Buy the Home, Rent the Rate What Happened to Mortgage Rates? In early January 2021, mortgage interest rates were at all-time historical lows. Per Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the U.S. weekly average at that time was 2.65% for a 30-year mortgage. Flip the calendar forward to mid-November 2022 and the same 30-year mortgage… Read More
Jennifer Wheeler
Books of Interest Part VIII: 2023 Winter Reading Recommendations For the past few years, we have curated a list of our employees’ favorite reads. We are excited to be back again with Part Eight of our “Books of Interest” recommendations list. If you are looking to be captivated by a story or have already binged… Read More
Resolve To Be Cyber Smart in 2023 With the Holidays in the rear-view mirror and a new year ahead, a lot of people like to make resolutions for change. And as we all know; change can be hard. But when it comes to cybersecurity change may be necessary to prevent bad things from happening. 2022… Read More
Economic Update – Winter 2023 | “Short-Lived Turbulence” There is no question that 2022 was a difficult year for investors. The rapid rise in interest rates presented significant headwinds to both the stock and bond markets. The Bloomberg Aggregate Bond Index was down 13.1% as of December 31, 2022. The second worst year occurred in… Read More
Stillman Bank Promotes Thomas R. Hughes to President and Chief Executive Officer On behalf of the Stillman BancCorp N.A. Board of Directors, Chairman Martin C. Larson is pleased to announce that Thomas R. Hughes has been promoted to President and Chief Executive Officer. In his new position, Tom will be responsible for the overall strategic… Read More
Purchase with Purpose Check Presentations | Fall 2022 We recently ended our “Purchase with a Purpose” Debit Card Campaign in which a $1.00 donation was made to local charities up to $15,000. We were excited to be able to present checks for $2,500 to 6 non-profit organizations throughout the Rock River Valley! Focus House Focus… Read More
The Importance of a Succession Plan Succession planning for any business, especially a small privately-owned business, is crucial. You probably know of at least one business that closed not long after the founder or a key employee fell ill or passed away unexpectedly. This may have happened despite the business having a long list of… Read More
Still Local, Still Solid, Still Finding the Bright Moments in Life: Our 2022 in Review As 2022 winds down to its final days, it is sometimes tough to find the good in the past 365 days. For us at Stillman Bank, the bright moments in our year will always come from serving our local communities…. Read More
Stillman Bank’s Christmas Food Drive A Huge Success In the spirit of giving back this holiday season, we held a food drive to benefit area families this Christmas. 931 pounds of non-perishable food items were collected during the two-week event. Now in its thirteenth year, our annual food drive has collected over 13,000 pounds of food… Read More
Shop Smart and Stay Safe This Holiday Season ‘Tis the season for holiday gifts and shopping! To avoid waiting in lines and traffic, many people opt out of going to malls and choose to shop online. Cyber threat actors (CTAs) are aware of that fact, and it is their time to be active and develop… Read More