Among the items on his to-do list as dean, Matt Waller said, is ensuring the success of the Fleischer Scholars Program, a scholarship program that seeks to draw students from “underrepresented” parts of Arkansas to the Walton College of Business.

Those underrepresented parts include eastern, southern and central Arkansas, almost all of the state except northwest Arkansas.

“It’s a method of reaching out to students who are qualified, capable, maybe even ambitious, but they don’t understand the opportunities that majoring in business would provide them,” he said.

The university recruits rising high school seniors from these areas to a “bridge program,” in which they spend one week at the Walton College where they meet faculty, staff and business executives and participate in projects.

“The purpose of it is to show them, one, we want them here in the Walton College; two, they can succeed.” Potential success is demonstrated when the students meet upperclassmen who are doing well.

The Walton College participated in the program for the first time last summer, and of the 37 students taking part, at least 17 will be at the university in the fall.

That summer aspect of the program helps students make it to the university; a new element seeks to help them graduate. That new element is a $10,000 annual scholarship for four years plus paying summer internships.

Waller said the program is working with the banking industry to provide internships. “The hope is not only would they graduate, but also they would work back in their community, hopefully in that bank in a management position.”

So far, Signature Bank of Arkansas has committed to funding three of these scholarships, and Bank of England has committed to two. Waller said the college would be reaching out to another 30 banks in the next few months.

The program serves as a way for banks to develop talent, but they also receive federal Community Reinvestment Act credit for participation.

A 150-room hotel in downtown Little Rock weighed in at $8.5 million.

LR HI Associates LLC, an affiliate of Centura Capital of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, bought the Holiday Inn-Presidential at 600 Interstate 30. The seller is HI Presidential LLC, led by Larry Carpenter.

The deal is financed with an $8.6 million loan from The Bancorp Bank of Wilmington, Delaware.

The 1.26-acre development previously helped secure a March 2002 mortgage of $3.95 million held by Bank of Washington (Missouri) and a May 2006 mortgage of $5.8 million held by U.S. Bank of Cincinnati as trustee of a port-folio of mortgage-backed securities.

The transaction was accompanied by the $200,000 purchase of an adjoining 0.8-acre parking lot by Centura’s LR PS Associates LLC from Carpenter Hotel Group LLC.

Carpenter acquired what was the 2.06-acre Best Western InnTowne Hotel development through his HALR Holding LLC for $2.48 million more than 14 years ago. The seller was InnTowne Partners Ltd., led by Robert Ridenour.

Hooters Transaction

The Hooters in North Little Rock tipped the scales at $2.35 million.

Vera Cruz Properties Ltd. of San Marcos, California, purchased the project at 4110 Landers Road from Slevin Capital Development Inc. of South Barrington, Illinois.

The deal is backed with a 10-year loan of $1.5 million from Southern Bank of Springfield, Missouri.

Slevin Capital bought the 1.68-acre development for $1.93 million in June 2006 from Barrett Ventures I LLC of Rolesville, North Carolina.

Packet Purchase

The historic Packet House in downtown Little Rock changed hands in a $1.3 million transaction.

The 1836 Club PLLC, led by Rod Damon, Mark Camp and Jeremy Hutchinson, acquired the 8,200-SF building at 1406 Cantrell Road. The seller is Packet House Grill LLC, led by Betty Richards.

The deal is funded with 30-year loans of $1.1 million and $225,000 from First State Bank of Lonoke. The 2.16-acre development previously was tied to a January 2012 mortgage of $725,000 held by Arvest Bank of Fayetteville.

The property was purchased for $650,000 in July 2011 from Chambers Bank of Danville.

The bank recovered the property at a $635,000 foreclosure sale in August 2010 from Gibraltar National Insurance Co., led by Steve Standridge at the time.

Site Acquisition I

Two 1.1-acre commercial sites in Sherwood are under new ownership after an $862,000 sale. Multi-Management Services Inc., the for-profit arm of Baptist Health, bought the land at the northwest corner of Highway 107 and Oakdale Road. The seller is 107-Oakdale LLC, led by Byron McKimmey.

The property previously helped se-cure a May 2013 mortgage of $1.47 million held by Arvest Bank.

The land was acquired in February 2006 as part of an $8.3 million transaction with Metropolitan Land Co., representing the heirs of Justin Matthews and his Metropolitan Trust.

Site Acquisition II

A 2.5-acre commercial parcel in west Little Rock rang up a $510,000 sale.

KMS Legacy LLC, led by Kristy Spann, purchased the land at 15100 Cantrell Road from IberiaBank of Lafayette, Louisiana.

The deal is financed with a $485,000 loan from Centennial Bank of Conway.

IberiaBank entered the ownership picture in October 2011 at a $523,688 foreclosure sale. The bank recovered the land from Civil Design Inc., led by William and Carylon Dean.

Downtown Buy

Ownership of an 11,464-SF commercial building in downtown Little Rock consolidated in a $433,566 transaction.

Bek Kaiser sold his one-third stake in the 313 President Clinton Ave. project, home to Gusano’s Pizza and more.

The buyers were Three Thirteen LLC, led by Jimmy Moses, Lisa Ferrell, Jim Jackson, and Willis Smith & Co. Inc.

The deal is backed with a five-year loan of $825,000 from Relyance Bank of Pine Bluff.

The 0.16-acre development previously was linked with an October 2003 mortgage of $541,930, a November 2003 mortgage of $770,000 and a December 2010 mortgage of $24,000 held by BancorpSouth Bank of Tupelo, Mississippi.

The property was acquired for $770,000 in October 2003 from the creditors of Ozark Mountain Enterprises Inc.

Multifamily Deal

A seven-unit apartment project in the Hillcrest area of Little Rock drew a $317,000 deal. DWB Properties LLC, led by Danny William Brown, bought the complex at 503 N. Pine St.

The seller is Gamma Care Inc., led by Amin Amarshi. The 0.15-acre development previously was tied to a June 2008 mortgage of $310,000 held by Summit Bank of Arkadelphia.

The property was purchased for $268,000 nearly eight years ago from Second Genesis Ministries Inc., led by Anne Fulk.

Popeyes Sale

A 3,366-SF restaurant in Jacksonville sold for $300,000.

Walid and Hosam Ismail acquired the Popeyes at 1502 Main St. from JY Rental LLC, led by Richard Jones.

The 0.88-acre development is helping secure a six-year loan of $675,000 held by Bank of England. The Jones family has owned the land since 1948-49.

Site Acquisition III

A Windstream office-warehouse project is in motion after a $197,933 land deal in North Little Rock. NLR Partners LLC of Dallas purchased the 1.21-acre site at 5150 Northshore Lane from Pfeifer Family Ltd. No. 1, led by Gene Pfeifer.

Construction is funded with a $1.53 million loan from Centennial Bank. The property previously was linked with a June 2006 $2.4 million mortgage held by Little Rock’s Bank of the Ozarks.

The property was acquired in May 2000 for $2.1 million as part of a 600-acre deal with Karen Smith Riecke and North Shore Ltd., led by Harold Tenenbaum.

Maisons Abode

A 4,026-SF home in The Maisons neighborhood of west Little Rock’s Chenal Valley development changed hands in a $534,500 transaction.

Donald and Vickie Boyd bought the house from the Barbara Colwell Family Trust. The deal is financed with a 30-year loan of $417,000 from First Security Bank of Searcy.

The residence previously was tied to a December 2013 mortgage of $392,000 from Simmons Bank of Pine Bluff.

The Colwells purchased the property for $490,000 more than two years ago from Terry and Susan Murray.

Prospect House

A 4,326-SF home in Little Rock’s Prospect Terrace neighborhood is under new ownership after a $520,000 sale.

Gary Duke acquired the house from Bank of New York Mellon, as trustee of a portfolio of mortgage-backed securities.

The property was recovered from Thomas and Melissa McCain at a $648,109 foreclosure sale in June 2015.

The McCains bought the residence for $500,000 in June 2004 from Thomas and Sheila McHaffy.

Seven-Digit Construction

Pharmacy Remodeling     $1,782,366
Arkansas Children’s Hospital
1 Children’s Way, Little Rock
Nabholz Construction Corp., Conway

Office Building    $1,500,000
5103 Warden Road, North Little Rock
Ready Construction Services LLC, Dallas

Murphy Express    $1,272,300
12600 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock
JMD Construction Services LLC, Little Rock

A creditor has accused a northwest Arkansas real estate developer of committing fraud in order to obtain loans that totaled nearly $6 million.

BCMS Partners LP, which you may know as Rioux Capital of Austin, Texas, made the charge in a recent complaint connected to Brandon Woodrome’s personal Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, which he filed earlier this year in Fort Smith.

Rioux said nearly half of the $6 million has been repaid, but it argued in the pleading that the remaining $2.8 million shouldn’t be discharged from Woodrome’s bankruptcy because he allegedly committed fraud to obtain the money.

