashworth,
and so thrilled to have him.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
So nice, I'll have to meet him.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Well, we're so glad you're here, excited to hear about
this new transition you've made from being a certified public
accountant for so many people for so long into this
trust department, which is such a natural fit for you,
I know. So we're going to talk about that our
next segment. But excited to have you here. Thank you
(05:02):
for joining us today. Also with us Pam Berry and
Pam you two live in Southeast Texas. Don't you live
in Mid County? I do. I live in Nederland, Yeah,
my old stomping grounds, you know, grew up there, graduated
there in eighty three. Haven't been back, I mean, moved
to Beaumont and haven't been back to live there. But
(05:22):
family's still there. So and you know, it's so funny
in the old days. I remember when I was young
and we talked about going to Park Delle Mall. It's
like so far, you know. But in the world we
live in now, I'm in Mid County, I'm in Lumberton,
I'm in Orange, You're everywhere all the time. It's a
completely different world today. So Pam, tell us a little
(05:44):
bit about you.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Sure. I'm Pam Berry. I grew up in Huntsville, graduated
from Huntsville High School, attended Sam Houston State University where
I got my finance degree. My parents have a couple
of small businesses there in Huntsville, so familiar with how
(06:07):
all of those things work.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
With small businesses. So what kind of small business do
your parents have? Give them a little shout out right here.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Sure, well they're retired now. My dad passed, but my
brother still runs the car dealership, service center and all
of that. Right on I forty five in Huntsville. My
mom had a wedding venue for a while, but she
has since sold that and it's now a church.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Oh how cool.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, it's a beautiful setting for a church.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah. So and you have children, Yes, I have two children.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Aaron is a senior at Lamar in the engineering program,
and Audrey is a senior at Neederland High School.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
That's great, I'll tell you, you know, with you guys
talking about your kids and Lamar, all of mine were
Lamar graduates. My daughter graduated there with her masters in
speech therapy. My son graduated with his are in and
then went off to Florida Gulf Coast University where they
have a nurse a nethicist program. But I hear Lamar
(07:09):
may be bringing a nurse a nethicist program here. So
that's super exciting that he when you talk about so
far away with Safa, he was seventeen hours away for
three years to be able to do that at a
program that's just so tough, but so thankful. Came back
to Southeast Texas to work where he could have gotten
a job anywhere in the United States and done really well.
(07:31):
But my daughter in law graduated with a teaching degree
at Lamar and my son in law graduated with a
business degree, and so I love that Lamar is so
connected to all that we do. And I know last
week our conversation was with how Lamar is working in
the business program to grow things, and I feel like
(07:53):
Heimie Taylor is just expanding so many different areas to
make Lamar just stand out where students want to be
there and they're excelling once they come and engineering, I mean,
it's a great place. I mean, I love that that's
where your son is so many opportunities.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
He loves it, And you're right, Lamar University is really
coming along, adding programs and just doing things to keep
the kids engaged, and that's really important. I remember when
I graduated from sam Houston, I thought this is it.
This is where my kids are going to school. It's
not going to be any other way.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
But then I moved down here and learned that my
parents were right when they said, you're smart to stay
home and get an education right in your hometown. Yes,
and we have that opportunity with Lamar University and the
other Lamar campuses that we have in our area. And
it's really a good opportunity for so many.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Oh I know, and even Sid Valentine with l I
t All he's doing over there are My My sister
works out at Lamar as well in the nursing program,
and it is amazing all that they have put into
place to give practical application to our students to be
able to work here and stay here. I mean, we
(09:15):
have so much job opportunity here in Southeast Texas. Why
they shouldn't have to go outside of here, you know,
they should be able to stay here. Well, I am
so excited for our show and when we come back,
we're going to talk more about what is trust and
how does that play a part and something that you
may need. So don't go away. This is the Dana
Simons Show. Welcome back. This is the Dana Semons show,
(09:38):
and I am joined by First Financial Trust, Pam Barry
and Michael Keefer and Pam, we're going to head on
over to visit with you. First. You've been with First
Financial Trust a little while.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yes, I've been with First Financial for about eleven years.
I spent the first few years with the bank and
then moved over to the trust company about three years in. So, yeah,
it's been a lot of learning. I've covered all of
the bases, which is hopeful and a good experience.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah. And part of the thing that we were just
talking about in the break is that I spoke of
it as an arm of the bank, but it's actually
not right. I mean, you and Michael kind of helped
me understand. It is a completely separate entity, even though
First Financial is in your name.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, absolutely, so, First Financial Trust is a separate company
from First Financial Bank. We're both under the same holding company,
First Financial Bank shares and that's fairly common in the
industry to have that. And then there's other similar First
Financial entities like First Financial Mortgage and.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah like that, gotcha. Gotcha? And so in your eleven
years with First Financial, what are some of the things
that you've learned about how they do things differently, and
what do you love about First Financial?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
The thing that I love about First Financial overall bank trust,
the whole company wide, is the ability to do things
for the clients based on a relationship. That's first and foremost.
We can take care of the money, we can do
those things, but more importantly, we like to take care
(11:29):
of the people. And you know, that was a concern
of mine. My history has been in the credit union
and I just thought that credit unions did it best,
and I was a little bit nervous to move over
to the bank, but you know, Blaine assured me that
I was going to love it, and we do. We
do it very well. So that's that's really what I
(11:52):
love most about it. I think there are things that
we are able to do as a trust company that
people people don't realize. You know a lot of people
don't understand what trust is, what trust services are, what
we have to offer. People come in and think, you know,
I need to get a trust account means an investment account,
(12:14):
but that's not what it means. So that's a common
misunderstanding or misconception about what trust is.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
So let's clarify what is trust? What is first financial
trust and what is it that you guys offer?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Okay, so trust services are going to be you know,
acting as trustee on a trust for a trust. You know,
a trust can come from several different areas, a court
created trust, it can be a grand or trust, something
that's written into a will, a special needs trust, something
(12:52):
that's set up for the care of someone who can't
care for themselves. So that is the trust part of
our business. Outside of that, we hold investment accounts, iras
and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah, and did you want to expand on that, Michael,
anything you want to add.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, So, you know, similar to what Pam was saying,
you know, being the corporate trustee. Of course, we can
also be the corporate executor of an estate. For some people,
you know, they don't have anybody that's really appropriate to
name as their executor, so they don't have anybody else,
or the person that they had previously named is you know,
maybe getting up there in years and they're not really
(13:34):
going to be able to do it anymore. That's something
that we can do as a fiduciary take care of
the estate. And then of course, like Pam said, you know,
we have the investment accounts and iras, but we work
with a lot of foundations or just regular taxable accounts
that people have, and we have a number of four
one K plans that we do the investments for.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Okay, and I would imagine your past as being a
CPA really makes you a wonderful asset in this position.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, well, I certainly hope so. And I'm keeping my
CPA certification so that part's not going way, you know.
