CAMELS Self-Directed Resource Center was designed to make it easy for banks to benefit from the growing opportunity that self-directed IRA programs offer. Banks may initially overlook  self-directed IRA programs as a solution to their stock liquidity and shareholder problems; however, as Dart Bank of Mason, Michigan knows, it’s one of the most beneficial strategies that a bank looking to match dollars from long-term investments can implement.

Dart Bank has implemented the CAMELS Self-Directed IRA Program to help reinvent the bank’s shareholder base—with solid results. As Dart Bank’s president and CEO, Peter Kubacki, explained, “The ownership challenge for us over the past several years has been identifying new local investors to accomplish our goal of continually reinventing our shareholder base while simultaneously being able to handle unexpected block sales and the resultant liquidity issue that follows.”

Dart Bank, which has $325 million in assets, four banking offices and a home loan center, was like many community banks impacted by the growing pressures of an aging shareholder base. The bank’s shareholders were looking to turn their long-term investments into cash. Additionally, the company had been contacted by trust departments representing family holdings seeking to sell large blocks of stock, causing a large number of shares to be suddenly placed up for sale. This created liquidity concerns and put pressure on the bank’s price per share.

“CAMELS’ bank stock self-directed IRA program allowed Dart Bank to attract new shareholders with the ability to increase their stock ownership over time. It also enabled Dart Bank to attract clients in their expanding commercial business portfolio and other privately-held companies to become shareholders,” explained CAMELS Presedent & CEO, Ed Schmidt, who helped the bank’s leadership team create and implement a self-directed IRA program utilizing as much of the bank’s existing infrastructure as possible.

As part of the program set-up Dart has established an internal trading desk for the buying and selling of shares. The bank has also tapped into a readily available pool of cash that can be easily transferred from a regular IRA, Roth IRA, 401K into a Self-Directed IRA.  In addition, the Bank provides shareholders with quarterly stock valuations indicating the fair market value (FMV) of the company’s stock to keep investor interest high.

To provide a turnkey solution for banks looking to increase shareholder value utilizing a self-directed IRA program, CAMELS has recently introduced its Self-Directed IRA Resource Center, a web-based online library and interactive community subscription which gives banks access to all of the compliance, operational, and marketing tools they need to implement this type of program. In addition, the CAMELS Self-Directed Resource Center subscription includes staff training and an interactive online forum for support from industry experts and other banks that have successfully implemented a self-directed IRA program.

For more information visit the CAMELS Self-Directed Resource Center page.