Rioux said Woodrome, through his Behr LLC — which also is in Chapter 7 liquation — provided “documents which he created or altered which established false and inflated proof of accounts receivable in an [unfortunately successful] attempt to secure continued financing from Rioux.

“Woodrome, at all times, was the managing member of Behr and was personally responsible for the creation and alteration of the above-described documents.”

One source close to the case said the FBI is looking into the matter.

Woodrome told Whispers last week that he didn’t want to comment.

In his bankruptcy, Woodrome listed debts of $4.2 million and assets of $670,000.

He reported a gross income of nearly $200,000 in 2015 and $93,400 in 2014.

Woodrome also has been named as a defendant in more than a dozen lawsuits since 2015.

Behr Bankruptcy

Before Woodrome filed for personal bankruptcy protection, his company, Behr, which does business as Behr Construction LLC, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in October.

The company listed $5.7 million in debt and $3.9 million in assets.

In documents in the Behr bankruptcy, the acting United States trustee, Daniel Casamatta, shed some light on the company’s arrangement with Rioux. He said Behr entered into a factoring arrangement with Rioux in January 2015. That is, Behr assigned its accounts receivables to Rioux in exchange for operating capital pending the payment of the receivables.

By the end of July 2015, Behr had received more than $5 million from Rioux.

But Casamatta raised questions about the documents used to obtain the money.

“The invoices presented to support the accounts receivable were fabricated in either the amount or the complete invoice,” he said.

In February, Casamatta pushed for Behr’s bankruptcy to be converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation. It was no longer in operation. And the company had revenue of just over $31,000 between Oct. 14 and Dec. 31 — and about a fourth of that went to pay Woodrome.

“The primary party that benefits from the case remaining in Chapter 11 appears to be Mr. Woodrome,” Casamatta said.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ben Barry agreed and ordered the conversion.

Behr’s revenue had been falling since 2013 when it was $10.2 million. The next year, it plummeted to $6.7 million, and revenue was estimated at $4.2 million for about the first 10 months of 2015.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. last week settled its lawsuit against the accounting firm BKD LLP, just days before the trial was scheduled to begin in U.S. District Court in Little Rock.

Timothy McNamara, the chief legal officer for BKD, told Whispers last week that he couldn’t comment on the terms of the settlement.

“But BKD is pleased to have the matter resolved,” he said. “BKD looks forward to continuing to serve our clients throughout Arkansas with integrity and excellence.”

The FDIC declined to comment.

If you recall from last week’s front-page story, the FDIC had sued BKD in 2013 for failing to uncover the massive fraud that led to the 2010 failure of First Southern Bank of Batesville.

BKD, which is headquartered in Springfield, Missouri, and has a large office in Little Rock, denied any wrongdoing. It argued in its court filings that the bank’s own officers could have shut down former Little Rock attorney Kevin Lewis’ scam almost two years earlier had they simply done their jobs.

The FDIC, as First Southern’s receiver, said in its court filings that the firm should have caught the red flags when its accountants audited the bank between June 2009 and June 2010.

Lewis, 47, pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud for a complex, multiyear scheme in which he manufactured phony property owner improvement district bonds, sold them to banks as investments and used them as collateral on bank loans. He is serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison at Memphis.

Scheduled for release in January 2021, Lewis also was ordered to pay $39.5 million in restitution to nine banks in what is considered the largest fraud ever prosecuted in Arkansas.

Even the conservative assessment by a court-appointed receiver proved to be overly optimistic regarding the insolvent business interests of John Rogers, whose Facebook page recently offered up what read almost like a confession.

The income-producing ability of the photo archives and sports memorabilia flotsam of the alleged serial fraudster is so anemic that Michael McAfee is seeking to rework the terms of his engagement.

During 2015, the varied Rogers ventures produced less than $310,000 of revenue and finished more than $66,000 in the red.

How could this raggedy operation be the same thriving enterprise that Rogers once touted to the media and others?

♦ In July 2011, Rogers told the New York Post that his business pulled in about $9 million in revenue during 2010.

♦ Two months later, he told Editor & Publisher he would generate $11 million in revenue from photo sales during 2011.

♦ In October 2012, he told the Arkansas Times that he was bringing in $120,000 a week from eBay alone.

But behind the scenes, Rogers was rebuffing requests from bankers to produce audited financial statements and hire a chief financial officer. Lawsuits would eventually show that he was augmenting corporate cash flow with phantom deals that lured investors and lenders to give him millions of dollars.

A forensic audit later revealed a mismanagement mess after he was pushed out of the company by creditors two years ago. The fiscal norm at Sports Cards Plus was expenses exceeding revenue, an imbalance kept from tipping by investors and debt until 2014.

Rogers awaits the criminal reckoning expected from a federal investigation based out of Chicago. That probe launched the raid on his North Little Rock business and home on Jan. 28, 2014.

Blake Hendrix, criminal defense lawyer for Rogers, said he has no updates on his client’s legal situation.

“It’s just at a standstill,” Hendrix said. “There’s nothing new to report. They’re doing what they’re doing or what they’re not doing.”

But an April 7 entry on Rogers’ Facebook page suggested that he is preparing to take a plea.

“I regretfully made some really poor decisions to save my company when the economy went south. For those poor decisions, I will be separated from you all. I will be admitting guilt soon and given a sentence of incarceration. It is nobody’s fault but my own. But I felt compelled to make this post because I know I will be separated from you all for a long period of time.”

Contacted by Arkansas Business, Rogers would neither confirm nor deny he was the author. Rogers was in full domineering conversation mode, interested only in talking about a lawsuit against him that fell by the wayside in March. The 2015 case against Rogers individually was dismissed for lack of activity.

John Conner Jr. of Newport and his Holden-Conner Farms Inc. and Newport Archives Inc. last year obtained a consent judgment against Sports Cards Plus for nearly $9.6 million in the case.

The complaint, including allegations of fraud, was tied to a series of delinquent loans that Rogers personally guaranteed.

Why did Conner let the case go dormant? Spending more time and money in hopes of getting money from a threadbare Rogers was deemed fruitless.

As detailed in lawsuits against him, others believe his mismanagement is what killed the company without assistance from the economy. Poor decisions also allowed him and his family to live large while the business cratered.

The fun included fabulous trips, with a 2012 sojourn in Bora Bora among the most memorable; an awesome condo overlooking New York’s Central Park, leased for more than $10,000 a month; and a grand 12,449-SF manor, built for more than $2 million in 2010.

His trips abroad are history since his passport was surrendered to the court last year. His travel is restricted to in-state only, monitored by a court-ordered ankle bracelet. The Manhattan high-rise pad is no more. The Park Hill mansion has gone the way of foreclosure.

New Address

These days, Rogers is relying on the financial goodwill of friends and family. He’s living in rented quarters in Little Rock’s Hillcrest neighborhood. It’s a different address than the bogus one Rogers gave North Little Rock police when he was pulled over and arrested in December on charges of burglary and theft of property.

That case is in limbo, much to the chagrin of McAfee.

He filed the complaint after security cameras captured Rogers making a midnight visit to his former office back in August and allegedly taking three 5-terabyte hard drives.

North Little Rock police recovered two of the three hard drives from Rogers during his arrest. The hard drives he allegedly stole from the Sports Cards Plus office at 115 E. 24th St. contained more than a million scanned photographs with metadata valued at $364,167.

“I think the prosecutor has made this a low priority,” McAfee said. “I don’t understand the criminal justice system. The federal side is no better.”

The FBI investigation for bank fraud and counterfeit sports memorabilia is tied to $50 million in creditor-investor claims in a string of civil cases against Rogers.

His latest misadventure with law enforcement and the courts occurred on March 29 but is lightweight in comparison.

Rogers was ticketed by Little Rock police for driving the wrong way down a one-way street. The midafternoon traffic stop at Third and Brown also resulted in a ticket for driving with a suspended driver’s license.

Counting the Cost

McAfee’s outlook for bringing value to the remaining assets of Rogers on behalf of creditors began to turn murky in the fourth quarter of 2015.

“Due diligence to assess the physical inventory is proving more difficult than initially thought,” McAfee said in his report to the court. “This process is still continuing, and it is hoped that proposals for the purchase of selected archives should be forthcoming. The prospect of one buyer purchasing all the assets of the receivership does not look probable at this time.”

The court-appointed receiver has entertained 11 prospective buyers since he entered the picture in January 2015. Creditors hoped someone would step up to the plate with a big, bona fide offer, but that didn’t happen.

Plans are shifting to sell whatever pieces of the business can be sold with his work winding down by year’s end.

“I don’t see it continuing beyond 2016, maybe into the first quarter of 2017, unless there’s a radical change,” McAfee said. “My crystal ball in this whole thing has been incredibly cloudy.