So I've been a CPA for thirty whatever years, and
so I'm keeping that And a lot of what I
did there was to work with the states and trust
so I know that side of it. I've seen the
tax side of it, prepared the tax returns for you know,
(14:26):
estates when somebody has the the actual some people call
it the death tax. So I've seen that side of it.
I know how those work. I know how a state
and trust taxation works. So I know that. But I've
also paid attention to the investments along the way. So
I think I'm well positioned to help somebody understand how
the investments work, maybe what some smart tax moves are.
(14:49):
I'm not their tax advisor. I'm going to suggest that
they go talk to their CPA about it, but I
can give them a pretty good idea of how it's
going to work and things they may want to consider.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, so let's talk about some of those things that
you guys do work with, and so some of those
are iras and retirement accounts. Talk a little bit about
what that is and how that impacts me or any
person that's out there that's trying to get ready for
retirement one day.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
So, you know, a lot of people know about iras
individual retirement account and that's kind of the basic where
you start investing, and that's generally for somebody that maybe
doesn't have a retirement plan at work. But you can
have both, and that's a way to set aside money.
It may or may not be tax deductible, and we
can talk about that later, but at least it's starting
(15:40):
to save money for retirement. And you know, it's never
too early to do that. You know, I've helped some
people along the way. Their kid has a summer job
and they're earning money. I said, it's actually not too
early to start at IRA, you know, And sometimes they
look at me blankly. I said, I know, retirements fifty
years away when they're fifty team. But by the power
(16:02):
of compounding, it really makes a huge difference in starting
early gives them more options later.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yeah, So when is a good time for someone to
first come and sit down and talk to you? And
is there a certain level of income you need? I mean,
you're talking about the fact that a fifteen year old
who has a part time job. So let's talk a
little bit about who does this most benefit and who
are your customers.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
We like to say that everybody is our customer. Everyone
needs to save for retirement.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Early.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Saving is a great idea. Ideally, when you have a job,
you should be thinking about that. You should be putting
money away into your company retirement plan or into an
IRA as soon as you can. There's no writer wrong
time when you should come and speak with us. We
(17:04):
visit with people who come in and have an account
somewhere they're ready to roll. We also visit with people
who just want to know what do I need to
be looking for, what do I need to be ready
to do? And we have those conversations so people can
be prepared and be ready when it's time.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So what I hear you saying is just really educating. Yeah,
and you guys are willing to set an appointment and
sit down and just visit with someone about what are
their needs and what might they need to do, whether
or not it's a fit for you, guys or not.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Absolutely, we do have a lot of people come in.
You know, sometimes people will come in on the bank
side asking questions, and you know, the bank employees will
bring them back to us and just a conversation, an
education about how to save and getting people to where
they feel comfortable talking about investments. They feel comfortable with
(18:00):
what they see and what they hear about the stock
market and fixed income and bonds and all of these
things that sometimes feels overwhelming if you don't look at
it every day and getting people comfortable.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
It's the same thing with the real estate process. You know,
it's overwhelming if you don't do it every year or so.
Most people do it maybe every fifteen ten years. But
sitting down and talking with a professional who can guide
you through that process is critical. Well, when we come back,
we're going to talk more with Michael and Pam about
(18:33):
what is it that you need to do. What are
some things that they would recommend you putting in place,
So don't go away. This is the Dana Simmons show
Welcome Back. This is Dana Simmons and I am joined
by Pam Barry and Michael Keefer. They are with First
Financial Trust And one of the things that we were
talking about in the break is just investing. You know,
(18:56):
in my world, I talk to people all the time
about it out real estate investing because it's what I know.
But I'll tell you when it comes to investing in
the stock market and all of those other things, I
am definitely not the person to talk to And there
are things I don't know, and if I'm going to
do that, I need a trusted professional to help me.
(19:19):
So if I'm walking into your office and I'm saying, Hey,
I want to start investing, but I don't even know
where to start. So what do I do? How do
I go from there?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Sure, the first thing we're going to do is sit
down and have a conversation. We want to know about
your family dynamic, how long you plan on working, if
you have kids in college, if you're taking care of
aging family members. Sitting down and getting to know someone
is the basis of a good investment plan. So that's first.
(19:57):
The next thing we like to do is visit with
our clabs to determine what is their level of risk tolerance,
What is it that you want to do, what is
it that you don't want to do. So we need
to lay a groundwork with all of these things before
(20:17):
we talk about a strategy, an allocation, what kind of
portfolio is going to work best for someone. We need
to lay all of that groundwork first. And when we
talk about strategies and portfolios, we're talking about different ways
that you can invest different kinds of stock portfolios. You know,
(20:40):
if you are geared towards needing to pull an income
out of your account, then you may be invested differently
than if you're younger and you're just trying to grow
the portfolio. So there are a lot of different things
that go into determining what is going to work best
for someone, what they need, where they are right now.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I love that. So what I hear you saying is
that really you don't put each person in a certain box.
You really want to hear what their goals are and
then try to provide something that fits to them. And
so walking through, Okay, what is your long term goal
and how much time do you have? Like for me sixty,
(21:25):
my goal is going to be different than a twenty
year old and what you're going to recommend is completely different.
So I love that you can have a conversation that
goes through that kind of information for them at that
point in time. And so then do you give them
different options or talk about what does that look like?
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yeah, so once we nail all of those things down,
we'll make some recommendations. We'll look through a presentation packet,
present our different portfolios that we typically use for investing
and try to find what is gonna be the sweet
spot for that client, what's gonna work best for them.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
We also offer some alternative investments. A lot of places
don't specialize in those alternative investments. We have a fabulous
team of investors in our Abilene office who go out
and locate these alternative investments and really dive in and
(22:33):
check these things out and make sure that it's a good,
solid investment before we suggest that anyone invest in these things.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
So, yeah, so you've got a team of people who
are checking into all of these different options and you
guys have seen some really good results have about you
year over.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Year, we have we have and that can be attributed
to the team of investors that we have, uh, you know,
we have portfolios that's typical of any place uh, that's
you know, offering investment services. We have a portfolio on
our equity side and that's built by our team of
investors in Abilene, and they do a really good job
(23:18):
of putting these things together and ongoing monitoring of those portfolios,
looking ahead at what is the climate around the world
in the United States politically, uh, you know, local communities,
and really keeping that portfolio up to date based on
(23:39):
what's happening around us if we need.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
In to SPUs specific things. Yes, yeah, well I love that.
