SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TAST) reported a loss from operations of $4.5 million in the first quarter that ended March 29.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse University’s tuition will increase to almost $42,000 next year. The university has set full-time undergraduate tuition at $41,794 for the 2015-16
DeWITT, N.Y. — A proposed federal bill would “bolster” manufacturing education at universities and train the workforce to meet the current needs of the manufacturing
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Housing Visions Consultants, Inc. and New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) have formally started work on the Salina Crossing development
CLINTON, N.Y. — Marketing-communications firm Romanelli Communications has hired two new staff members, Jimmy Fellone and Zac Wasielewski, to support its growing interactive business. As
NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. — PAR Technology Corp. (NYSE: PAR) has announced a “restructuring” of its hospitality business that it says will make the segment “more
SYRACUSE — The fundraising efforts of the Foundation for Upstate Medical University ranked 5th of 64 schools in the SUNY system during fiscal year 2013-14. That’s according to a report that the SUNY administration recently published and distributed to the various campus presidents. The report combines gifts from individuals, corporations, alumni, and friends,
SYRACUSE — The fundraising efforts of the Foundation for Upstate Medical University ranked 5th of 64 schools in the SUNY system during fiscal year 2013-14.
That’s according to a report that the SUNY administration recently published and distributed to the various campus presidents.
The report combines gifts from individuals, corporations, alumni, and friends, Upstate Medical University said.
Upstate is ranked behind SUNY’s “much larger institutions” that include Stony Brook, University at Buffalo, Cornell Statutory, and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in Albany, the medical school said.
The assets that the Foundation for Upstate Medical University manages have grown to $89 million from $53 million in the past five years.
That’s according to Eileen Pezzi, vice president for development at Upstate Medical University.
The Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Upstate Medical University, announced the asset figure in its year-end report for 2014, which it released in January, according to a news release the school distributed at the time.
In addition, the Foundation disbursed more than $23 million in grants and awards over the same five-year period.
“A highlight this past year,” Pezzi said in the release, “was concluding our capital campaign for the new Upstate Cancer Center, and exceeding our $15 million campaign goal by more than $2 million.”
In addition to supporting Upstate University Hospital’s downtown and Community campuses, including the Golisano Children’s Hospital, the Foundation also raises money for Upstate’s four colleges, the school said.
They include the colleges of Medicine, Graduate Studies, Nursing and Health Professions.
The Foundation also raises money for Upstate’s research enterprise, the school added.
Pezzi noted that the Foundation has raised more than $40 million for its two “pillars of accomplishment,” the Upstate Cancer Center and Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital.
“Yet during both of our capital campaigns, donors also continued to support other areas of interest such as Upstate University Hospital’s annual fund, scholarship funds and biomedical research endeavors. They also made donations to the Foundation’s 800 endowments and restricted funds,” Pezzi said.
The Central New York community is a “very generous one” despite the year’s economic challenges,” Paul Mello, president and CEO of Solvay Bank and chair of the Foundation’s board of directors, said in the Upstate news release.
He was referring to the Foundation’s 2014 report.
“Donors value our unique threefold mission of patient care, education and biomedical research. With careful stewardship of their hard-earned, philanthropic dollars, we hope to see significant growth continue. At the same time, we look forward to giving back and increasing the number of awards we grant each year,” said Mello.
SYRACUSE — Test labs are usually associated with companies that create food, pharmaceutical, and high-tech products. It’s time to add banks to the list. NBT Bank has renovated a branch office on Marshall Street, adjacent to the Syracuse University campus and surrounded by a plethora of health-care providers. The 900-square-foot office serves as a
SYRACUSE — Test labs are usually associated with companies that create food, pharmaceutical, and high-tech products. It’s time to add banks to the list.
NBT Bank has renovated a branch office on Marshall Street, adjacent to the Syracuse University campus and surrounded by a plethora of health-care providers. The 900-square-foot office serves as a model for the digital, retail branch of the future. (NBT has also created a new commercial branch model at its office on Wolf Road in Albany.)