“There was so much perceived value because of all the appraisals [commissioned by Rogers]. The creditors have put a significant amount of money in the business. The perception was that it was worth X, but it’s going to be worth X minus a significant number.”

With the support of Rogers’ lead creditor, First Arkansas Bank & Trust of Jacksonville, McAfee is asking for court approval of a new payment formula for his services.

He is asking for a monthly fee of $8,500 that will be deducted from his 5 percent commission on any sales.

McAfee collected only $14,375 for his share of sales during 2015. Weighed against 817 hours of work, that translates to about $17.60 per hour.

Rogers in Receivership^*

^*Represents the operations and assets of Sports Cards Plus Inc., Planet Giant LLC, Digital Stock Planet LLC and Photo Archive Partners along with the sports and celebrity memorabilia and collectibles of John Rogers and his ex-wife, Angelica Rogers, overseen by the court-appointed receiver, Michael McAfee.
Source: Pulaski County Circuit Court

Two new members joined the board of directors at Little Rock's Bank of the Ozarks Inc. at Monday morning's annual shareholders meeting.

Elected to serve were Jack Mullen, 66, director of derivatives and market strategy with AgriBank FCB since November 2004; and Paula Cholmondeley, 68, who served as a private consultant on strategic planning from 2004-09.

George Gleason, chairman and CEO, also announced that a third seat would be filled by Trevor Burgess, president, CEO and founder of the $1.7 billion-asset C1 Financial Inc. of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Burgess will join the board of directors after the $402.5 million acquisition of C1 closes later this year. He also will join Bank of the Ozarks as chief innovation officer and president of the company's Florida operations.

Exiting as directors are R. L. Qualls, 82, retired president of Baldor Electric Co. of Fort Smith and a director since 1997; Sherece West-Scantlebury, 50, president and CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and a director since 2012; and Tyler Vance, 41, chief operating officer since 2013 and chief banking officer since 2011 and director since 2015.

After the shareholders meeting, Gleason presented an overview of the company's 2015 results and a preview of 2016 offered by first quarter results.

Net income totaled $51.7 million during the first quarter, a 29.6 percent increase over 2015. "We're off to a very good start this year," he said.

The company continued to generate admirable performance metrics including: 2.11 percent return on average assets versus the industry average of 1.04 percent; and an efficiency ratio near the top of the industry - 38.4 percent versus the industry average of 59.9 percent.

Gleason noted the efficiency ratio, which measures how much money it costs to produce a $1 of revenue, was tightened to 35.5 percent in the first quarter.

"We are extremely disciplined in the way we manage credit," he said.

Gleason highlighted the fiscal contributions of the company's Real Estate Specialties Group.

From a one-man operation that started in 2003 with Dan Thomas, group president, the RESG now deploys a staff of 86.

The group has endured losses on two loans totaling only $10.4 million since its inception, resulting in an annualized loss ratio of 0.11 percent.

"We have diligently sought to make this portfolio as bulletproof as possible," Gleason said.

The RESG portfolio totals $11 billion in loans and commitments, with large commercial construction loans providing much of the earnings juice. Organic loan growth accounts for 81.4 percent of the company's book of loans.

Of the 41 states where Bank of the Ozarks has funded projects, New York is the largest with more than $1.9 million followed by Arkansas at nearly $1.3 billion.

Gleason expects Florida and Georgia to move up the chart in the quarters to come.

The pending deals to acquire C1 and the $4.4 billion-asset Community & Southern Bank of Atlanta will push Bank of the Ozarks north of $17 billion in total assets.

The shareholder meeting and presentation were held at the company's headquarters in west Little Rock.

The 10 start-ups participating in the 12-week VC FinTech Accelerator, powered by global technology provider FIS and hosted by the Venture Center in Little Rock, were named Monday.

The participants, chosen from 150 applicants, are:

• Akouba of Chicago, which offers an underwriting platform for lending by community and regional banks to small businesses;

• Bleu of Los Angeles, which offers a mobile and merchant point-of-sale system enabling Bluetooth (beacon) payments;

• Dream Forward 401K of New York City, which offers low-cost 401(k) retirement plans designed to boost employee savings rates;

• Flutterwave of Mountain View, California, and Lagos, Nigeria, which offers technology and infrastructure for seamlessly and securely processing payments, remittances and digital services across Africa for the banked and unbanked;

• Fundseeder of Westport, Connecticut, which offers a data and performance analytics platform for traders designed to democratize the capital allocation process;

• LumoXchange of Atlanta, a low-cost remittance marketplace to compare exchange rates in countries across the world and send money online using local foreign exchange rates;

• Hexanika of New York City, which offers a regulatory compliance and reporting system that provides data abstraction, normalization and transformation from disparate systems within a bank;

• Monotto of Charleston, South Carolina, which offers a personal finance solution that automates the process of saving and investing and is designed for college students;

• Mortgage Peer Network of North Little Rock, which allows institutions to contribute anonymous data to measure performance against peers, monitor customer service and generate leads through social media marketing;

• and PFITR of St. Louis, which offers bond and fixed income pricing, analytics, compliance and controls for public funds investors and other investors.

The companies will receive a $50,000 initial investment for a 6 percent equity position, with up to $300,000 in additional investment possible. An investor demo day will be held Aug. 3 at the Clinton Presidential Library.

The accelerator’s goal is to help the startups gain at least $1 million in annual recurring revenue.

But VC FinTech Managing Director Gary Dowdy, a former Cardinal Health executive, told Arkansas Business in April that some of the firms chosen for the accelerator were more established and the 6 percent equity deal didn't work for them.

He said then that the program offers those a simple agreement for future equity, meaning companies "let us decide what (they're) worth on the pretense of knowing that (they're) going to raise more money in the future." So the percentage bought by the $50,000 would be determined based on how much the company is worth after completing the accelerator, although there would be additional negotiable provisions.

The accelerator's leadership team also includes:

• James Hendren – Venture Center chairman, co-founder of Arkansas Systems and co-founder of Accelerate Arkansas;

• Lee Watson – Venture Center founder, president, CEO and leader of Startup Arkansas;

• Brian Bauer, the accelerator's operations lead and a former aviation operations manager and helicopter crew member who supported special operations missions in Iraq with the Navy;

• Tariq Bokhari, FIS' head of innovation and investments;

• Chris Cline – FIS' senior vice president of channels and digital access for large financial institutions and a senior FIS executive on its Little Rock campus;

• and Collins Andrews – FIS' executive-in-residence for the accelerator and a former senior Systematics/Alltel executive.

Watson said the VC FinTech Accelerator is the only program in the world that has a partnership with a company like FIS.

Gary Norcross, chief executive officer of FIS, said, "When you look at a company like FIS generating more than $9 billion in revenue, it really is about where is the next innovation going to come from…We're thrilled to be a part of this."

Norcross said he believed accelerators would be a key component in encouraging the innovation necessary to compete, and added that Arkansas must to live up to its proud history as one of the biggest innovators in the financial services industry.

Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin and Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola also spoke at Monday's announcement.

"What you've done here, your team, is just unbelievable, incredible," Griffin said, referring to Watson and the Venture Center. "And the great news is we don't have to get these folks to promise to stay in Arkansas because it's such an amazing place they're never going to want to leave."

He also encouraged the group to call his office if they encounter obstacles to innovation. 

"I may not [be able to] fix it, but they do give me a microphone a lot, and I can scream about it," Griffin said.

Stodola said, "To be able to take this ecosystem and to pair it with one of the top companies in the world in financial services is really a special treat…We want at least five, six, seven, eight, maybe even 10 new ideas to come out of this."

Also Monday, Watson announced that the Venture Center finished its second year this week.

He said the center has held hundreds of programs, engaged thousands of entrepreneurs and developers, put 48 teams through its pre-accelerator and trained 56 mentors.

Watson said, when it launched, the center was working with seven startups. That number has risen to more than 100, he said.

The current consumer sentiment index for Arkansas is 84.9, up from 77.8 in September, according to the spring 2016 Arvest Consumer Sentiment Survey, released Tuesday.

The survey, which began in June 2014, has shown a steady increase in consumer sentiment in the state: 67.4 in June 2014; 68.1 in October 2014; and 79.1 in March 2015. 

The latest report shows the highest index score for the state since this survey began, and it's the first time Arkansas' index is higher than Oklahoma and Missouri, two other states included in the survey.

Missouri and Oklahoma both reported slight decreases, from 85.8 in September to 83.9 in March in Missouri, and from 85.0 to 81.3 over the same period in Oklahoma. Arkansas also ranked higher than the regional reading of 83.4.

"Reflecting an outperforming Arkansas economy, Arkansas consumer sentiment improved from September 2015 to March 2016," said Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Sam M. Walton School of Business at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the lead economist for the survey. 

"The state's improving employment and income situation in both metropolitan and rural areas meant that both higher- and lower-income residents had reasons for optimism," she said.