Anything Michael, that you want to add to that.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah, certainly.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
You know, with some other financial advisors managers, you know,
they're using separate money managers that may be in New
York or whatever, and they may work with several of them.
But you know, with First Financial Trust, we are the
money manager. It's actually our people in Abilene. You know,
I know them, I've met them, I talked to them, Yes, Texas, absolutely,
(24:11):
you know, I go see them. You know, I'll be
seeing some of them early next week, you know, I'll
be up there. But so you know, we're the ones
doing it, and you know, they have a vested interest
in everything we do, you know, not just for our
our reputation and taking care of our clients, but they
run are for a one K. Their money's invested invested
(24:32):
with us, My money's invested with us. You know, we
all believe in that. And we see what's happening, you know, there,
and we want to make sure that we're taking care
of everybody and kind of circling back a little bit
to what Pam said earlier, getting to know the people
up front. That's what we are. We're relationship managers. We
want to have the relationship with the client, not just
(24:54):
get you in, sit you down and say what do
you need, fill out some paperwork, and send you on
your way because I've got to meet with somebody else.
We want to take the time to get to know
you and what your needs are. And like Pam said,
your risk tolerance. You know, if the stock market doesn't
always go up, you know, generally it goes up, but
it goes up and down, and you know, if you're
going to lose sleep when it goes down twenty percent,
(25:17):
you know you probably should have a little bit more
conservative portfolio. Some people just look at it. Well, that's
a buying opportunity. I'm not all that worried.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah. Well, and when you talk about that about First Financial,
it's every part of First Financial Bank that I'm a
part of is it is relationship driven and it is
about the people, and that while it is managed here
locally in each of our areas, the benefit is that
the main company is in Abilene, Texas. They are a
(25:49):
Texas bank, they are, and I know the trust is
separate from the bank, although they're owned by the same
mother boarder all together. But it is the thing that
has impressed me that has made me stay with the
bank and all of the services that they provide, is
because it is very personal. And that's why I'd like
(26:13):
to ask you what drew you from doing what you
did for over thirty years to I mean, I'm sure
you've had lots of opportunities, and so the fact that
you chose to come on over to First Financial and
at a time when you could have done anything, what
was it that made you choose that?
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Well? First Financial is, you know, a statewide bank, but
it's also local, like you alluded to just a minute ago.
You know, we run it like a small community bank,
so we have different regions and it's got that hometown
feel to it. It's not one of the national banks
where it's more corporate driven and the decisions are made
(26:55):
somewhere else. You know, our decisions are made right here locally,
and you kind of said it earlier. Also, everything in
my background to thirty plus years in public accounting gives
me a great foundation for coming to do this, So
it was a natural fit. And I had some other
opportunities presented to me over the years, and you know,
(27:16):
just briefly think about them and say, I don't think
that's really what I'm interested in. But when this opportunity
presented itself, you know, I thought about it. I'm like,
this really is a great fit. You know, not only
does it get me out of taxis and hours, but
just really where I can sit down and where I
have a passion to help people. You know, I've spent
a lot of time doing advanced estate planning training over
(27:39):
the years, and sometimes it's hard in public accounting get
to people, the clients to want to sit down and
talk about that because you know there's a fief for that.
You know, they build by the hour. But it's a
whole different model here, and I get to sit down
and spend a little bit more time with people, help
them see a bigger picture and not just think, you know,
(28:00):
what do they want for the next month or the
next year, think about things more holistically and how it
can impact their life.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yeah, and you brought about you brought up about the
estate planning side of it, So talk a little bit
about you know, what does that look like? And who
do you need to be speaking to? I mean, who
needs to be speaking to you? I guess it's the
real question.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Well, and you know, it's not too early for anybody
to start. You know, even if you're in your thirties
or forties, you need to have a will, particularly if
you have kids, and then that doves tails into a
lot of other things. So we don't do a formal
estate plan, but I can talk to you about what
you want to do. Help you think about beneficiaries. How
do you want to allocate your estate? You know, is
(28:42):
it something you want to allocate evenly to If you
have three kids, as each kid get a third, is
there a reason that one should get more or less?
You know, is there special needs that you still need
to take care of you know, what's the right time
to maybe make withdrawals from your retirement plan retired your age,
you know, sixty, But you know, some people want to
(29:05):
wait until, you know, I don't have to take anything
out until i'm you know, in my seventies, and like say,
but that's not always the most efficient tax way to
do that, you know, because then your distributions later may
be so much higher than what you really need, pushing
you to a higher tax bracket later. So we can
(29:26):
sit down, we can talk away through that help them
see the bigger picture and how it can really make
an impact on them long term.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, And I think that these are things that so
often we just don't want to talk about, you know,
I'll be honest, it's the things that were like we'd
rather talk about our vacation and the plans we have
for going on vacation in all of those things. But
these are important factors that every one of us need
to be considering. But it's not the fun thing. It's
(29:53):
really not. I mean, some of it is really good
long term because it does allow you to have fun
in your retirement. If you don't think about it early enough,
then you might not be having fun in your retirement,
but it gives you that opportunity well.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And it can give you peace about everything, and you're
ultimately you're taking care of your family. You know, for
a state planning, you're not going to be here, but
your spouse might still be, your kids are going to be,
other families are going to be, so you know, we
try to make that part. You know, like you said,
it's never fun, but it gives you comfort where things
(30:26):
are going to go and so how you can control it,
and you know what your options are. You know, if
you're in your seventies and you haven't done it, it's
not too late, but we have more options earlier on.
And one of the things I always told my clients
in public accounting is you probably should review your estate
plan every year and consider redvising it maybe every five
(30:49):
to ten years or as your circumstances change. And I
know that's not you know, just something people look forward
to over the holidays, but it's easy to to do
the plan, stick out on a shelf, forget about it.
