Jim Johnson has been named senior vice president and senior lending officer of the Harrison location of Stone Bank. A native of Harrison, Johnson had been serving in a similar capacity at the bank’s home office in Mountain View, which he joined in 2013 after working for several other banks.

Bill Blankenship Jr., a farmer from Pine Bluff, and George Wesley “Wes” Booker II of White Hall, owner of Wes Booker Insurance, have been named to a new advisory board for the White Hall branch of Stone Bank. Other advisory board members include the following:

• Charles “Trey” Buckner of White Hall, owner of Charles S. Buckner III Real Estate Appraisals, co-owner of Fowl Smokin’ Swine and vice president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation
• Franklin “Beaver” Johnson of White Hall, owner of Johnson’s Metal Recycler
• Warren Parker of Dumas, sales manager at Dumas Motor Co.
• Pat Sutliff of White Hall, owner of Sutliff Construction.

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

Eric Bunnell has been promoted to president of Arvest Equipment Finance and is relocating to Fort Smith for the job.

Bunnell, who has worked in the Kansas City area, joined Arvest Bank in 2012. He has worked in the commercial lending industry since 2001 and is a Certified Lease & Finance Professional.

Fernando Adame and Stephanie Hagan have joined First National Bank of Northwest Arkansas in Rogers as mortgage loan officers.

Adame has 11 years of banking experience in northwest Arkansas. Hagan has more than 20 years of banking experience in the area.

Lisa Coker, an advanced practice registered nurse, has joined Renal Care Associates in Fort Smith, part of the Sparks Health System.

Coker earned her degree from Maryville University in St. Louis and has more than 13 years of experience in renal care and dialysis.

Mandi Owens has been promoted to director of client services at Central Research Inc. of Lowell. Owens has worked with Central Research for six years, most recently as the senior client services manager.

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

With the new year upon us and 2016 behind us, maybe you’ve begun to think about your “new year’s resolutions.” Whether 2016 was a mountaintop or a valley for you, I’m sure there are aspects that you would like to change about your life. If you’re like me, too often, you make new year’s resolutions at the beginning of January and they become more like wishes you might give to a genie rather than goals with a plan in place to make actual progress. I find this to be true for other people too when I look on Craigslist in April to see a surplus of treadmills for sale with “very little wear and tear.”

Whether it’s your health, relationships, your finances or something else, here are a few thoughts you can put into practice that could help you get one step closer to real progress.

1. Don’t Change Overnight

When I was 20, I was about 80 pounds overweight. By the time I was 21 I had run a full marathon. It didn’t happen overnight. Once I had decided what I was going to accomplish, I had to assess where I was starting from. I set short-term goals that were one step out of my comfort zone that would get progressively harder: one-mile runs this week, two-mile runs next week, etc. When you break your bigger battles into smaller, more attainable steps, you are much more likely to follow through. 

2. Review Your Calendar

We all have the same amount of time in the day. Decide what the most important things are to you and focus your time and energy on those things. The older I get, the more it feels like time is water coming in over the side of an overloaded boat. Sometimes I find myself standing with a bucket trying to scoop water back into the lake faster than it’s coming onto the boat. The reality is, if I would throw some items overboard rather than trying to extend the laws of buoyancy, my chances of staying afloat are much greater. Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to let some things go; throw it overboard and keep only the things that are most important to us.

3. Communicate More Clearly

An influential person in my life once told me “It is unkind to be unclear.” When we don’t communicate effectively, it can lead to false assumptions and unmet expectations. This is not just true for our relationships with people. This can also be true of our relationship with ourselves, or our money. If you don’t clearly communicate where you want your money to go, then your expectations of financial success will likely be unmet. If you don’t tell yourself that you expect to lose 15 pounds, then it isn’t going to happen by accident.

4. Check Your Surroundings

This is not just a phrase to be used when putting your car in reverse. The people and the environment with which you surround yourself can be the difference between success and failure. Everyone you encounter has some level of influence on you. Consider what kind of influences you are being exposed to.  Maybe you need to seek guidance in some areas. Maybe a personal trainer, or a marriage counselor, or a financial advisor. Or maybe you just need to distance yourself from some unfruitful relationships in your life. Whatever the case, maybe you are a product of your surroundings. 

A new year brings new beginnings and opportunities for change. Don’t just wish for change. Now is the time to take control of your life, make a plan, write it down and take a step. Don’t focus on where you want to be next year, just focus on what you can change today that will make a difference for tomorrow.