The Arvest Consumer Sentiment Survey is conducted by the CBER twice a year, with the next survey expected to conclude in August.

Despite a strong increase in most demographic categories in Arkansas, the largest gains in sentiment occurred in two areas. Among respondents who are unemployed, sentiment increased from 70.5 in September to 85.2 in March. Among those who rent their home, sentiment increased from 71.6 in September to 84.3 in March.

The only decline came from Arkansan respondents ages 18 to 24. The March reading of 91.5 was well below September’s reading of 121.0.

"Communities across Arkansas are experiencing steady business development and that's encouraging to Arkansans," said Jim Cargill, president of Arvest Bank in central Arkansas. "That consumer confidence translates to positive mortgage lending, which we are seeing, so it appears that our customers are satisfied with where they are financially now, and where they anticipate they will be in the future."

The current regional index for Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri – including Greater Kansas City – is 83.4, up from September’s index of 82.6. The increase is aligned with movement within the national index, as reported by Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan. The national index was 90.0 for March, up from 87.2 in September.

On May 18, the U.S. Department of Labor published the final rule updating overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Department of Labor estimates that more than 50,000 employees and their employers in Arkansas will be affected by the changes. Here's our initial take on the changes, the traps to avoid and how to prepare. 

Key Provisions

The main thing we've all been waiting for is the new salary level for the administrative, professional and executive exemptions. The new regulations set the level at $913 a week, or $47,476 per year.  That is a significant increase of $458 per week, and that's the new reality for employers that will take effect on Dec. 1. 

Among the other changes:

• Salary levels will be adjusted every three years (instead of every year as originally proposed) beginning in 2020.
• The "highly compensated employee" exemption level jumps from $100,000 per year to $134,004 per year.
• As we predicted in our "In the Workplace 2016" article earlier this year, the Department of Labor's new overtime rule does in fact allow the inclusion of bonuses when determining an employee's total pay for purposes of the administrative, professional and executive exemptions. Non-discretionary bonuses, incentive payments and commissions paid on a quarterly or more frequent basis can account for up to 10 percent of the required salary level. Such payments may include, for example, nondiscretionary incentive bonuses tied to productivity and profitability, and employers are allowed to make a "catch-up" payment in any given quarter to ensure an employee's salary level in fact reaches the minimum level.

Avoiding Traps

One of the main questions we've received is this: Can an employer get around the new overtime rules by treating employees as independent contractors?  

The answer is an emphatic "no," unless you want to get in trouble with various government agencies, including the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service. 

Another potential trap we see: trying to limit your new, non-exempt employees to just 40 hours of work per week. Chances are, your previously exempt employees were working more than 40 hours per week before the overtime rules change, and this might carry over the temptation of your employees to work off-the-clock. 

A related pitfall of trying to limit employees to working 40 hours per week: penalizing employees for working unauthorized overtime. While the common sense approach might be to withhold payment for unauthorized work time, chances are your business did, in fact, benefit from the work. To avoid any claim that you violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by refusing to pay for overtime work, you should discipline employees (through verbal or written counseling) for any unauthorized work time, but pay them for the time worked. 

Finally, be aware of how employees use home computers and smartphones. Previously exempt employees who could work and communicate with you 24/7 are now on the clock. Anything other than a minimal amount of time spent working or communicating should now be compensated. These previously exempt employees may have the hardest time recording that extra time. You'll need to help them with that transition and stay on them about accurately recording their time.           

How to Prepare 

Will there be bumps in the road for employers making working to follow these new rules? Undoubtedly. But you can prepare by doing the following:

1. While the new rules don't go into effect until Dec. 1, have your newly non-exempt employees start recording their time now. This helps in two ways — it gives you an idea of just how many hours a week they work, and it gets them in the habit of accurately recording their time.
2. Start talking to your employees now about the transition and why it's happening. Although no one is being demoted and no job duties are being changed, some of your previously exempt employees will feel as if they have taken a step backwards. Help them ease into the new reality all businesses are facing.
3. Decide how you're going to handle after-hours communications and work. Are you going to take away 24/7 access through computers and smartphones, or are you going to ensure that any work time is recorded and compensated?   
4. Consider the use of the "fluctuating workweek" method of calculating overtime, which results in half-time overtime instead of time-and-a-half overtime. (But be prepared; this method is extremely complicated to administer.)
5. Bite the bullet and increase the pay of those now-exempt employees making less than the new standard. Remember, up to 10 percent of the salary under the new rule can be in the form of a non-discretionary bonus, incentive payment or commission. 
6. Make sure you have a written policy warning employees about working off-the-clock and mandating that they accurately record their time.  

Additionally, the Department of Labor has provided summaries and guidance documents for businesses, nonprofits, state and local governments and higher education:

• Nonprofit summary and guidance documents
• State and local government guidance document
• Higher education summary and guidance documents
• Private Employer guidance document

This transition won't be easy, but at least you have six months (instead of 30 to 60 days) to adjust to the Department of Labor's new rules. Don't wait until the last moment to start your transition.

(Stuart Jackson is an attorney at Wright Lindsey Jennings LLP of Little Rock. You can email him here.) 

Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff said Wednesday that it agreed to purchase Citizens National Bank of Athens, Tennessee, in a deal valued at $77 million.

The purchase price will consist of 835,741 shares of Simmons' common stock and $40.3 million in cash, according to Simmons.

"As we continue to expand our community banking strategy, it is important that we find partners that have common goals, experience, culture and reputations as excellent corporate citizens. CNB certainly fits that mold," George A. Makris, Jr., Simmons' chairman and CEO, said in a news release.

"The leadership of CNB throughout its 108 years has built a franchise focused on meeting the financial service needs of its customers in the markets it serves," he said. "We value that legacy and plan to continue to provide historical levels of quality customer service."

As of March 31, CNB had assets of $552 million, deposits of $473 million and equity capital of $63.5 million. It earned $6.4 million in 2015, for a return on assets of 1.21 percent, and $4.7 million in 2014 (0.9 percent).

Simmons expects to complete the acquisition in the fourth quarter, subject to certain closing conditions, including approval by the shareholders of Citizens. After closing, Simmons aims for CNB to operate as a separate bank subsidiary for an interim period until it is merged into Simmons Bank.

Athens is between Chattanooga and Knoxville, and Citizen National's nine branches are all in that corridor, which will expand Simmons' footprint further east.

Simmons currently has 37 Tennessee branches, the result of the 2015 acquisition of First State Bank of Union City, but only one is in Knoxville.

Makris told shareholders at last month's annual meeting that Simmons was continuing to look for acquisitions in contiguous states.

Simmons has total assets of $7.5 billion and operates in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee. Last month, it reported first-quarter net income of $23.5 million, up 170 percent from $8.7 million in the same quarter last year.

Scott Lambert has been promoted to bank senior examiner by the Arkansas State Bank Department. Lambert, formerly a credit analyst at Farmers & Merchants Bank of Stuttgart, joined the bank department in 2013.

He is a commercial examiner based in Little Rock.

See more of this week's Movers & Shakers, and submit your own announcement at ArkansasBusiness.com/Movers.

Kris Upton, 46, is president of the RPM Group, where he’s worked since 2003, and previously has served the company as treasurer, chief financial officer and chief operating officer.

Upton has a bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Arkansas and has studied at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. He’s a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Commercial Investment Member and a licensed Realtor.

RPM Group is a holding company for several real estate operating companies, including Coldwell Banker RPM, RPM Commercial, RPM Management Co. and RPM Investments.

We understand that Rector Phillips Morse Inc. is doing some rebranding. Tell us about that.

We rebranded Rector Phillips Morse Inc. to the RPM Group for a couple of reasons. One, RPM will celebrate 60 years of doing business in Arkansas in 2016, which may be the longest run of any real estate firm in the state. We’re proud of our reputation as the most experienced real estate services provider in the marketplace and very appreciative of our clients and 300 employees and sales associates for making us the No. 1 firm over the years in total sales volume and closed transactions.

Two, our business has grown considerably in the past decade as we’ve entered into strategic franchising relationships in residential and commercial brokerage and structured a number of new joint venture investments.

Which of your lines of business show the most growth potential and why?

Our residential sales division, currently aligned with the national Coldwell Banker franchise, has great upside. We have a talented and experienced group of brokers who understand how to support sales agents, and we’re bullish on central Arkansas. The Little Rock MSA has grown by 20 percent since 2000 and is poised to surpass 1 million in the next few years. Seven of the largest and fastest-growing cities in the state are in this area, and we’ve positioned branch offices in six of these locations.

Also, demand for commercial and investment properties is at a seven-year high. We have a strong track record of successful investment management that produced four decades of annualized double-digit returns for hundreds of investors in the RPM Realty Fund.

What external factors are you watching and how do these affect your business plan?