But in the meantime, you may have had additional children
or an adoption, or a death in the family, or
you've sold the business or retirement, just different things that
(31:12):
actually change what you've put on the paper, right, And
I've seen many times for you know, people come to
me and we talk about it. So yeah, I set
all that up about twenty five years ago. I'm like, well,
you know, the loss have changed a little bit, and
I think your whole situation has changed.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, and so you need to revisit it.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
It is a good idea to revisit those things. It's
also a good idea to visit with your financial planner,
whoever's going to be your executor, your trustee, if there's
a trust before someone passes, because it's important for us,
(31:50):
you know, when we're serving as executor or trustee that
we know the relationship between the family, that we know
the intention of the then.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Yeah, not just feeling black and white, but what was
the intent behind it because things can be challenging. So yeah,
that is such a great point. Well, when we come back,
we're going to wrap up our show today, but you
don't want to leave. Stay with us. This is the
Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back. This is Dana Simmons, and
we have been talking about first financial trust and been
(32:24):
given a lot of information about what is a trust company,
what do they do? How can they assist you? And
we have Michael Keefer and Pam Barry here who have
shared all of that. If you missed it, you can
go back to our podcast that will be posted in
a couple of days on the iHeart media app and
be able to search Dana Simmons real estate and you
(32:46):
can get all of that information at any point in
time right at your fingertips. Before we wrap up, Michael
and Pam just wanted you guys to share We've talked
about a lot of things that the trust does with
First Financial anything else I need to make sure that
we let people know you handle sure, there's.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
You know, we've talked about the investments in those kind
of things, but there's a couple of other things that
First Financial trusts can do that you know, other financial
advisors can't do. So we have folks in Abilene that
actually specialize in oil and gas and they can help
you manage your mineral interest, negotiating the leases and taking
(33:25):
care of making sure you get the royalty payments and
doing those kinds of things. And then we also have
a real property section up there that can managed real estate.
You know, if you have a commercial building or something,
and so they can manage that. They can take care
of screening, qualifying people to be the tenants and collecting
(33:49):
the rents and recommending maintenance and help you figure that out,
and taking care of the taxes and the insurance and
just overall running the real estate. For you to take
some of that off your hand, you need to real
estate manager, you know, they can take care of that.
They can do that with with you know, farmland or
just you know, hunting and grazing and rents for radio
(34:12):
towers and just handling all those different kind of aspects.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Really nice that you cover all that, Pam, anything you
want to add, so kind of covered it all.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
I think we've covered it all. This has been a
really good conversation. Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
No problem. And if someone wants to ask you, guys,
additional questions, how would they get in touch with you?
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Sure, well, they could give us a call at four
zero nine six zero zero six four six nine. They
could go to our website at First Financial Bank dot com.
There you'll find a link to our trust services.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Okay, and then you guys are you are in the
Dollon branch. So if someone wants to make an appointment,
they could meet you there at the Dollon branch a
First Financial bank.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Absolutely. Yeah, so we're located in there and you know
we can go see you at your office. Okay, so
happy to do that perfect Well.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
One of the things I love is the name of
the company, of course, is it's a trust. So it's
first Financial Bank Trust. But what I think is so
important and it's not bank trust. It's first Financial Trust.
No banking there. Yeah, I keep getting that wrong, don'na,
first financial trust. I love the word trust though, because
it's the most important part, and it's the part I
(35:34):
think the two of you bring to it is that
you're local, you're here, and it's the trust that they
can have in you and ensuring that you're going to
help them and guide them in the right decisions to
help them, they'll confid about whatever it is that they do.
So thank you so much for sharing what it is
(35:54):
you do, because I think it's important number one, that
we look into it. All of the things you talked
about today are wildly important. But also you need a
person you can trust, and you guys are just that
the people they can trust. So thank you so much.
For being here with us today. Wanted to wrap up
with a few things to remind you about For many
(36:16):
of you, I don't know if you know, but we
are actually going to be recognizing the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce.
Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce is going to be recognizing
Al Caldwell as Man of the Year at our one
hundred and twenty second annual meeting, and that is Tuesday,
October seventh at the Beaumont Civic Center. If you don't
(36:39):
have your tickets, you need to get those and you
can call Amy Levoy at the office at four O
nine four nine four seven ninety two, or you can
always email the Chamber at Chamber at beaumontcoc dot org.
Also being honored the Woman of the Year Debbie Bando,
(37:00):
and then the Spindle Top Award recipient JS Edwards and Sherlock.
They have been a member I think for over one
hundred years with the Greater Belmont Chamber of Commerce. So
would love for you to do that Tuesday, October seventh,
will be at the Beaumont Civic Center. I hope to
see you there, will be there for sure, and so
(37:20):
we'll first financial also just a real quick little mention.
One of the things that absolutely transformed my life that
I am still involved in is Bible Study Fellowship and
BSF gets started next week. Now. If you've always thought
about studying the Bible but you didn't know how to
do that, this is where I started. I didn't know
(37:41):
anything about the Bible when I started BSF, and now
thirty years later, I'm still learning. It is a program
that is international and inter denominational. You can go online
to BSF dot org Bible Studyfellowship dot org, or we
have have local Bible studies. There's one that happens on
(38:03):
Monday nights, there's one that happens on Wednesday mornings. And
then I'm a part of the online group, which you know,
being in the online group is so amazing because I
have people from Africa and Germany and Japan and all
over the world who are involved in what we're doing
with BSF. So if you're interested, you can reach out
(38:25):
to me, or you can go to BSF online and
get information there as well. I hope you are having
a wonderful Saturday and enjoying your day, so we'll see
you again next week. Every Saturday at noon here with
us The Dana Simmons Show,
Well, hello, Southeast Texas, Welcome to the Dana Simmons Show.
We have an exciting lineup for you today, but before
we get to that, I want to give you an
update on how's the market. So for us in Southeast Texas,
we are seeing things begin to pick up ever so slightly,
which you know, I'll take it. Even though it's not
(00:20):
gangbusters like we were two or three years ago. We
are seeing buyers start to come out with that interest
strate for mortgages dropping just a hair anticipating what could
be a very busy spring. So if you are thinking
about buying, I would say let's jump into it now
before everyone else jumps into it with you. We have
(00:41):
a very good inventory of properties out there. What you're
seeing is over a six month inventory depending on price point.
So if you are thinking about is it the right
time for you, let's visit. You can give our office
a call at four nine eight six six eight three
two six, or go to Danissimmons real Estate dot Com
(01:04):
and let us help you. Also on our show today,
we have first Financial Bank Trust and we're going to
start with Michael Keefer. Now, Michael, you are fairly new
to the trust department, but before we get into what
is first financial trust, tell us a little bit about
who is Michael Keefer.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Sure, thanks for asking. So I grew up in Beaumont.