(By Brandon Grable, Financial Advisor. GenWealth Financial Advisors is a registered investment advisor. Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC.)

JTS Financial of Little Rock said Thursday that it acquired controlling interest in Your Benefits Agency Inc. of Little Rock, which does business as Educational Benefits, or EBi, and provides insurance to the state education sector, including school districts. 

The companies said Educational Benefits will continue serving clients in Arkansas and operating as EBi. Kim Tidwell, who has been EBi's senior account executive, has been promoted to director for EBi.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.  

The companies said EBi contracted with JTS Financial in August to integrate JTS' benefits administration platform.

"After operating under the management agreement, it was clear that joining forces would be beneficial for both organizations and, most importantly, our customers throughout the state and region," John Starling, JTS' president and CEO, said in a news release.

Tidwell said that pairing EBi's experienced team with JTS' technologies and administrative services "will create the best possible customer and administrative experience for school districts throughout Arkansas and beyond." 

An employee benefits consulting firm, JTS Financial has offices in Little Rock, Fayetteville, Jonesboro and Russellville. Your Benefits Agency Inc. has worked in Arkansas' education sector for more than 30 years.

WASHINGTON — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week, the second week of declines after snapping a nine-week run of increases.

(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Dale Cole grew up in Garland, Texas, and graduated with a business administration degree from the University of Texas in 1970. He worked as a commercial loan officer at Texas Bank & Trust in Dallas in 1974-79. Cole became senior vice president at McKinney First National Bank in Marshall, Texas, and in 1983-88 served as president and chief operating officer at Banc Texas McKinney.

In 1988-96, he served as chairman, president and CEO of Worthen National Bank in Batesville and Newark. In 1997, he organized First Community Bank.

First Community Bank of Batesville is a $1.1 billion-asset lender with 18 branches in northeast Arkansas and southwest Missouri.

First Community Bank celebrates its 20th anniversary in August. What’s your vision for the next 20 years?

When we started the bank on Aug. 4, 1997, we never dreamed we’d be $1 billion in assets. We passed this milestone on July 31, 2015, and finished 2016 at $1,200,995,004. The regulators have told me I need to prepare for the $2 billion size quickly. Now we can see this next milestone within five to seven years. The next 20 years First Community Bank will continue to focus on relationship banking, and we see our company having probably 50 locations throughout Arkansas, Missouri and probably Texas and Tennessee.

What drew you to a career in banking?

My banking career started in 1974 with the idea that banking would be a great business to be involved in for my family. We had two young children at the time. One of my uncles had been a successful banker, and my dad has served on a bank board of directors.

What are your front-burner issues for the banking industry?

The most pressing issues for the banking industry and First Community Bank are regulatory. The regulatory landscape is changing dramatically, and helping people is more difficult today than ever. The regulators have included the smaller banks in the requirements to mitigate the risks of the mega banks and the Wall Street investment banks. These regulations actually cost the consumers more even though the regulations have been put in place to protect the consumers. Some of these regulations are nonsensical.

Who are your mentors, people who have made a difference in your life?

My parents gave me the foundation of a strong work ethic and the education to carry me to where I am today.

Two CEOs I would recognize who helped my banking career are Grant Hollingsworth at FNB of Marshall, Texas, and Chairman James Stewart at Bank Texas McKinney, who showed me what relationship banking was all about, which is helping people.

Then I watched Wallace Fowler for probably 15 years and learned from the master. Wallace was always willing to talk and guide me when needed.

What has been the most significant change in banking during your career?

The most significant change in banking has been automation of the operations of the bank through electronic banking. I still believe people believe in relationships, and First Community Bank’s success is built on providing a high level of customer service with a personal touch. We have two officers assigned to every customer to provide quality service.

What was your biggest challenge in banking?

One of my biggest was starting First Community Bank. This leap of faith was encouraged by three individuals in Batesville — Howard House, Royce Wilson and John Belew. They all said Batesville needed a community bank. We started with 14 employees, and today we have over 325. We started with $3,452,300 in capital, and today we have over $97 million in capital and assets of $1,200,995,004.

Simmons First National Corp. and Home BancShares Inc. were among those companies enjoying sizable stock price bumps during the past two months.

Simmons First soared from $48.65 on Nov. 4 to $66.40 on Dec. 9 before settling to back above $60. Home BancShares began its run from $19.89 on Oct. 13 and climbed to more than $27.

“I think it was the election,” said Simmons CEO George Makris. “The whole banking industry stock valuation went nuts after the election. We did nothing at Simmons to justify that. We were one of those benefiting from a rising tide that lifts all ships.”