Service to clients and associates is our business plan. Right now, I’m focused on the real and perceived value of franchise relationships and whether decisions made at the national level enrich the value proposition we offer to associates. We continually seek out and refine the most competitive combination of compensation and support services to help agents grow their business.

At one time big data tool sets empowered a competitive advantage, or at least that was the perception. Fast-forward to today and search optimization, virtual tours, creative marketing and lead routing engines are commonplace. And with a target audience of over 1 million real estate agents nationally, I expect a continuum of application development will essentially commoditize — and neutralize — advantages on this front. If this proves correct, or even if it doesn’t, the most accurate indicator of success as an independent sales contractor will always revert to quality of relationships and level of service.

Separately, we’re following the growth of crowdfunding platforms closely and evaluating best practices for online investing. Jumpstarted by passage of the Jobs Act, favorable amendments to securities regulations have produced an environment that welcomes emerging growth companies and smaller individual investors to the real estate investing table.

You don’t know what you don’t know, and if you’ve never been exposed to a particular career or seen someone who looks like you in a position of influence, it’s hard to imagine entering that field or wielding that influence.

Matt Waller, the new dean at the Walton College of Business, understands this, as does Morton Fleischer, an Arizona entrepreneur who founded the Fleischer Scholars Program. The scholarship program got its start at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and has expanded to the Walton College at the University of Arkansas.

At the Walton College, it targets students from what Waller calls “underrepresented” parts of Arkansas, which is most of the state outside of northwest Arkansas, giving them a taste of college life and a business school curriculum.

“It’s a method of reaching out to students who are qualified, capable, maybe even ambitious, but they don’t understand the opportunities that majoring in business would provide them,” Waller told Arkansas Business.

At the Walton College, the program is working with the banking industry to provide internships. The hope is that once these interns graduate, they’ll return to banks in their communities in management roles. As both interns and, potentially, bank employees, these business students serve as examples of success, role models in a field many high schoolers — particularly the poor, minorities, women and first-generation students — might not consider.

The banks receive federal Community Reinvestment Act credit for participation.

As of a couple of weeks ago, Signature Bank of Arkansas had committed to funding three of these scholarships, and Bank of England had committed to two. Waller said the college would be reaching out to another 30 banks in the next few months. It’s a worthy program with potential to help both Arkansas students and Arkansas banks.

Mike McFarland didn’t spend much time in retirement.

After retiring from Arvest Bank earlier this year, McFarland bought Modern Fence & Supply Co. of Springdale. McFarland and partner Rick Barrows paid $2.3 million for the company, which has a 12,165-SF office on a 1.8-acre lot at 1864 Ford Ave.

McFarland said $500,000 was for the property itself and the rest was for the ownership of the company. McFarland said Modern Fence did approximately $3.5 million in sales in 2015 and approximately 350 projects.

McFarland spent five years as a senior vice president at Arvest and before that spent nearly eight years as Springdale market president of First Security Bank. The seller was the Milligan Family through the Roy J. Milligan Trust.

McFarland said Steve Milligan put the company up for sale three years ago and occasionally called Arvest and McFarland for insight on potential buyers. After he retired from the bank, McFarland became a suitor.

“This was an opportunity that just came up,” McFarland said. “It has been running smoothly for a long time. It has a great name and a great reputation. Our motto is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We’re just going to try to make it run a little better.”

McFarland said the company has a staff of about 20 and he doesn’t foresee any changes. McFarland said in addition to running operations at First Security Bank, he also owned a title company so he has some experience at managing a company.

His partner, Barrows, is the president of Multi-Craft Contractors.

“This ought to be a really cool segue for me,” McFarland said. “I’ll have to learn the fencing business.”

Sales of seven-figure homes in Pulaski County jumped in 2015, but the million-dollar houses remain a small part of the market.

Last year, 19 homes sold for $1 million or more, an increase from the 14 that sold in 2014. Fourteen homes also sold for $1 million or more in 2013. While the numbers show improvement, they don’t compare with the pre-recession days of 2004, when 29 Pulaski County homes sold for $1 million or more.

And the most expensive home that sold in 2015 was a result of a foreclosure sale.

Still, luxury home sales were up for several reasons, Jon Underhill said in an email to Arkansas Business last week. Underhill sells upscale homes through his agency, Jon Underhill Real Estate in Little Rock.

He said buyers are feeling confident in the market. “Second, I feel that sellers may be a bit more realistic about the values of their homes,” he said. “Third, I think jumbo mortgages are much more available at very favorable interest rates, and many of the buyers are concerned that interest rates could start to go up.”

The features that luxury homebuyers want in a dream home change from year to year. “Most of my higher-end buyers want their home to look different than their neighbors’ but still classic and timeless,” Underhill said. “Buyers also want pools and outdoor living spaces.”

Five years ago, having a pool didn’t add much value to a home, he said. “Today, it is an important feature,” Underhill said.

Buyers still want open floor plans, a luxury kitchen and master bedroom suites.

“Features that are not as important anymore are dedicated theater rooms and high-end technology,” Underhill said. “Some homeowners feel by the time they get their home equipped with the latest in technology, something newer has already come out.”

And so far in 2016, the $1 million home market is strong in Pulaski County. Eight homes have sold for $1 million or more and four more are under contract, Underhill said.

As of last week, 39 homes in the county were listed for sale with asking prices of $1 million or more. The supply has dropped; about this time last year, 49 homes in that price range were for sale.

For those who wonder who bought these exclusive homes in Pulaski County, Arkansas Business, using interviews and public real estate records, has provided a brief description of the homes and of the buyers.

$2.16 Million

Buyer: Bank of New York Mellon
Seller: Donnie and Mary Savage
Location: Ecurie Court, Little Rock
Date: Jan. 23 | Year Built: 2005 | SF: 10,943

In a foreclosure sale in January 2015, the Bank of New York Mellon recovered this home in west Little Rock’s Chenal Downs neighborhood from Donnie and Mary Savage, who had acquired the home in June 2006 for $2.2 million.

By July 2007, it was in default, and it apparently needed work. The real estate website Redfin said, “With some elbow grease and some hard work, this home could be fit for a king!! This property has all the bells and whistles but does need some attention.”

On April 18, 2016, the bank sold the home for $411,000 to Christy Properties LLC of Little Rock.

$1.99 Million

Buyer: Walter Hixson
Seller: CGAH LLC (Nancy Stephens)
Location: Country Club Lane, Little Rock
Date: Dec. 23 | Year Built: 1988 | SF: 5,321

Walter Hixson, who bought this home near the Country Club of Little Rock, is the co-owner of Hixson Lumber Sales of Carrollton, Texas. Founded in 1959, the company has sawmills in Plumerville (Conway County) and Gilmer and Willis in Texas. It also has sales locations in Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. “We proudly offer one of the most extensive inventories available to our industry,” the company’s website says. The home features a gourmet kitchen with Viking appliances, according to the real estate website Zillow. The “luxurious” master suite has two fireplaces and offers a view of the pool, Zillow said.

$1.7 Million

Buyer: Catherine and Jackson Hunter II
Seller: 1822 Properties LLC (John Lewis)
Location: Shadow Lane, Little Rock
Date: July 13 | Year Built: 1928 | SF: 6,656

Catherine and Jackson “Clay” Hunter II’s new home is near the Country Club of Little Rock. The two-story, six-bedroom home has a courtyard in the backyard. Built in 1928, the home features six fireplaces and “sophisticated decor with top of the line finishes & appliances,” according to Zillow.

Clay Hunter is a managing director of the Stephens Group LLC, a private equity firm based in Little Rock. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

$1.65 Million

Buyer: Simon Mears and Mary Grace Kelly
Seller: C. Lowry and Tanya Barnes
Location: Hawthorne Road, Little Rock
Date: May 8 | Year Built: 2000 | SF: 6,100

Dr. Simon Mears and his wife, Mary Grace Kelly, bought this home near the Country Club of Little Rock. Like the seller, Dr. Lowry Barnes, Mears is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon. Mears is employed by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences as a professor of orthopedic surgery in the College of Medicine at UAMS. His specialties include total hip and knee replacement, hip fracture care and geriatric orthopedics, according to the UAMS website. The five-bedroom home has a gourmet kitchen that opens to the family room, separate formal living room and three fireplaces, according to Zillow.

$1.62 Million

Buyer: No. 2 Spring Valley Lane LLC (Ayesha and Rodney Thomason)
Seller: Michael and Jerene Montgomery
Location: Spring Valley Lane, Little Rock
Date: March 10 | Year Built: 2007 | SF: 5,933

Rodney Thomason is the owner of Medical Assets Holding Co. of Maumelle, which is a holding company for companies in the health care, hospitality and real estate industries. Founded in 2000, MAHC has grown through mergers, acquisitions and internally to nearly 300 employees and $70 million in annual revenue, the company’s website says.