I like to tell people that I was born in
New Jersey, but I moved here as soon as I
was smart enough to know where I was.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I was.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I was a year and a half old when dad
got transferred down here.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
That's pretty pretty pretty quick to learn that.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Absolutely, So, you know, I graduated from Westbrook, went to Lamar,
spend a little bit of time, you know, at Lamar
working on my accounting degree. Then I actually took a
year off and went through the Lamar University Regional Police
Academy and worked for Beaumont p D for a year.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I did not know that about you.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, so got a secret background.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Then I went back to Lamar, finished my accounting degree,
and then I worked in public accounting for thirty four
and a half years before I retired earlier this year.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah. And so you've been here a while in Southeast
Texas and I'm raised a family here. You have a
beautiful daughter.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Absolutely. Yeah. So my daughter, Tabitha is just finished her
bachelor's degree at SFA she likes to call it Stephen F. Austin,
I call it so far.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Away when she's your only one, that's so far away. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So she's now back at Lamar working on her master's
degree in speech pathology. And so I tell people that
she's getting a degree. You know, she's going to do
something that she excels at. She's going to teach kids
to talk back.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Well, you know my daughter is a speech pathologist. Oh,
she went to Lamar and got her master's there as well,
and so worked in a couple of different areas, was
a director of rehab over at Bondvie out in Port
Author and has now decided after being in the real
(03:12):
estate business with me for all of her life, in
the last four or five years, she's come back and
now she works with me. So you never know what
could happen. Absolutely. Yeah. You also have a beautiful wife.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, I've been married to my beautiful wife, Cindy four.
I like to call it thirty to life. You know,
it's been it's been thirty three years. But I don't
know why she thinks it sounds like a sentence. But
happily married, you know, live in Beaumont. The whole time,
you know, since you know, since we were well, she
was born here and then we go to church here
(03:46):
at Boma Bible Church. Been there for almost twenty years
or so.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Love that church. You have some of the most incredible
people there, and your pastor is a wonderful man. So
if you don't have a church to attend this Sunday, listen,
consider a Beaumont Bible. Tell everyone where it is on
Highway one oh five.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, so it's seventy eight seventy Highway one oh five,
just a little bit west of Major Drive past Rigor
Lumber right before you would get to the Windomere subdivision
and a little bit before Legacy.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah. And so what are your service times there?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
So the Sunday school starts nine to forty five and
the worship service starts at ten forty five. Okay, great,
love to have anybody.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And it's still is it still Pastor.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Land he's just retired, so he's pastor emeritus now okay,
And so we have a new young pastor, Jamie Nashworth,
and so thrilled to have him.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
So nice, I'll have to meet him.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Well, we're so glad you're here, excited to hear about
this new transition you've made from being a certified public
accountant for so many people for so long into this
trust department, which is such a natural fit for you,
I know. So we're going to talk about that our
next segment. But excited to have you here. Thank you
(05:02):
for joining us today. Also with us Pam Berry and
Pam you two live in Southeast Texas. Don't you live
in Mid County? I do. I live in Nederland, Yeah,
my old stomping grounds, you know, grew up there, graduated
there in eighty three. Haven't been back, I mean, moved
to Beaumont and haven't been back to live there. But
(05:22):
family's still there. So and you know, it's so funny
in the old days. I remember when I was young
and we talked about going to Park Delle Mall. It's
like so far, you know. But in the world we
live in now, I'm in Mid County, I'm in Lumberton,
I'm in Orange, You're everywhere all the time. It's a
completely different world today. So Pam, tell us a little
(05:44):
bit about you.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Sure. I'm Pam Berry. I grew up in Huntsville, graduated
from Huntsville High School, attended Sam Houston State University where
I got my finance degree. My parents have a couple
of small businesses there in Huntsville, so familiar with how
(06:07):
all of those things work.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
With small businesses. So what kind of small business do
your parents have? Give them a little shout out right here.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Sure, well they're retired now. My dad passed, but my
brother still runs the car dealership, service center and all
of that. Right on I forty five in Huntsville. My
mom had a wedding venue for a while, but she
has since sold that and it's now a church.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Oh how cool.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, it's a beautiful setting for a church.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah. So and you have children, Yes, I have two children.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Aaron is a senior at Lamar in the engineering program,
and Audrey is a senior at Neederland High School.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
That's great, I'll tell you, you know, with you guys
talking about your kids and Lamar, all of mine were
Lamar graduates. My daughter graduated there with her masters in
speech therapy. My son graduated with his are in and
then went off to Florida Gulf Coast University where they
have a nurse a nethicist program. But I hear Lamar
(07:09):
may be bringing a nurse a nethicist program here. So
that's super exciting that he when you talk about so
far away with Safa, he was seventeen hours away for
three years to be able to do that at a
program that's just so tough, but so thankful. Came back
to Southeast Texas to work where he could have gotten
a job anywhere in the United States and done really well.
(07:31):
But my daughter in law graduated with a teaching degree
at Lamar and my son in law graduated with a
business degree, and so I love that Lamar is so
connected to all that we do. And I know last
week our conversation was with how Lamar is working in
the business program to grow things, and I feel like
(07:53):
Heimie Taylor is just expanding so many different areas to
make Lamar just stand out where students want to be
there and they're excelling once they come and engineering, I mean,
it's a great place. I mean, I love that that's
where your son is so many opportunities.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
He loves it, And you're right, Lamar University is really
coming along, adding programs and just doing things to keep
the kids engaged, and that's really important. I remember when
I graduated from sam Houston, I thought this is it.
This is where my kids are going to school. It's
not going to be any other way.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
But then I moved down here and learned that my
parents were right when they said, you're smart to stay
home and get an education right in your hometown. Yes,
and we have that opportunity with Lamar University and the
other Lamar campuses that we have in our area. And
it's really a good opportunity for so many.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Oh I know, and even Sid Valentine with l I
t All he's doing over there are My My sister
works out at Lamar as well in the nursing program,
and it is amazing all that they have put into
place to give practical application to our students to be
able to work here and stay here. I mean, we
(09:15):
have so much job opportunity here in Southeast Texas. Why
they shouldn't have to go outside of here, you know,
they should be able to stay here. Well, I am
so excited for our show and when we come back,
we're going to talk more about what is trust and
how does that play a part and something that you
may need. So don't go away. This is the Dana
Simons Show. Welcome back. This is the Dana Semons show,
(09:38):
and I am joined by First Financial Trust, Pam Barry
and Michael Keefer and Pam, we're going to head on
over to visit with you. First. You've been with First
Financial Trust a little while.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yes, I've been with First Financial for about eleven years.
I spent the first few years with the bank and
then moved over to the trust company about three years in. So, yeah,
it's been a lot of learning. I've covered all of
the bases, which is hopeful and a good experience.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah. And part of the thing that we were just
talking about in the break is that I spoke of
it as an arm of the bank, but it's actually
not right. I mean, you and Michael kind of helped
me understand. It is a completely separate entity, even though
First Financial is in your name.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, absolutely, so, First Financial Trust is a separate company
from First Financial Bank. We're both under the same holding company,
First Financial Bank shares and that's fairly common in the
industry to have that. And then there's other similar First
Financial entities like First Financial Mortgage and.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah like that, gotcha. Gotcha? And so in your eleven
years with First Financial, what are some of the things
that you've learned about how they do things differently, and
what do you love about First Financial?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
The thing that I love about First Financial overall bank trust,
the whole company wide, is the ability to do things
for the clients based on a relationship. That's first and foremost.