Wall Street was moved by the possibility of cuts in the corporate tax rate and the cost of regulatory requirements for banks presented by a change of administration.

“We all got the Trump Effect,” said Johnny Allison, chairman of Home BancShares. “If he reduces federal income taxes on companies to 15 percent, it would mean $50 million more a year that we could use for capital, to buy more banks, to pay more dividends.

“We’ll put it to work.”

Arkansas membership in the $10 billion bank club should double by the end of September. Home BancShares Inc. of Conway is poised to surpass $10 billion in total assets by March. Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff looks to cross the mark during the third quarter.

Both public companies have two pending acquisitions that will help take them beyond $10 billion to join Bentonville’s Arvest Bank Group Inc. and Little Rock’s Bank of the Ozarks Inc.

The $534 million deal for Southwest Bancorp Inc. marks the third stock swap-cash transaction for Simmons since returning to the acquisition trail after a hiatus of more than a year.

“When we got to $7 billion [in total assets during 2015], we knew we had some decisions to make,” said Simmons CEO George Makris. “Most of our inactive time was preparing for the new regulatory environment to be a $10 billion bank.

“We worked to upgrade our audit functions and staffing to meet the increased regulatory compliance. We didn’t want to cross $10 billion until we had shored up all those areas. We knew it wouldn’t be in the cards until 2017.”

Simmons expects to hit $11 billion in the third quarter when the momentous purchase of Southwest Bancorp closes. The acquisition of the $2.47 billion-asset public company in Stillwater, Oklahoma, is Simmons’ largest transaction.

The purchase of Southwest’s Bank SNB network of 31 branches opens the door to new markets in Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado while expanding the Simmons franchise in Kansas.

The new states were among the expansion territory identified by Makris at the Simmons annual shareholders banquet on April 19. At the Pine Bluff Convention Center gathering, he pointed to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky as other new markets the company might be calling on during the next few years.

“The pipeline of potential partners is pretty light right now,” Makris said in a recent interview with Arkansas Business. “The No. 1 thing is to prioritize the needs of our company, where we need to grow.”

Adding to the Simmons asset total is the $78 million purchase of Hardeman County Investment Co. of Jackson, Tennessee, which should close by March.

Hardeman’s $464 million-asset First South Bank will add 10 branches to the growing Simmons footprint in western Tennessee.

Each merger brings its own assimilation puzzle of systems, software, products and more.

“Integration is the biggest challenge,” Makris said. “It drives the speed of our acquisitions. How many can we manage in any period of time? It’s not how many deals can we make. It’s how many integrations can we manage.”

The 2015 purchase of Community First Bancshares Inc. of Union City, Tennessee, provided a door opener to the 2016 acquisition of Citizens National Bancorp Inc. of Athens, Tennessee.

John Clark, CEO of Community First, offered to make introductions to Paul Willson, chairman of Citizens National, if Simmons was interested.

“They were good friends for a long time and had talked about combining their two organizations,” Makris said.

That relationship facilitated a getting-to-know-you meeting between Simmons and Citizens National on June 15, 2015. After an 11-month courtship, the deal was announced and followed by its completion in September.

Crossing $10 Billion

(Ranked by when total assets topped or will top $10 billion)

*As of Sept. 30. In thousands.

Simmons Bank and Home BancShares’ Centennial Bank join lenders with $10 billion in assets that face additional costs, fee restrictions and new layers of regulatory oversight.

The changes, wrought in response to the 2008 financial meltdown, flow from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and its amendments.

The 2011 Durbin Amendment alone means a sizable revenue loss for $10 billion-plus banks. The amendment caps swipe fees — debit card interchange fees charged to merchants — at 21 cents plus 0.05 percent.

“The financial effect on us will be tremendous,” Makris said. “We will lose $5 million to $7 million on the artificial cap on debit card interchange fees alone.”

A new regulator comes into play after crossing the $10 billion-asset mark, too.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is charged with monitoring how banks deal with customers and is empowered to levy financial penalties for practices or acts deemed unfair, deceptive or abusive.

“That made us really pay attention to how we do consumer lending,” Makris said. “We heard some stories that they have some very specific ways they look at things, metrics they use that we’re taking a look at regarding staffing levels. Some of their rulings have turned the industry upside down.”

Sunshine State
While Simmons turned to neighboring states for growth, Home BancShares returned to Florida as a popular destination for acquisitions to expand its Centennial Bank franchise and build its asset total.