“The layout [of the space] is an open environment,” says Andrew J. Stockwell, the Marshall Street branch manager. “Unlike banking of the past, where the customer waited in line to conduct a transaction with a teller, this office relies on self-service technology combined with interaction by knowledgeable staff. In the age of mobile banking, when the customer enters the branch, the object is to transact business quickly and easily. NBT’s employees are here to ensure that happens through our high-tech, high-impact equipment. We are also here to engage with the customer to answer financial questions. That means our staff has to be familiar with the broad array of NBT products in order to answer questions and/or direct the customer to the resource person who has the answer. [In short,] Marshall Street is a full-service delivery channel, what we call a ‘knowledge portal.’ ”
The new NBT retail model is an example of “expedited deployment of digital branch delivery,” which ranked number 2 on “The Top 10 Retail Banking Trends in 2015,” listed by Jim Marous, publisher of Digital Banking Report. Marous sees the reshaping of branch networks in this digital, omni-channel world as a response to improve the customer experience. Relying on digital touch-points, branch employees can quickly recognize the customer, understand the reason for the visit, and respond with outstanding service. According to Marous, this is the confluence of the customer-interface and customer-experience platforms, where all banking products, services, and transactions are on a single platform that provides both the customer and staff real-time access and decision-making.
NBT’s Marshall Street test lab is a response to the explosion of consumers’ growing preference for financial and technical innovations such as mobile banking. About 82 percent of 18 to 25-year-olds own a smart phone, and 61 percent engage in mobile banking. The parents of this cohort trail somewhat with 60 percent ownership and 30 percent using a smartphone for banking. With the explosion of mobile banking, 90 percent of bankers surveyed by Celent, a Boston–based research and advisory firm focused on financial services, in 2014 foresaw a 10 percent decline in branch numbers over the next five years. And, 45 percent said they anticipated a decline in excess of 25 percent. Last year, 51 percent of U.S. adults banked online. The reaction of Millennials is a growing concern, where 53 percent don’t view their bank as any different from other banks and 73 percent would be more excited about a new financial-service offering from Google, Amazon, or Apple.
“Branch and online banking users represent both a challenge and an opportunity,” observes Lori Verzillo, NBT vice president and retail-territory manager. “We spend a lot of time educating our customers on the benefits of mobile banking. It’s true that most bank customers today still use their mobile devices for checking balances or for recent activity, but a lot of our focus is on helping our customers make deposits and payments, and transfer money on their devices. There is no doubt that those adopting mobile banking … [correlate generally] with age, but there are exceptions: the 55-64-year-old age category is one of the fastest-growing groups in terms of mobile-banking adoption. Anecdotally, I can confirm that mobile banking at NBT is trending upward, and our customers are becoming more aware of the options we offer.”
Banking challenges
Increasing consumer demand for mobile-banking options and continued competition are just two of the challenges NBT faces. Much of the competition comes from other financial-services companies, but a growing challenge comes from outside the industry. Companies such as PayPal, Google, Square, and Apple represent a growing industry of neo-banks that is capturing mobile payments. While the usage level of what are called “mobile wallets” seriously lags the awareness of the products, at some point an industry leader will emerge to standardize the process and get beyond what is today defined as “mobile-payments roulette.” NBT has elected not to sit on the sidelines and has chosen to partner with Apple Pay, which allows users to use their iPhones and Apple Watches to pay in stores and through apps.
The banking industry faces a number of other challenges in deciding how to deploy its attention and funds. There are ongoing concerns about cybersecurity, regulators are demanding higher capital requirements, the industry has not yet regained its return-on-equity levels since the 2007 recession, and economic growth is less than robust. Add to this, declining fee-based income, impending higher interest rates, the replacement of traditional credit cards with chip-and-PIN cards, and the increasing cost of technology. To remain profitable and competitive, banks need to focus on deepening their existing customer relationships and differentiating themselves from the competitors.