We can take care of the money, we can do
those things, but more importantly, we like to take care
(11:29):
of the people. And you know, that was a concern
of mine. My history has been in the credit union
and I just thought that credit unions did it best,
and I was a little bit nervous to move over
to the bank, but you know, Blaine assured me that
I was going to love it, and we do. We
do it very well. So that's that's really what I
(11:52):
love most about it. I think there are things that
we are able to do as a trust company that
people people don't realize. You know a lot of people
don't understand what trust is, what trust services are, what
we have to offer. People come in and think, you know,
I need to get a trust account means an investment account,
(12:14):
but that's not what it means. So that's a common
misunderstanding or misconception about what trust is.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
So let's clarify what is trust? What is first financial
trust and what is it that you guys offer?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Okay, so trust services are going to be you know,
acting as trustee on a trust for a trust. You know,
a trust can come from several different areas, a court
created trust, it can be a grand or trust, something
that's written into a will, a special needs trust, something
(12:52):
that's set up for the care of someone who can't
care for themselves. So that is the trust part of
our business. Outside of that, we hold investment accounts, iras
and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah, and did you want to expand on that, Michael,
anything you want to add.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, So, you know, similar to what Pam was saying,
you know, being the corporate trustee. Of course, we can
also be the corporate executor of an estate. For some people,
you know, they don't have anybody that's really appropriate to
name as their executor, so they don't have anybody else,
or the person that they had previously named is you know,
maybe getting up there in years and they're not really
(13:34):
going to be able to do it anymore. That's something
that we can do as a fiduciary take care of
the estate. And then of course, like Pam said, you know,
we have the investment accounts and iras, but we work
with a lot of foundations or just regular taxable accounts
that people have, and we have a number of four
one K plans that we do the investments for.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Okay, and I would imagine your past as being a
CPA really makes you a wonderful asset in this position.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, well, I certainly hope so. And I'm keeping my
CPA certification so that part's not going way, you know.
So I've been a CPA for thirty whatever years, and
so I'm keeping that And a lot of what I
did there was to work with the states and trust
so I know that side of it. I've seen the
tax side of it, prepared the tax returns for you know,
(14:26):
estates when somebody has the the actual some people call
it the death tax. So I've seen that side of it.
I know how those work. I know how a state
and trust taxation works. So I know that. But I've
also paid attention to the investments along the way. So
I think I'm well positioned to help somebody understand how
the investments work, maybe what some smart tax moves are.
(14:49):
I'm not their tax advisor. I'm going to suggest that
they go talk to their CPA about it, but I
can give them a pretty good idea of how it's
going to work and things they may want to consider.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, so let's talk about some of those things that
you guys do work with, and so some of those
are iras and retirement accounts. Talk a little bit about
what that is and how that impacts me or any
person that's out there that's trying to get ready for
retirement one day.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
So, you know, a lot of people know about iras
individual retirement account and that's kind of the basic where
you start investing, and that's generally for somebody that maybe
doesn't have a retirement plan at work. But you can
have both, and that's a way to set aside money.
It may or may not be tax deductible, and we
can talk about that later, but at least it's starting
(15:40):
to save money for retirement. And you know, it's never
too early to do that. You know, I've helped some
people along the way. Their kid has a summer job
and they're earning money. I said, it's actually not too
early to start at IRA, you know, And sometimes they
look at me blankly. I said, I know, retirements fifty
years away when they're fifty team. But by the power
(16:02):
of compounding, it really makes a huge difference in starting
early gives them more options later.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yeah, So when is a good time for someone to
first come and sit down and talk to you? And
is there a certain level of income you need? I mean,
you're talking about the fact that a fifteen year old
who has a part time job. So let's talk a
little bit about who does this most benefit and who
are your customers.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
We like to say that everybody is our customer. Everyone
needs to save for retirement.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Early.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Saving is a great idea. Ideally, when you have a job,
you should be thinking about that. You should be putting
money away into your company retirement plan or into an
IRA as soon as you can. There's no writer wrong
time when you should come and speak with us. We
(17:04):
visit with people who come in and have an account
somewhere they're ready to roll. We also visit with people
who just want to know what do I need to
be looking for, what do I need to be ready
to do? And we have those conversations so people can
be prepared and be ready when it's time.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So what I hear you saying is just really educating. Yeah,
and you guys are willing to set an appointment and
sit down and just visit with someone about what are
their needs and what might they need to do, whether
or not it's a fit for you, guys or not.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Absolutely, we do have a lot of people come in.
You know, sometimes people will come in on the bank
side asking questions, and you know, the bank employees will
bring them back to us and just a conversation, an
education about how to save and getting people to where
they feel comfortable talking about investments. They feel comfortable with
(18:00):
what they see and what they hear about the stock
market and fixed income and bonds and all of these
things that sometimes feels overwhelming if you don't look at
it every day and getting people comfortable.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
It's the same thing with the real estate process. You know,
it's overwhelming if you don't do it every year or so.
Most people do it maybe every fifteen ten years. But
sitting down and talking with a professional who can guide
you through that process is critical. Well, when we come back,
we're going to talk more with Michael and Pam about
(18:33):
what is it that you need to do. What are
some things that they would recommend you putting in place,
So don't go away. This is the Dana Simmons show
Welcome Back. This is Dana Simmons and I am joined
by Pam Barry and Michael Keefer. They are with First
Financial Trust And one of the things that we were
talking about in the break is just investing. You know,
(18:56):
in my world, I talk to people all the time
about it out real estate investing because it's what I know.
But I'll tell you when it comes to investing in
the stock market and all of those other things, I
am definitely not the person to talk to And there
are things I don't know, and if I'm going to
do that, I need a trusted professional to help me.
(19:19):
So if I'm walking into your office and I'm saying, Hey,
I want to start investing, but I don't even know
where to start. So what do I do? How do
I go from there?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Sure, the first thing we're going to do is sit
down and have a conversation. We want to know about
your family dynamic, how long you plan on working, if
you have kids in college, if you're taking care of
aging family members. Sitting down and getting to know someone
is the basis of a good investment plan. So that's first.
(19:57):
The next thing we like to do is visit with
our clabs to determine what is their level of risk tolerance,
What is it that you want to do, what is
it that you don't want to do. So we need
to lay a groundwork with all of these things before
(20:17):
we talk about a strategy, an allocation, what kind of
portfolio is going to work best for someone. We need
to lay all of that groundwork first. And when we
talk about strategies and portfolios, we're talking about different ways
that you can invest different kinds of stock portfolios. You know,
(20:40):
if you are geared towards needing to pull an income
out of your account, then you may be invested differently
than if you're younger and you're just trying to grow
the portfolio. So there are a lot of different things
that go into determining what is going to work best
for someone, what they need, where they are right now.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I love that. So what I hear you saying is
that really you don't put each person in a certain box.