“We’re always on something,” said Johnny Allison, chairman of Home BancShares. “We’re always working on deals. The next step is at $50 billion. We have a ways to go before we hit that.”

The $88 million purchase of Giant Holdings Inc., parent company of Land-mark Bank of Fort Lauderdale, should close in late February.

“We probably could’ve done this deal earlier, but we wanted to finish the year under $10 billion,” Allison said.

The addition of Landmark will position Centennial Bank among the 25 largest lenders in Florida based on deposits.

“It is a well-run bank, different than most deals we do, which typically involve distressed banks,” Allison said. “This is a straight M&A deal with good management and leadership.”

The pending Bank of Commerce purchase in Sarasota is a different story.

Home BancShares was the high bidder for the $196 million-asset bank in a bankruptcy auction in November.

The court-administered sale began with a stalking horse bid of $1.7 million by Byron DeFoor, a Chattanooga businessman looking to add to his bank holdings.

After 2-1/2 hours and three rounds of bidding, Home BancShares emerged the winner with an offer of $3.7 million and up to $400,000 more in expense reimbursement for approved administrative claims.

Opened in 2000, Bank of Commerce had operated under an order with regulators since 2010.

The deal for the troubled bank is the second bankruptcy auction transaction for Home BancShares. The $1.4 million purchase of Premier Bank of Tallahassee in 2012 was accomplished through the Chapter 11 of its corporate parent: Premier Bank Holding Co.

“We were the stalking horse, and there were no other bids,” Allison said. “We had to have another hearing to confirm the sale because there was a protest.

“Some creditors accused management of not marketing the property properly. But they did, and the judge upheld the sale.”

What’s new with talk of a sale of the Acxiom Building in downtown Little Rock?

Glad you asked.

Our well-placed insider tells us that Simmons First National Corp. is taking a long, hard look at buying the 188,460-SF building at 601 E. Third St.

If the company moves forward with an acquisition, it would facilitate the consolidation of about 200 staffers scattered around town.

Most of those are on floors 11-14 at the Simmons Tower at 425 W. Capitol Ave.

Three of those floors were occupied by Metropolitan National Bank, which Simmons bought in 2013.

A purchase of the 10-story Acxiom Building with supporting five-story parking deck is among the several options that Simmons is exploring.

That list includes consolidating personnel in another location, staying as is and building a new building.

Total household debt in the United States rose by $63 billion to $12.35 trillion, a 0.5 percent increase, during the third quarter of 2016 compared with second-quarter 2016. That’s according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which issued its latest “Quarterly Report on Household Debt & Credit” Nov. 30.

Overall household debt is 2.6 percent below its peak of $12.68 trillion, which occurred in third-quarter 2008. Mortgage balances, the largest component of household debt, fell 0.1 percent decline during the quarter, but every kind of non-housing debt rose, the report said. Among them:

• Auto loan balances rose 2.9 percent.
• Credit card balances rose 2.5 percent.
• Student loan balances increased 1.6 percent.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel/Equifax

The suspicion that one’s 401(k) plan might be costing more in fees than necessary has taken root in the American consciousness. It was the subject of an expose by the PBS documentary series “Frontline” in 2013, a groundbreaking U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2015 and even a profanity-laden episode of John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” last June.

It’s been four and a half years since the U.S. Department of Labor required all providers who get a piece of the retirement pie to reveal their fees, both direct and indirect. That accelerated downward pressure on fees, now averaging less than 0.7 percent, as 401(k)s and similar plans have become the dominant retirement vehicle for private-sector employees.

But disclosure is hardly the same as transparency when the fees are disclosed in different places. Even knowing the total cost is not the same as knowing whether the price is fair. And that matters, since plan sponsors — employers offering 401(k) plans — can face legal consequences if they allow their employees to be overcharged.

Two firms in central Arkansas, CFO Network of North Little Rock and Fiduciary Wealth Management of Little Rock, have in recent months begun offering 401(k) fee analysis for companies that want to make sure that their plan fees are reasonable.

“There are so many cracks and crevices in which fees can hide,” said Ed Mahaffy, principal owner of ClientFirst Wealth Management in Little Rock, who formed Fiduciary Wealth Management with Rocklin “Roc” Senavinin last year.

“When we do the analysis, it’s amazing what some people are paying, and they have no idea,” Senavinin said.

CFO Network was paid by Arkansas Business Publishing Group to analyze its retirement plan in 2016. The service is a sideline to CFO Network’s primary business as an outsourced provider of accounting and consulting services, and it grew out of Managing Director Allen Engstrom’s concern about his own company’s 401(k) costs.