NBT strategy & results
In today’s environment, where differentiation is becoming more difficult, even a slight edge can yield positive results. A quick look at NBT’s “2014 Annual Report” confirms the bank’s savvy strategy of segment targets, product offerings, pricing, customer interfacing, and internal processes. Established in 1856 as the Bank of Norwich with $125,000 in capital — the same year that the Cunard line established a record crossing of the Atlantic by an iron-hull, paddle-wheel ship in 9 days and 16 hours; Lawrence, Kansas was captured and burned by pro-slavery forces; and James Buchanan beat Millard Fillmore in the U.S. Presidential Election — NBT now has 158 locations in six states, 192 ATMs, and $7.8 billion in total assets. The bank, headquartered in Norwich, employs more than 1,800 people with more than half working in the circulation area of The Business Journal.
Core net income increased 8.5 percent from $69.9 million in 2013 to $75.8 million in 2014, all while improving the Tier-1 capital ratio. During the same period, earnings per share rose from $1.65 to $1.71, wealth-management revenue increased 14 percent, and market capitalization improved to $1.153 billion. NBT holds the second highest share of deposits in this region — 9.56 percent. The quality of the loan portfolio has also improved as noted by two benchmarks: a steady decline in net charge-offs to average loans and total non-performing loans as measured against total loans — both over the last five years. Only the return on average-tangible-equity has shown a slight decline over the same period.
The Marshall Street office is an important part of NBT’s strategy to get an edge on the competition by creating a one-stop, shopping experience that helps its customers with everything from daily transactions to planning for retirement. Unlike the “robo-advisor” phenomenon sweeping the investment-advisory industry with automated advice generated by algorithms, NBT puts a strong emphasis on marrying technology with a human interface. Florence Doller, senior vice president and director of marketing at NBT, sums up the bank’s keen interest in the new retail test lab: “As customers’ preferences evolve in response to technology [advances] and [as] communication channels continue to proliferate, NBT Bank is paying close attention to various inputs ranging from transaction data that shows increased use of digital-banking technology to feedback from the direct interactions we are able to initiate with customers in spaces like our Marshall Street office. We’re learning every day and will continue to use that knowledge to educate our customers and create engaging and relevant banking experiences for them.”
Perhaps it’s serendipitous that the new Syracuse test lab was formerly occupied by a Baskin-Robbins, a company known for creating more than 1,000 ice-cream flavors in its test lab. Where Baskin-Robbins brought a smile to its customers as they savored their favorite flavor, NBT hopes to bring a similar experience to its retail-banking customers with the new knowledge portal.
SYRACUSE — Changes in federal estate law in recent years have resulted in an evolution regarding how trusts are viewed and what type of trusts individuals and business owners are choosing. “We’ve just seen a huge move from asset preservation from government to asset protection from other human beings,” says Todd Freeman, senior private
SYRACUSE — Changes in federal estate law in recent years have resulted in an evolution regarding how trusts are viewed and what type of trusts individuals and business owners are choosing.
“We’ve just seen a huge move from asset preservation from government to asset protection from other human beings,” says Todd Freeman, senior private client advisor in the Syracuse office of Wilmington Trust Corp. Trusts today are designed to protect assets from “creditors and predators,” he says.
The federal government allows the first $5.43 million of an estate to be exempt from federal taxes. For those with estates worth less than $5.43 million, estate planning can be less complex. However, for individuals, business owners and couples with a combined estate worth more than $10.86 million, trust and estate planning is essential both to avoid a heavy tax burden and to protect those assets from unwanted parties, says Freeman. That can be done in a variety of ways, depending on the individual circumstances.
“It’s not a cookie cutter at all,” he notes. Every family or business needs to develop a plan that’s best for the situation because these days there are a lot more options than the standard revocable or irrevocable trusts that were once very popular.