You really want to hear what their goals are and
then try to provide something that fits to them. And
so walking through, Okay, what is your long term goal
and how much time do you have? Like for me sixty,
(21:25):
my goal is going to be different than a twenty
year old and what you're going to recommend is completely different.
So I love that you can have a conversation that
goes through that kind of information for them at that
point in time. And so then do you give them
different options or talk about what does that look like?
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yeah, so once we nail all of those things down,
we'll make some recommendations. We'll look through a presentation packet,
present our different portfolios that we typically use for investing
and try to find what is gonna be the sweet
spot for that client, what's gonna work best for them.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
We also offer some alternative investments. A lot of places
don't specialize in those alternative investments. We have a fabulous
team of investors in our Abilene office who go out
and locate these alternative investments and really dive in and
(22:33):
check these things out and make sure that it's a good,
solid investment before we suggest that anyone invest in these things.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
So, yeah, so you've got a team of people who
are checking into all of these different options and you
guys have seen some really good results have about you
year over.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Year, we have we have and that can be attributed
to the team of investors that we have, uh, you know,
we have portfolios that's typical of any place uh, that's
you know, offering investment services. We have a portfolio on
our equity side and that's built by our team of
investors in Abilene, and they do a really good job
(23:18):
of putting these things together and ongoing monitoring of those portfolios,
looking ahead at what is the climate around the world
in the United States politically, uh, you know, local communities,
and really keeping that portfolio up to date based on
(23:39):
what's happening around us if we need.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
In to SPUs specific things. Yes, yeah, well I love that.
Anything Michael, that you want to add to that.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah, certainly.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
You know, with some other financial advisors managers, you know,
they're using separate money managers that may be in New
York or whatever, and they may work with several of them.
But you know, with First Financial Trust, we are the
money manager. It's actually our people in Abilene. You know,
I know them, I've met them, I talked to them, Yes, Texas, absolutely,
(24:11):
you know, I go see them. You know, I'll be
seeing some of them early next week, you know, I'll
be up there. But so you know, we're the ones
doing it, and you know, they have a vested interest
in everything we do, you know, not just for our
our reputation and taking care of our clients, but they
run are for a one K. Their money's invested invested
(24:32):
with us, My money's invested with us. You know, we
all believe in that. And we see what's happening, you know, there,
and we want to make sure that we're taking care
of everybody and kind of circling back a little bit
to what Pam said earlier, getting to know the people
up front. That's what we are. We're relationship managers. We
want to have the relationship with the client, not just
(24:54):
get you in, sit you down and say what do
you need, fill out some paperwork, and send you on
your way because I've got to meet with somebody else.
We want to take the time to get to know
you and what your needs are. And like Pam said,
your risk tolerance. You know, if the stock market doesn't
always go up, you know, generally it goes up, but
it goes up and down, and you know, if you're
going to lose sleep when it goes down twenty percent,
(25:17):
you know you probably should have a little bit more
conservative portfolio. Some people just look at it. Well, that's
a buying opportunity. I'm not all that worried.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah. Well, and when you talk about that about First Financial,
it's every part of First Financial Bank that I'm a
part of is it is relationship driven and it is
about the people, and that while it is managed here
locally in each of our areas, the benefit is that
the main company is in Abilene, Texas. They are a
(25:49):
Texas bank, they are, and I know the trust is
separate from the bank, although they're owned by the same
mother boarder all together. But it is the thing that
has impressed me that has made me stay with the
bank and all of the services that they provide, is
because it is very personal. And that's why I'd like
(26:13):
to ask you what drew you from doing what you
did for over thirty years to I mean, I'm sure
you've had lots of opportunities, and so the fact that
you chose to come on over to First Financial and
at a time when you could have done anything, what
was it that made you choose that?
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Well? First Financial is, you know, a statewide bank, but
it's also local, like you alluded to just a minute ago.
You know, we run it like a small community bank,
so we have different regions and it's got that hometown
feel to it. It's not one of the national banks
where it's more corporate driven and the decisions are made
(26:55):
somewhere else. You know, our decisions are made right here locally,
and you kind of said it earlier. Also, everything in
my background to thirty plus years in public accounting gives
me a great foundation for coming to do this, So
it was a natural fit. And I had some other
opportunities presented to me over the years, and you know,
(27:16):
just briefly think about them and say, I don't think
that's really what I'm interested in. But when this opportunity
presented itself, you know, I thought about it. I'm like,
this really is a great fit. You know, not only
does it get me out of taxis and hours, but
just really where I can sit down and where I
have a passion to help people. You know, I've spent
a lot of time doing advanced estate planning training over
(27:39):
the years, and sometimes it's hard in public accounting get
to people, the clients to want to sit down and
talk about that because you know there's a fief for that.
You know, they build by the hour. But it's a
whole different model here, and I get to sit down
and spend a little bit more time with people, help
them see a bigger picture and not just think, you know,
(28:00):
what do they want for the next month or the
next year, think about things more holistically and how it
can impact their life.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yeah, and you brought about you brought up about the
estate planning side of it, So talk a little bit
about you know, what does that look like? And who
do you need to be speaking to? I mean, who
needs to be speaking to you? I guess it's the
real question.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Well, and you know, it's not too early for anybody
to start. You know, even if you're in your thirties
or forties, you need to have a will, particularly if
you have kids, and then that doves tails into a
lot of other things. So we don't do a formal
estate plan, but I can talk to you about what
you want to do. Help you think about beneficiaries. How
do you want to allocate your estate? You know, is
(28:42):
it something you want to allocate evenly to If you
have three kids, as each kid get a third, is
there a reason that one should get more or less?