“This started with me looking at my own [account] statement as a member of the plan,” Engstrom said last week.

Plan advisers charge a fixed percentage of the assets in each account, and they may also get a trading commission, opaquely referred to as an “override,” on contributions invested in the actively managed mutual funds that they choose or recommend as investment options within the plan.

The percentages charged for advisory fees and the fees associated with mutual funds within the plan seem small, Engstrom said, but a rough spreadsheet analysis told him that an employee saving for 35 years or more could end up with an account balance that had been reduced by more than a third because of fees.

For a hypothetical employee whose retirement account after 35 years would grow to $1 million without any fees, the cost of the advice and fund management can be “shocking,” Enstrom said.

“If you told Mary Smith, ‘You have to write a check for $380,000 for all the advice they’ve given you over the years,’ you’d say, ‘No way.’”

You might also get sued. As plan sponsors, employers have a fiduciary duty to employees, even if some of the plan advisers may not.

And the fiduciary has to stay on top of the details. In its 2015 Tibble v. Edison International decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the trustees of a retirement fund have a continuing duty to monitor the suitability of the investments. In this case, the fund was a 401(k) and the suitability question concerned management fees on mutual funds.

Engstrom gave Senior Analyst Matt Duckworth the assignment of ferreting out the fees.

They are all disclosed, “but it’s buried in an ocean of 8-point type,” Engstrom said. Even a motivated plan member has no one to consult except the adviser, who may have a vested interest in making it confusing.

When CFO Network’s previous plan adviser learned that Engstrom and Duckworth were crunching the numbers, “they tried to be proactive by saying we were on a list of clients eligible for a reduction in fees,” Engstrom said.

Transparency is effective: In 2012, many providers voluntarily slashed their fees in the run-up to the DOL disclosure deadline. Mahaffy, with Fiduciary Wealth Management, said average fees have come down by a third since 2000.

While a 401(k) plan will never be free, Engstrom said CFO Network ultimately changed providers, and its plan now features low-cost index funds rather than the higher priced managed funds. And instead of projecting a reduction in an account’s balance of 38 percent after fees and lost earnings, the reduction is about 5 percent — $50,000 rather than the $380,000 from Mary Smith’s hypothetical account.

Passive Savings

Duckworth at CFO Network and Senavinin at Fiduciary Wealth Management have both developed processes for identifying and analyzing total fees being charged in existing plans, and their analysis typically costs $5,000 or less.

“With one meeting taking an hour, I can usually have the results back within two weeks,” Senavinin said. “It’s a very transparent, reader-friendly analysis: Here’s what I have and here’s everything I’m paying and here’s a benchmark.”

(Senavinin also offers wealth management services to individuals and trusts, and he was recognized as an Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 honoree in 2014, when he was a vice president with Charles Schwab & Co. in Little Rock.)

Another thing CFO Network and Fiduciary Wealth Management have in common is a fondness for low-cost passive investments — index funds — rather than funds that are actively managed by professional stock pickers.

Engstrom, at CFO Network, said he became a believer in index funds when he was studying for his MBA at the University of Texas at Austin. “I had these Ph.D. finance professors who were saying they can’t beat the market. If you accept that you can’t beat the market, that leads you down the path of passive investing,” he said.

And that’s becoming a well-traveled path, Mahaffy said. Late last month, Barron’s reported that nearly $1 trillion flowed into passive funds during the past three years while almost $500 billion has flowed out of active U.S. funds during the same period.

Barron’s is actually suggesting that investors consider more actively managed funds in 2017, but Mahaffy has not changed his mind.

“Their performance is hideous,” he said. “Eighty-six percent underperform the passive index funds.”

Madeline Kurrus Moore has been hired as human resources manager for Arvest Bank’s central Arkansas market.

Moore previously practiced law with the Cross Gunter Witherspoon & Galchus firm and, before that, with Quattlebaum Grooms & Tull, both in Little Rock.

She had worked in Arvest’s HR division before attending law school at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

“We are pleased to welcome Madeline back to the Arvest team where she returns with even broader experience and knowledge to support our associates and our customers,” Jim Cargill, CEO of Arvest in central Arkansas, said in a news release.

Relyance Bank of Pine Bluff and Citizens Bank of Batesville are the first two buyers in a new light commercial development on the southeast side of Hot Springs, developer Ross Whipple confirmed last week.

The Hot Springs Sentinel-Record used local property records to report that Relyance paid $965,699 for its lot in the new East Ridge subdivision, and Citizens paid $1.29 million. Whipple, who sold his Summit Bank to Bank of the Ozarks in 2014, partnered with local builder Tim Winston to develop East Ridge.