These days, the focus on asset protection is steering people toward options such a Delaware trust, Freeman says. The state has trust-friendly laws that allow for better asset preservation. “It avoids all creditors if they use the state of Delaware,” he says. “That’s where we’re seeing a lot of new business come in for us.”
An example might be a doctor, with a $2 million umbrella policy, putting assets into a Delaware trust to preserve them for his children and protect them from creditors in the event of a malpractice lawsuit where the judgment exceeds the umbrella policy. The standard irrevocable trust in New York would not protect those assets from that lawsuit, Freeman notes.
Other changes in society — including the decline of the traditional nuclear family of mother, father, and children; increasing legal recognition of same-sex marriage; and the continued prevalence of divorce and remarriage — have boosted the popularity of a number of other types of trusts, Freeman says.
Qualified terminable interest property trusts, known as QTIP trusts, have become a preferred option for those who are remarried. A QTIP allows the first spouse to die to control the disposition of the property, typically passing it along to the children, while still providing an income from that trust to the new spouse. A QTIP also allows people to keep assets protected from stepchildren, if that is their desire, or to exclude the spouses of their children as beneficiaries, Freeman adds.
With changes in society happening more rapidly these days, the estate-planning solutions of the past may not be applicable in the future, Wilmington Trust says.
The bottom line is anyone with an estate exceeding the federal exemption needs to plan ahead to make sure that estate is protected the way they want it to be, Freeman says. Many people don’t even realize the array of trust options available. “It’s our job to open their eyes,” he says. “Where do you want those assets to go?”
Wilmington Trust (www.wilmingtontrust.com), a subsidiary of M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB), provides wealth advisory and institutional client services, including personal and institutional trusts, financial planning, asset management, and retirement administrative services, for clients in all 50 states and in more than 90 countries. As of March 31, the company had $78 billion in assets under management.
Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB), parent of Berkshire Bank, recently announced it has started a new initiative to become a more environmentally sustainable company. The program, called AMEB Green, is focused on boosting Berkshire’s social, environmental, and financial performance by engaging employees and customers in environmentally conscious behaviors, the banking company said in a
Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BHLB), parent of Berkshire Bank, recently announced it has started a new initiative to become a more environmentally sustainable company.
The program, called AMEB Green, is focused on boosting Berkshire’s social, environmental, and financial performance by engaging employees and customers in environmentally conscious behaviors, the banking company said in a news release issued on Earth Day (April 22).
Berkshire Bank’s AMEB Green strategies include:
– Reduce paper consumption by 10 percent over the next three years by using technology, promoting online-banking services to customers, promoting reusable products in its offices, and engaging employees and customers in behaviors that eliminate overall paper usage. (In 2014, Berkshire Bank developed a campaign to move customers from paper statements to e-statements.)
– Reduce energy consumption by 10 percent over the next three years by implementing energy usage standards, temperature and thermostat regulation, and non-essential energy usage reduction.
– Commit 15 percent of the company’s volunteer service to environmental community causes as well as develop products that promote green banking options and implement recycling standards across the banking company.
“Environmentally friendly business delivers value to our clients, returns for our shareholders, and helps strengthen the economy,” Richard Marotta, executive vice president and chief administrative and risk officer at Berkshire Bank, said in the news release. “AMEB Green was developed by a cross-functional committee of employees that looked at policies, products, operations, and behaviors to identify goals and key steps to become a more environmentally sustainable company.”
To kick off AMEB Green, Berkshire Bank Foundation, the charitable arm of Berkshire Bank, made a contribution to the Arbor Day Foundation to plant one tree in honor of each of Berkshire’s employees to celebrate the launch of the initiative. Also, over a two-week period in late April/early May, Berkshire employees planned to help beautify parks, plant trees, and clean up riverfronts across its geographic footprint, the release stated.
Berkshire Bank has 98 branches in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. Locally, Berkshire Bank ranks number 8 in deposit market share in the 16-county Central New York market with $916 million in deposits, good for a 3.5 percent market share, through 18 branches in the area, according to June 30, 2014, FDIC data, the latest available.
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