You know, is there special needs that you still need
to take care of you know, what's the right time
to maybe make withdrawals from your retirement plan retired your age,
you know, sixty, But you know, some people want to
(29:05):
wait until, you know, I don't have to take anything
out until i'm you know, in my seventies, and like say,
but that's not always the most efficient tax way to
do that, you know, because then your distributions later may
be so much higher than what you really need, pushing
you to a higher tax bracket later. So we can
(29:26):
sit down, we can talk away through that help them
see the bigger picture and how it can really make
an impact on them long term.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, And I think that these are things that so
often we just don't want to talk about, you know,
I'll be honest, it's the things that were like we'd
rather talk about our vacation and the plans we have
for going on vacation in all of those things. But
these are important factors that every one of us need
to be considering. But it's not the fun thing. It's
(29:53):
really not. I mean, some of it is really good
long term because it does allow you to have fun
in your retirement. If you don't think about it early enough,
then you might not be having fun in your retirement,
but it gives you that opportunity well.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And it can give you peace about everything, and you're
ultimately you're taking care of your family. You know, for
a state planning, you're not going to be here, but
your spouse might still be, your kids are going to be,
other families are going to be, so you know, we
try to make that part. You know, like you said,
it's never fun, but it gives you comfort where things
(30:26):
are going to go and so how you can control it,
and you know what your options are. You know, if
you're in your seventies and you haven't done it, it's
not too late, but we have more options earlier on.
And one of the things I always told my clients
in public accounting is you probably should review your estate
plan every year and consider redvising it maybe every five
(30:49):
to ten years or as your circumstances change. And I
know that's not you know, just something people look forward
to over the holidays, but it's easy to to do
the plan, stick out on a shelf, forget about it.
But in the meantime, you may have had additional children
or an adoption, or a death in the family, or
you've sold the business or retirement, just different things that
(31:12):
actually change what you've put on the paper, right, And
I've seen many times for you know, people come to
me and we talk about it. So yeah, I set
all that up about twenty five years ago. I'm like, well,
you know, the loss have changed a little bit, and
I think your whole situation has changed.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, and so you need to revisit it.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
It is a good idea to revisit those things. It's
also a good idea to visit with your financial planner,
whoever's going to be your executor, your trustee, if there's
a trust before someone passes, because it's important for us,
(31:50):
you know, when we're serving as executor or trustee that
we know the relationship between the family, that we know
the intention of the then.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Yeah, not just feeling black and white, but what was
the intent behind it because things can be challenging. So yeah,
that is such a great point. Well, when we come back,
we're going to wrap up our show today, but you
don't want to leave. Stay with us. This is the
Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back. This is Dana Simmons, and
we have been talking about first financial trust and been
(32:24):
given a lot of information about what is a trust company,
what do they do? How can they assist you? And
we have Michael Keefer and Pam Barry here who have
shared all of that. If you missed it, you can
go back to our podcast that will be posted in
a couple of days on the iHeart media app and
be able to search Dana Simmons real estate and you
(32:46):
can get all of that information at any point in
time right at your fingertips. Before we wrap up, Michael
and Pam just wanted you guys to share We've talked
about a lot of things that the trust does with
First Financial anything else I need to make sure that
we let people know you handle sure, there's.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
You know, we've talked about the investments in those kind
of things, but there's a couple of other things that
First Financial trusts can do that you know, other financial
advisors can't do. So we have folks in Abilene that
actually specialize in oil and gas and they can help
you manage your mineral interest, negotiating the leases and taking
(33:25):
care of making sure you get the royalty payments and
doing those kinds of things. And then we also have
a real property section up there that can managed real estate.
You know, if you have a commercial building or something,
and so they can manage that. They can take care
of screening, qualifying people to be the tenants and collecting
(33:49):
the rents and recommending maintenance and help you figure that out,
and taking care of the taxes and the insurance and
just overall running the real estate. For you to take
some of that off your hand, you need to real
estate manager, you know, they can take care of that.
They can do that with with you know, farmland or
just you know, hunting and grazing and rents for radio
(34:12):
towers and just handling all those different kind of aspects.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Really nice that you cover all that, Pam, anything you
want to add, so kind of covered it all.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
I think we've covered it all. This has been a
really good conversation. Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
No problem. And if someone wants to ask you, guys,
additional questions, how would they get in touch with you?
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Sure, well, they could give us a call at four
zero nine six zero zero six four six nine. They
could go to our website at First Financial Bank dot com.
There you'll find a link to our trust services.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Okay, and then you guys are you are in the
Dollon branch. So if someone wants to make an appointment,
they could meet you there at the Dollon branch a
First Financial bank.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Absolutely. Yeah, so we're located in there and you know
we can go see you at your office. Okay, so
happy to do that perfect Well.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
One of the things I love is the name of
the company, of course, is it's a trust. So it's
first Financial Bank Trust. But what I think is so
important and it's not bank trust. It's first Financial Trust.
No banking there. Yeah, I keep getting that wrong, don'na,
first financial trust. I love the word trust though, because
it's the most important part, and it's the part I
(35:34):
think the two of you bring to it is that
you're local, you're here, and it's the trust that they
can have in you and ensuring that you're going to
help them and guide them in the right decisions to
help them, they'll confid about whatever it is that they do.
So thank you so much for sharing what it is
(35:54):
you do, because I think it's important number one, that
we look into it. All of the things you talked
about today are wildly important. But also you need a
person you can trust, and you guys are just that
the people they can trust. So thank you so much.
For being here with us today. Wanted to wrap up
with a few things to remind you about For many
(36:16):
of you, I don't know if you know, but we
are actually going to be recognizing the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce.
Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce is going to be recognizing
Al Caldwell as Man of the Year at our one
hundred and twenty second annual meeting, and that is Tuesday,
October seventh at the Beaumont Civic Center. If you don't
(36:39):
have your tickets, you need to get those and you
can call Amy Levoy at the office at four O
nine four nine four seven ninety two, or you can
always email the Chamber at Chamber at beaumontcoc dot org.
Also being honored the Woman of the Year Debbie Bando,
(37:00):
and then the Spindle Top Award recipient JS Edwards and Sherlock.
They have been a member I think for over one
hundred years with the Greater Belmont Chamber of Commerce. So
would love for you to do that Tuesday, October seventh,
will be at the Beaumont Civic Center. I hope to
see you there, will be there for sure, and so
(37:20):
we'll first financial also just a real quick little mention.
One of the things that absolutely transformed my life that
I am still involved in is Bible Study Fellowship and
BSF gets started next week. Now. If you've always thought
about studying the Bible but you didn't know how to
do that, this is where I started. I didn't know
(37:41):
anything about the Bible when I started BSF, and now
thirty years later, I'm still learning. It is a program
that is international and inter denominational. You can go online
to BSF dot org Bible Studyfellowship dot org, or we
have have local Bible studies. There's one that happens on
(38:03):
Monday nights, there's one that happens on Wednesday mornings. And
then I'm a part of the online group, which you know,
being in the online group is so amazing because I
have people from Africa and Germany and Japan and all
over the world who are involved in what we're doing
with BSF. So if you're interested, you can reach out
(38:25):
to me, or you can go to BSF online and
get information there as well. I hope you are having
a wonderful Saturday and enjoying your day, so we'll see
you again next week. Every Saturday at noon here with
us The Dana Simmons Show,
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