Citizens opened two branches in Hot Springs in the first half of 2015 after hiring 10 local bankers away from Southern Bancorp Bank, including David Wooldridge, now the market president. Wooldridge said the East Ridge site will be the market headquarters, assuming the new branch receives regulatory approval, and he is talking 12,000 to 15,000 SF, including some tenant space.

East Ridge subdivision, about 8 acres, is at the southeast corner of the intersection of Malvern Avenue and Carpenter Dam Road. It is southeast of the Hot Springs Country Club. Simmons Bank of Pine Bluff and Hot Springs-chartered Diamond Bank are also in the neighborhood, on the west side of Carpenter Dam Road, and Arvest Bank has a branch farther north on Malvern Avenue.

The East Ridge branch will be Relyance’s third in Hot Springs and fourth in Garland County. The Pine Bluff bank acquired its sister charter, Hot Springs Bank & Trust, at the end of 2013.

Todd Green, the Hot Springs market president for Relyance, said Pine Bluff architect Fred Reed is working on plans for the new branch. “We love our location,” Green said.

First Security Bank of Searcy is also planning a branch on Malvern Avenue.

“It’s bank alley,” Wooldridge said. “It’s kind of becoming the new Central Avenue of Hot Springs.”

Wooldridge said it was ironic that Whipple is the developer of the East Ridge site because he has been trying to recreate the Summit Bank footprint in Hot Springs.

Since Summit’s sale, he said, “I just think there’s a huge vacuum of banking the way it used to be.”

Whipple has three more lots for sale in East Ridge, and a second phase will be developed on 3 acres he and Winston have purchased just to the east at Malvern Avenue and Piper Street.

Hot Springs Bank Branches^*

*As of June 30
Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff announced Friday the addition of Jerry M. Hunter of St. Louis and Mindy West of El Dorado to its board of directors.

Hunter is a partner in the St. Louis office of Bryan Cave LLP and served as general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 1989-93.

West is executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer for Murphy USA Inc. of El Dorado.

"Mindy and Jerry bring strong financial and legal skills to our board and will play key roles in guiding our growth in the years ahead," Chairman and CEO George Makris Jr. said in a news release. "Their insight will be invaluable as we continue to build one of the nation’s top regional banks."

Simmons recently told Arkansas Business it's looking to surpass $10 billion in total assets during the third quarter of this year.

Hunter has been labor counsel for the Kellwood Co. of St. Louis, a field attorney for the NLRB and a senior trial attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. From 1986-89, he served as director of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Hunter was also a member of the Missouri State Employees Retirement System board and the chairman of its investment committee.

He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. He was admitted to the Arkansas bar in 1977 and the Missouri bar in 1978.

West, a certified public accountant and certified treasury professional, worked for Murphy Oil Corp. for 17 years. She was its director of investor relations from July 2001 until December 2006 and vice president and treasurer from January 2007 until she joined Murphy USA in August 2013.

West earned her bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia.

It’s the start of a new year and you are finally going to take the big step of starting your own business. Congratulations! According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), you will join over 240,000 small business owners in Arkansas and have a part in employing over half the state’s private workforce. In order to start your new business off on the right foot, you’ll need a team of professionals to assist you.

Most successful startups begin with a strong professional business team in place. The team is comprised of:

• You
• An attorney comfortable with setting up new businesses
• A CPA who is competent and familiar with your field
• A banker willing to get to know you and your business and who is committed to helping you grow
• An experienced insurance agent

All of these professionals play a very important role in guiding you through the ins and outs of starting in a new business endeavor.   

Where do you find this team?

Ask trusted friends, family and mentors for recommendations. Sometimes they can offer you sage advice on who NOT to work with. Look in trade publications for advertisements or editorials written by the experts in your field. Geographic proximity is not always the best indicator of a good team member. Look for those who specialize in your industry. Get a feel for how they like to communicate and work. If it doesn’t fit with your personality or business style, keep looking. Seek out people who are willing to explain things to you at the level you need to make sure you understand every detail. Often the language used in explaining a complicated transaction turns off new business owners; be prepared to ask questions and say when you don’t understand. 

What will this team do?

Attorneys

Attorneys are key players in the formation and registration of your new business entity with local, state and federal agencies. From formation of the entity and making sure you don’t fall into any licensing traps, legal counsel is much more effective (and less costly) on the front end in preventing problems than having to solve them on the back end. 