This four-bedroom home in the Valley Falls Estates neighborhood of west Little Rock features a pool and a gated entry, according to Zillow.

$1.47 Million

Buyer: Paul and Sabrina Mangum
Seller: Mary and Hunter Carpenter
Location: Armistead Road, Little Rock
Date: March 31 | Year Built: 1959 | SF: 5,304

Paul and Sabrina Mangum spent about a month looking at homes before finding this three-story house in Little Rock’s Edgehill neighborhood. The five-bedroom home had been “totally renovated,” which was appealing to the couple, Sabrina Mangum said. The backyard features a screened veranda and outdoor kitchen and fireplace. She said she and her husband liked the location. “It’s close in the city, but it still feels secluded,” Mangum said.

Paul Mangum is a senior vice president in fixed income at the investment banking firm Stephens Inc. of Little Rock.

$1.46 Million

Buyer: 51 Edgehill Road Trust (David Glover and Theresa Wyrick)
Seller: John and Diana Young
Location: Edgehill Road, Little Rock
Date: Feb. 19 | Year Built: 1937 | SF: 5,807

David Glover is a partner at the Little Rock law firm Wright Lindsey Jennings. His practice area includes medical and dental care malpractice defense. He also defends companies in product liability cases. Chambers USA listed Glover as an “Up and Coming” attorney in general litigation in 2014 and 2015. He also is the past president of the Arkansas Association of Defense Counsel. Wyrick is an orthopedic surgeon and practices at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. The five-bedroom, 5 1/2-bathroom home in Little Rock’s prestigious Edgehill neighborhood features an “exquisite pool and outdoor entertainment areas,” according to Zillow.

$1.42 Million

Buyer: Jackson Carpenter
Seller: Boyd and Lynn Corley
Location: Ridge Point Lane, Roland
Date: July 15 | Year Built: 2010 | SF: 5,704

Jackson Carpenter bought a nearly 16.3-acre spread in the Waterview Estates neighborhood of west Pulaski County. The 5,704-SF home features “spectacular views” of Pinnacle Mountain, according to Zillow. It also has a covered veranda that overlooks a saltwater pool. The home also has a gourmet kitchen with “all the bells and whistles,” Zillow said.

Carpenter is the registered agent for Carpenter Investments Inc., which filed incorporation papers with the Arkansas secretary of state’s office on Nov. 30.

$1.39 Million

Buyer: Brad and Amy Baltz
Seller: Madison and Suzanne Murphy
Location: East Third Street, Little Rock
Date: Feb. 6 | Year Built: 2007 | SF: 2,783

Amy and Dr. Brad Baltz bought a condominium in downtown Little Rock on Feb. 6, 2015. The 16th-floor unit has three bedrooms and three bathrooms. Dr. Baltz is an oncologist and practices at CARTI. He started Hematology Oncology Services of Arkansas in 2006, according to CARTI’s website. HOSA joined CARTI in 2012. Baltz went to medical school and did his residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

$1.3 Million

Buyer: Shashwat and Falguni Goyal
Seller: Phil and Annette Herrington
Location: Valley Club Circle, Little Rock
Date: Nov. 16 | Year Built: 1987 | SF: 6,151

Shashwat and Falguni Goyal’s five-bedroom home is adjacent to Pleasant Valley Golf Course’s second tee, according to Zillow. The property also features a pool with native stone steps, terrace and a waterfall. Shashwat Goyal is the CEO of Prairie Hospitality Management LLC of Little Rock. He also is the vice chairman of the Arkansas Parks, Recreation & Travel Commission. Goyal is a director and a leading investor in I Square Media, which is in a legal fight with the Soul of the South Network over ownership of the broadcast license for KMYA-TV, Channel 49.

$1.3 Million

Buyer: 21 Edgehill Trust (Adam Dicus)
Seller: Bartlett Family Trust (Nancy and David Bartlett Sr.)
Location: Edgehill Road, Little Rock
Date: Dec. 9 | Year Built: 1940 | SF: 5,677

The Edghill neighborhood home that Adam Dicus and his trust bought was touted on Zillow as “one of Little Rock’s finest estate homes situated on a beautifully landscaped lot [with] swimming pool.” The third floor is a bonus space with a full bathroom and could be used as a playroom, Zillow said. “The lower level features a wet bar, large TV space and a brick walk-in wine cellar.”

$1.25 Million

Buyer: CDM Properties LLC (Charles Morgan)
Seller: Greg Hendrix
Location: 19th Floor, Rock Street, Little Rock
Date: July 23 | Year Built: 2009 | SF: 3,844

Charles Morgan, through his CDM Properties LLC, added to his 19th-floor spread when he bought another unit in the downtown River Market Tower. Morgan is the former chairman and CEO of Acxiom Corp. of Little Rock. Morgan also a major shareholder in publicly traded Inuvo Inc. of Little Rock and a member of its board of directors. He is chairman and CEO of PrivacyStar. Morgan bought the 3,844-SF unit as a long-term investment and is currently using it as a guest house. Morgan first bought a penthouse on the 19th floor in 2010 and then purchased two additional units on the floor in 2013 for a total of $1 million.

$1.2 Million

Buyer: Michael and Jerene Montgomery
Seller: Martha Smith
Location: Hickory Creek Circle, Little Rock
Date: March 10 | Year Built: 1996 | SF: 5,759

Michael Montgomery is the CEO of Radius Group Solutions of Little Rock. It was founded in 2010 and offers “web-based solutions for the community banking industry,” according to the company’s website. He has worked in the technology side of banking for four decades. He was an executive of Alltel Information Services Inc., formerly known as Systematics Inc., a data processing firm. He also serves on the governing board of Southern Bancorp Bank of Arkadelphia.  The home in west Little Rock’s Hickory Creek neighborhood features a pool and a 920-SF garage, according to Zillow.

$1.17 Million

Buyer: John and Laura Landreaux
Seller: Dwight Hobbs Curry Trust
Location: Stonewall Road, Little Rock
Date: May 15 | Year Built: 2005 | SF: 4,577

John Landreaux owns Satterfield Motor Co. of Bryant. The company touts on its website that it has guaranteed credit approval programs. “We are able to help our customers take home the vehicle of their dreams,” it said. The four-bedroom home near the Country Club of Little Rock features an open floor plan with “beautiful entry,” Zillow said, and has a “Sensational gourmet kitchen with top of the line appliances and slab granite.” The family room has a vaulted ceiling and an “amazing” stone fireplace. The home also has a pool.

$1.08 Million

Buyer: Jauss Living Trust (Steven and Kewen Jauss)
Seller: Robert and Josephine Covington
Location: Lenon Place, Little Rock
Date: April 20 | Year Built: 1926 | SF: 5,582

On April 20, 2015, the Jauss Living Trust, led by Steven and Dr. Kewen Jauss, bought this home in Little Rock’s Hillcrest neighborhood. Dr. Jauss is an oncologist at CARTI who specializes in head and neck cancer, lung cancer and lymphoma. She graduated from medical school at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 2001. Steven Jauss is an adjunct professor in the Department of Philosophy & Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Built in 1926, the five-bedroom home sits on more than 2.5 acres, making it one of the largest lots in the Heights, according to Zillow.

$1.05 Million

Buyer: Shahid Hameed
Seller: Standard Properties LLC (David and Richard Gulley)
Location: Valley Crest Court, Little Rock
Date: March 2 | Year Built: 2006 | SF: 5,550

Dr. Shahid Hameed is a radiation oncologist and practices at the Arkansas Cancer Institute in Little Rock, where he leads the radiation treatment team. He has more than 30 years of radiation experience, including advanced fellowship training, according to ACI’s website. He has held several top positions around the world, including chairman of Radiation Oncology at the Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania. Zillow said the six-bedroom home in Valley Falls Estates is a “timeless European estate.” It features a gourmet kitchen and a master closet that is 420 SF, the website said. The lower floor has a game room and mini-kitchen.

$1.02 Million

Buyer: Jason and Sarah Everett
Seller: Allen and Nancy Redding
Location: Barrett Road, Roland
Date: Nov. 6 | Year Built: 2008 | SF: 5,718

Jason and Sarah Everett had their eye on this two-story home in Roland for several years. Jason Everett said that he knew the sellers, Allen and Nancy Redding, and “after a couple of years, we were able to make it work.” He said he and his wife were attracted to the 5,718-SF, four-bedroom home because it sits on 40 acres, which gives them and their six boys room to “run around on.” It also has a guest house on the property. Jason Everett is an agency owner for Liberty National Life Insurance Co. His main office is in Little Rock, but he also has Liberty National locations in Rogers, Dallas and Southaven, Mississippi.