CPAs

Your CPA can advise you of the tax ramifications of the different business entities and will help in determining what taxes your small business will be subject to and with what agencies the business will need to register to pay or file those taxes. CPAs can give you timetables, estimates and prepare the forms and statements that are required for you to know how your business is doing and to keep you out of hot water with the various taxing agencies.  

Bankers

A banker will assist the business in setting up checking accounts, lines of credit and/or startup loans. 

Insurance agents

This team member will recommend and price insurance to protect you and your business from the effect of unexpected and catastrophic events. They will talk with you to determine the level of coverage needed and make sure you have all of the necessary types of insurance for your particular industry.

Additional Resources

With your team of professionals in place, you are now ready to implement your business plan and get started. Some additional resources for starting a business include information from the SBA in “10 Steps to Starting a Business.” If your business will be Arkansas based, the Department of Finance and Administration has an informative publication “Starting a New Business.” The IRS also has a publication called “IRS Checklist for Starting a Business." Remember the key to forming, building and maintaining a successful business is to surround yourself with a team of successful and knowledgeable professionals.   

Bank of the Ozarks Inc. on Tuesday announced record fourth quarter net income of $87.8 million, a 71 percent increase from quarterly net income of $51.5 million a year ago.

The performance helped power the Little Rock bank holding company (Nasdaq: OZRK) to record earnings of $270 million during 2016, a 48 percent increase over 2015.

The acquisitions of Community & Southern Holdings Inc. and C1 Financial Inc. in July 2016 contributed mightily to the fiscal growth, nearly doubling the size of the company.

Record profits were among a list of financial achievements itemized in a prepared statement by George Gleason, chairman and CEO of the $18.9 billion-asset lender.

"We are very pleased to report our record results for both the fourth quarter and full year of 2016, including quarterly and annual records in net income, diluted earnings per common share, net interest income, service charge income and trust income, as well as quarterly growth of $845 million in non-purchased loans and leases, an excellent 5.02 percent net interest margin, a superb 34.3 percent efficiency ratio (for the quarter) and pristine asset quality," Gleason said.

Related: Simmons First National Corp. and Home BancShares Inc. are poised to break the $10 billion-asset mark.

The company's efficiency ratio for 2016 improved to 35.8 percent compared to 38.4 percent for 2015. Other year-over-year highlights at the company included:

• Total loans and leases, including purchased loans, were $14.56 billion at Dec. 31, a 75 percent increase from $8.33 billion in 2015.

• Non-purchased loans and leases were $9.61 billion at Dec. 31, a 47 percent increase from $6.53 billion in 2015.

• Purchased loans were $4.96 billion at Dec. 31, a 174 percent increase from $1.81 billion at Dec. 31, 2015, but an 8 percent decrease from $5.40 billion at Sept. 30.

• Deposits were $15.57 billion at Dec. 31, a 95 percent increase from $7.97 billion in 2015.

• Total assets were $18.89 billion at Dec. 31, a 91 percent increase from $9.88 billion in 2015.

• Diluted earnings per common share for the fourth quarter of 2016 were 72 cents, a 26 percent increase from 57 cents for the fourth quarter of 2015.

• Diluted earnings per common share for 2016 were $2.58, a 23 percent increase from $2.09 for 2015.

• Returns on average assets, average common stockholders' equity and average tangible common stockholders' equity for the full year of 2016 were 1.89 percent, 13.05 percent and 16.25 percent, respectively, compared to 2.11 percent, 14.97 percent and 17.02 percent, respectively, for the full year of 2015.

Bank of the Ozarks owns a state-chartered subsidiary bank that conducts banking operations through 249 offices in Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, New York and California.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew a bit faster at the end of last year, spurred by healthier sales for manufacturers and steady hiring that is slowly pushing up wages.

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Mark McFatridge has resigned as CEO of Bear State Financial, and the board of directors of the publicly traded bank holding company announced Wednesday that Matt Machen will be his replacement.

Machen, 35, has been president of the Little Rock company's bank subsidiary, Bear State Bank.

McFatridge, who joined Bear State Bank when the Missouri bank he headed was acquired in the fall of 2015, informed the board of his resignation on Saturday, according to Wednesday's announcement.

Machen joined Bear State — then First Federal Bank — in 2011, following its recapitalization by Bear State Financial Holdings. The announcement said Machen led the bank's turnaround in northwest Arkansas before relocating to Little Rock, first as chief financial officer. He was promoted to bank president in April 2016.