$1.01 Million

Buyer: Anthony and Audra Thomas
Seller: Julia and James Works Jr.
Location: Sologne Circle, Little Rock
Date: June 22 | SF: 6,642 | Year Built: 2007

Tony Thomas is the president and chief executive officer of the publicly traded telecommunications company Windstream Holdings Inc. of Little Rock. He was appointed to the position in December 2014. He had served as Windstream’s chief financial officer from 2009 to 2014. Before entering the communications industry, he was a senior auditor with Ernst & Young in the telecom practice. The Chenal Valley home features a pool and “all the amenities & luxury features you could dream of in a home,” according to Zillow. In addition to an outdoor kitchen, the five-bedroom home has a media room and study.

$1 Million

Buyer: Matthew and Grace Edwards
Seller: Edwards Custom Homes Inc. (Katherine Edwards)
Location: Hallen Court, Little Rock
Date: June 9 | SF: 5,867 | Year Built: 2015

Two-story custom home that dentists Matthew and Grace Edwards bought in the Hallen Court neighborhood of west Little Rock’s Chenal Valley was built by Matthew Edwards’ mother’s company, Edwards Custom Homes of Little Rock. The home, which took about a year to design and build, has five bedrooms, hardwood floors throughout and a three-car garage. Matthew Edwards practices at the Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville. Grace Edwards practices at Reid & Rhea Dentistry in Little Rock.

(Also see Northwest Arkansas’ Most Expensive Home Sales of 2015)

In case you were wondering, the federal criminal trial of two remaining defendants from the bad old days at One Bank & Trust of Little Rock is still scheduled to start next week, although indications are that it will be June 1 rather than May 30.

Facing a jury and U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker will be Mike Heald and Brad Paul, former One Bank executives charged with conspiracy, money laundering and aiding and abetting false bank entries back when they worked for the bank’s owner, the late Layton “Scooter” Stuart.”

This indictment dates back to April 2014, when Gary Rickenbach, former senior EVP, was charged with conspiracy and money laundering for his role in making and then hiding from regulators a $1.5 million loan to a Florida borrower who never paid a single installment.

At the time, it was described as the first case of TARP fraud brought in Arkansas, since One Bank had applied for and received an injection of capital from the U.S. Treasury.

Almost a year later, in March 2015, Heald, Paul and a fourth bank officer, Tom Whitehead, were added as defendants. But by the end of the year, Rickenbach had offered to plead guilty to a much reduced charge of misprision of a felony — essentially failure to report a crime — and all charges against Whitehead had been dismissed in exchange for his promise to testify against Heald and Paul.

Baker is Rickenbach’s judge as well, and she has not decided whether to accept the terms of his plea worked out with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which would include a sentence of probation rather than federal prison.

Heald is represented by Gary D. Corum of Little Rock, and Paul is represented by Lloyd W. “Tre” Kitchens III, also of Little Rock.

There was a drop in seven-figure home sales in Washington and Benton counties in 2015.

In 2014, 18 homes in the two counties sold for $1 million or more; in 2015, only 10 such homes were sold.

The drop can be attributed to normal cyclical market rhythms and some uncertainty with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which announced layoffs at company headquarters in Bentonville this past year.

“The market is really slow, but I think this year it will probably go up again,” said Brandon Long, broker and owner of Weichert Realtors-The Griffin Co. in Springdale. “Houses in that price range are not going at the rate that others are. We’re still not a luxury market.”

Long quickly pointed out that the market for $500,000-plus homes is robust, with up to 20 homes in that price range sold each month in the two counties, and those homes would certainly qualify as luxury homes.

“What you can get around here for $500,000, $600,000, $700,000 would cost you a couple of million in other places,” Long said. “To have a $1 million house on the market, you have to be patient. It’s not a huge part of our environment up here. We get very few people who want to buy $1 million-plus. The reason is … that’s not what normal people in Arkansas do.”

Carlene Clendenen, a senior vice president at Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette, said the upscale market is really strong, but some of the properties might not hit the $1 million mark.

“We’re going great guns,” said Clendenen, who sold a home on South Shetland Lane in Rogers for nearly $1.4 million in 2015. “There are tons right under $1 million. The market is there.”

Clendenen said many buyers who have moved into the area are surprised by the real estate prices. She said that while northwest Arkansas property is cheaper than in many high-profile regions, it’s not bargain basement, either; Clendenen said northwest Arkansas prices compare to the Dallas area.

Long said lower property taxes are a pleasant surprise to wealthy move-ins.

“There is a lot of money being spent on nice houses,” Long said. “Around here, you get more for your money. It is all what you want. Do you want to live down by Dickson Street or near downtown Bentonville? You’re going to pay $300 a square foot, or you could pay $100 a square foot and have a massive house for the same price.”

$1.4 Million

Buyer: Richard A. Mayfield
Seller: Fairchild Inc. (Nathan Fairchild)
Location: South Shetland Lane, Rogers
Date: Dec. 18 | Year Built: 2015 | SF: 6,250

Richard Mayfield is executive vice president and CFO of Walmart International. Builder Nathan Fairchild planned the home for himself but decided to sell to Mayfield when the executive approached Fairchild about doing some construction on another home that Fairchild was considering. The two-story home, located at Pinnacle Country Club, has four bedrooms and a saltwater pool.

$1.3 Million

Buyer: Edington Living Trust (Randall and Loretta Edington)
Seller: Park & Prospect LLC (David Russell, Phil Crabtree, Clay Morton)
Location: West Prospect Street, Fayetteville
Date: July 2 | Year Built: 2015 | SF: 4,696

Randall K. Edington is the executive vice president and chief nuclear officer of the Arizona Public Service Co., a subsidiary of publicly traded Pinnacle West Capital Corp. of Phoenix, which reported that his total compensation in 2015 was $4.07 million. Edington earned a bachelor’s degree in physical science from Arkansas Tech and a master’s degree in operations management from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

$1.25 Million

Buyer: PHR Trust (Denton Woods)
Seller: Miles and Cynthia Johnson
Location: North Charleston Crossing, Fayetteville
Date: Aug. 21 | Year Built: 1996 | SF: 6,055

Denton Woods, the trustee of PHR Trust, is a partner with Reece Moore Pendergraft LLC, a trust and estate-planning firm in Fayetteville. Seller Miles M. Johnson is an electromyographer at the Northwest Arkansas EMG Clinic. The 6,055-SF main home has six bedrooms and five bathrooms on 2.6 acres. The property includes a 980-SF guest house.

$1.2 Million

Buyer: Scott and Nancy Carol Klinkerfues
Seller: Declairmont Trust (Richard Gregg Declairmont)
Location: Oak Cove Lane, Garfield
Date: June 1 | Year Built: 2012 | SF: 6,138

Scott Klinkerfues is the retired COO of Cornerstone Shipping Solutions of Illinois. The three-story home is located on 3 acres on Beaver Lake and has a private boat dock. It has four bedrooms and 4 1/2 bathrooms. It has two fireplaces, a movie theater with seating and sound wired throughout the home.

$1.18 Million

Buyer: Stuart and Melanie Scott
Seller: Donna Sexton
Location: Horse Meadow Drive, Fayetteville
Date: Dec. 18 | Year Built: 2010 | SF: 11,023

Stuart Scott was named chief information officer and executive vice president of technology for J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell in December 2015. Sexton is co-founder and owner of Rental Management Inc. of Fort Smith. The property includes the main home with five full bathrooms and a 1,928-SF guest house.

$1.17 Million

Buyer: Timothy S. and Maureen Evans Simmons
Seller: LDM Homes LLC (Bob David)
Location: Oak Tree Drive, Centerton
Date: Dec. 7 | Year Built: 2015 | SF: 7,341

Timothy Simmons is the vice president of Member Management & Capability at Sam’s Club. Bob David is a developer based in Tulsa. The three-story home has five bedrooms and six bathrooms on a lot a little larger than 1 acre. Amenities include a gourmet kitchen with double islands, a media room and a wet bar. It was listed in 2014 at just shy of $1.3 million.

$1.16 Million

Buyer: Shane M. and Keri Y. Wilkinson
Seller: Michael T. Webb
Location: Enfield Road, Bentonville
Date: Sept. 10 | Year Built: 1980 | SF: 7,025

Shane Wilkinson is former chief deputy prosecutor of Benton County and founding partner of the Wilkinson Law Firm. The five-bedroom, five-bathroom home is two blocks from the Bentonville downtown square. It has a saltwater pool and a separate 800-SF apartment on 1.6 acres.

$1.09 Million

Buyer: Jeffery R. Chandler
Seller: Shane and Keri Wilkinson
Location: South Plymouth Lane, Rogers
Date: Oct. 30 | Year Built: 2009 | SF: 5,639

Jeff Chandler is the president of Chandler Equipment of Springdale. The sellers, Shane and Keri Wilkinson, bought a home in downtown Bentonville the previous month. The two-story home has four bedrooms, four bathrooms and three half-baths and is located at Pinnacle Country Club. It has a saltwater pool.

$1.05 Million

Buyer: Thomas W. and Emily A. Hinton
Seller: Linda Dillman
Location: Prestwick Circle, Fayetteville
Date: June 10 | Year Built: 2005 | SF: 8,700

Thomas Hinton is a diagnostic radiologist with Medical Associates of Northwest Arkansas, and Emily Hinton is an OB/GYN. Seller Linda Dillman is a former executive vice president and CIO at Wal-Mart. The seven-bedroom, four-bathroom home has a pool and sits on 1.8 acres.

$1.05 Million

Buyer: Michael W. and Amy Y. Sweeney
Seller: Barham & Williams Joint Revocable Trust (James T. Barham and Mona Gail Williams)
Location: West Champions Boulevard, Rogers
Date: July 22 | Year Built: 2004 | SF: 6,338

Michael Sweeney is the senior sales director of Mars Chocolate for Wal-Mart. James Barham is a retired AT&T executive, and Mona Williams is a retired public relations executive, including many years for Wal-Mart. The three-story home has five bedrooms and 5 1/2 bathrooms and has a deck that overlooks the golf course at Pinnacle Country Club.

(Also see Pulaski County's Most Expensive Home Sales of 2015.)

2015 was a good year for buying and selling houses in Arkansas as reflected by growth among the 10 largest residential realty firms.

The combined dollar volume of the companies increased 8.4 percent to more than $4.1 billion. That number hovered around $3.8 billion in 2013 and 2014.

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The improved production especially stood out among players in northwest Arkansas, where sales gains were the norm.

A strong market helped propel Keller Williams Market Pro Realty of Fayetteville to No. 3 ($472.4 million) in 2015 up from No. 5 ($302.3 million) in 2014.

That’s a whopping $170 million jump, a one-year leap of 56 percent.

Re/Max Real Estate Results of Bentonville stirred the Top 10 mix as well. The firm enjoyed a 45 percent bounce that took it from No. 8 ($208 million) in 2014 to No. 6 ($302 million).

“Benton County is exploding,” said Kim Minor, principle broker and owner of Re/Max Real Estate Results. “For a long time, Washington County carried the market. Now, it’s Benton County’s time to shine.

“People are coming here for three-year stints to work with Wal-Mart, and they aren’t leaving. They fall in love with northwest Arkansas.”

Eleven firms on this year’s list have offices in the Benton-Washington County market. All recorded better sales during 2015.

One of the biggest movers on the list was Michele Phillips & Co. Realtors of Sherwood. The firm rose from No. 41 ($37 million) to No. 32 ($55 million).

Other companies that climbed up the 2015 roster included:

• iRealty Arkansas of Little Rock, No. 34 ($44 million) to No. 26 ($69 million).
• McKimmey Associates Realtors of North Little Rock, No. 18 ($86 million) to No. 13 ($115 million).
• The Charlotte John Co. of Little Rock, No. 20 ($70.1 million) to No. 15 ($110 million).
• River Valley Realty of Russellville, No. 29 ($53.7 million) to No. 24 ($72.6 million).
• Re/Max Unlimited of Harrison, No. 32 ($50 million) to No. 28 ($64 million).
• Hot Springs 1st Choice Realty, No. 23 ($67 million) to No. 20 ($79 million).
• Coldwell Banker Heritage Homes of West Memphis, No. 37 ($40 million) to No. 34 ($52 million).

Of the 40 top residential real estate agencies listed, 32 tallied increased sales. The declines among the other companies were minor across the board.

The head count of top residential agents expanded to 405, and the list threshold for 2015 dollar volume was raised to $4.1 million.

Conventional wisdom is being turned on its head in many ways these days. From politics to healthcare, there seems to be a revolution in thinking about how we arrive at the outcomes that are in our best interest.  

Nowhere is conventional wisdom under fire as much as it is concerning your money, particularly retirement. New rules governing how financial advisors work with their clients, requiring those advisors to work in your best interest, are just one of the ways change is afoot in the world of retirement.

Recently, finance professors at the Wharton School of Business rocked the thoughts of a group of advisors attending an executive education program when they made compelling arguments about how retirees should invest their money. Their theories fly in the face of what many pundits say is “the proper way” to invest for retirement. “Out” are the thoughts of the typical “balanced” portfolio of stocks and bonds. “In” are time-segmented strategies that are targeted to provide money to be used during different phases of your retirement life.  

Wharton professors were also highly critical of the “4 percent rule,” which is common lore among financial advisors who believe that you can “safely” withdraw 4 percent of your retirement dollars every year to live on without a substantial risk of running out of money before you run out of time.  

The Wharton School is considered one of the top Ivy League business schools in the nation. Some of its professors are among the most sought-after experts in the field. Many couple their academic skills with “real world” experience, serving on corporate boards and investment committees putting to work the hypotheticals they study at the institution.  

Their wisdom is anything but conventional. At the heart of their contra-thinking are essentially three concerns:

1) Markets are more volatile, and as a result people are more reactionary. In short, big swings in the market make people do the wrong thing, at the wrong time, and for the wrong reasons.

2) Equity markets are driven by earnings. The average earnings per share of corporations have declined in recent years because of slow growing economies around the world. The Wharton group believes this could be a new normal, which has huge implications for folks who depend on the typical 60/40 mix of stocks and bonds promoted by most advisors and is common to 401k plans.

3) We have reached a tipping point in the bond market.  After 30 years of falling interest rates, bond prices are at a cyclical peak and, realistically, have nowhere to go but down or remain flat. To quote one lecturer, “What are you going to do, invest in low yielding bonds, let inflation ravage your client’s purchasing power, and look stupid in 30 years?” Again, bad news for those who lean on the conventional wisdom of a 60/40 mix.

So, what’s a soul to do when standing on the threshold of retirement and faced with the largest financial decision one will ever make?

Plan: The complexities of the issues outlined by the professors require thought and preparation. Retirement never has been a “set it and forget it” proposition. Committing the steps to achieve the outcomes you want in retirement requires not only initial planning but regular checkups to adjust for future changes in the economy and the markets.

Protect: One of the strategies likely to set tongues to wagging among the financial pundits is the thought that annuities are essential to protecting income from the challenges in the financial markets. Scholars say establishing a foundation of regular, predictable, dependable income in retirement is essential to a scenario where you are living without a paycheck. One professor endorsed annuities to transfer some of the risk of the financial markets and the paradox of “living too long” to insurance companies in much the same way you would use insurance to protect against risk in other areas of your life, like health or auto insurance, for example.

Expand: Given the condition of the financial markets, the academics put forth the idea that you should look beyond the conventional stock and bond markets and build as much as 40 percent of your portfolio in “non-traditional” alternative investments like private equity and real estate.

Engage: Not surprising, given its audience of financial advisors, the group endorsed the idea of seeking out well-experienced professionals to serve as a guide to help you make it through the challenges of retirement. Clearly, this group believes the challenges are more complex than “conventional wisdom” would have you believe.  

GenWealth Financial Advisors is a Registered Investment Advisor. Securities offered trough LPL Financial Member FINRA/SIPC.

Fixed annuities are long-term investment vehicles designed for retirement purposes. Gains from tax-deferred investments are taxable as ordinary income upon withdrawal. Guarantees are based on the claims paying ability of the issuing company. Withdrawals made prior to age 59 ½ are subject to a 10 percent IRS penalty tax and surrender charges may apply.

Alternative investments may not be suitable for all investors and should be considered as an investment for risk capital portion of the investor’s portfolio. The strategies employed the management of alternative investments may accelerate the velocity potential losses.

Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Bonds are subject to market and interest rate risk if sold prior to maturity. Bond values will decline as interest rises and bonds are subject to availability and change in price. Stock investing involves risk including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss.

On Tuesday, May 24 Home BancShares Inc., parent company of Centennial Bank, was featured on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square in celebration of the Company’s 10th anniversary as a Nasdaq listed company.

John W. Allison, chairman, together with members of the management team, rang the Nasdaq Opening Bell.

“I am proud of what we have accomplished through these last ten years for our customers, employees and shareholders,” Allison said in a news release. “We have excelled in a highly competitive market during some of our nation’s toughest economic times, while remaining committed to our core values.”

At its initial public offering on June 22, 2006, the company operated 48 branches in Arkansas and Florida, and had assets of approximately $2 billion.

Home BancShares, Inc. remains headquartered in Conway and is currently a $9.4 billion bank holding company operating its wholly-owned subsidiary, Centennial Bank, in Arkansas, Florida and South Alabama across a footprint of 141 branches.

Since listing on Nasdaq, the company (HOMB) has grown its market cap from approximately $263.4 million to approximately $2.88 billion. Between March 31, 2006 and March 31, 2016, the Company had an earnings per share compound annual growth rate of approximately 17.1 percent.

The opening bell ceremony was broadcasted live on Fox Business, Bloomberg and CNBC.