"Matt combines strong financial services experience and knowledge of the depth of our management team with a vision for the Company’s future that will be a critical part of our growth and success moving forward," Chairman Rick Massey said in the release. "Matt joined our team more than five years ago and has proven to be both a dynamic leader and accomplished at strategy execution. Our board has full confidence in Matt to handle his new responsibilities and feel we are fortunate as a Company to have an executive of his caliber at Bear State."

A bio of Machen included in the release says he is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking and has 14 years of banking experience. He has a leadership certificate from Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and completed the executive program in financial leadership from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. He is a member of the Dean's Alumni Advisory Council for the Walton College at the UA.

Simmons First National Corp. earned $27 million in the fourth quarter of 2016, a year-over-year increase of 13.4 percent, pushing its net income for the year to $96.8 million, an increase of more than 30 percent.

The Pine Bluff bank holding company's announcement, after the market close on Wednesday, said quarterly results included $1.8 million in expenses related to mergers and the closing of branches of its subsidiary Simmons Bank. Earnings per share were 85 cents, a 9 percent increase for the quarter, while diluted annual EPS were $3.13.

"We are very pleased with our results during the fourth quarter. Our associates are beginning to leverage our size and integrate more of our services in markets previously unserved," Chairman and CEO George A. Makris Jr. said in the earnings release. "We are excited about our future related to our previously announced mergers. Simmons Bank will enter new and very attractive markets as a result of the Bank SNB merger and will be able to expand in our current markets with the First South Bank merger. We look forward to significant growth from these mergers."

Also: Simmons and Home BancShares are set to join the $10 billion-asset club.

Simmons expects to close its acquisition of Bank SNB's parent, Southwest Bancorp Inc. of Stillwater, Oklahoma, in the third quarter of this year. The acquisition of Hardeman County Investment Co. of Jackson, Tennessee, parent of First South Bank, is expected before the end of March. Those acquisitions are expected to push the bank's assets to about $11 billion from the 2016 year-end level of $8.4 billion.

Net interest income for the fourth quarter was $74.3 million, up less than 1 percent from the same period of 2015. Non-interest income, meanwhile, was $36.1 million, an increase of 26 percent "due to additional mortgage lending, trust income, debit and credit card income," according to the release.

Total loans, including those acquired, were $5.6 billion at year-end, an increase 14.5 percent, while legacy loans — those not acquired — grew $1.1 billion, or 33.3 percent. On a linked quarter basis, total loan growth was $232 million, including a reduction in agricultural production loans of $53 million.

Deposits as of Dec. 31 were $6.7 billion, an increase of 10.7 percent over the end of 2015. Total assets were $8.4 billion.

Home BancShares Inc. of Conway on Thursday announced fourth-quarter net income of $48.6 million, up nearly 30 percent from the same time last year.

The parent company of Centennial Bank said fourth-quarter diluted earnings per share was 35 cents, up from 27 cents — split adjusted — in the same quarter last year. Excluding a reduced provision for loan losses and merger expenses, diluted earnings per share was 33 cents.

For the full year, the company (Nasdaq: HOMB) reported in income of $177.1 million, up 28 percent from $138.2 million the previous year. Diluted earnings per share was $1.26, up from $1.01 per share — split adjusted — in 2015. 

Also: Simmons First and Home BancShares are set to join the $10 billion-asset club.

"The annual and quarterly earnings performance for 2016 exceeded expectations," Chairman John Allison said in a news release. "At the beginning of 2016, we had what we considered an aggressive goal in place to reach annual diluted earnings per share of $1.25. While it took both discipline and hard work, the company exceeded this goal for the year by reporting exceptional results for diluted earnings per share of $1.26 per share."

Randy Sims, Home BancShares' CEO, said the fourth quarter marked the 23rd straight quarter of record profit. He also said the company achieved a core efficiency ratio of 35.97 percent.

The company said quarterly non-interest income was $23.8 million, up from to $17.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2015. Non-interest income included $7.6 million from other service charges and fees, $6.4 million from service charges on deposits accounts and $4.1 million from mortgage lending income.

Total loans receivable were $7.39 billion at Dec. 31, compared to $6.64 billion at Dec. 31, 2015.  Total deposits were $6.94 billion, up from $6.44 billion, and total assets were $9.81 billion, up from $9.29 billion.  

During the quarter, the company closed one branch in Mountain Home.  During the first quarter of 2017, it plans to open a branch location in Clearwater, Florida, and a loan production office in Los Angeles.  

The company has 76 branches in Arkansas, 59 in Florida, six in Alabama and one in New York City.