2020 Trusted Advisers Wealth Manager: Becky Bonner

As a trust adviser for U.S. Bank Wealth Management, Becky Bonner develops close relationships with her clients to prepare them for the future and guide them through life’s changes, both big and small.

One of those big changes is retirement for business owners.

“They take great pride in the businesses they have built over their lifetime and it can be an emotional process, as much as a financial analysis, as they begin to think about business succession planning and how to incorporate the business into their overall estate plan,” she says. “We work with our clients through that process in analyzing their options as they make decisions in transitioning the business to the next generation or selling the business outright.”

Bonner works with 109 clients to help them with financial and estate planning needs. She says the team at U.S. Bank takes a holistic approach to financial planning, which includes investment management for marketable securities; management of specialty assets, such as farms and commercial property; trust and estate administration; banking services; and insurance solutions. She works alongside her clients’ attorneys, CPAs and insurance agents to provide advice on their financial affairs.

One such partner is Emily Kembell, an estate planning attorney at Kirkland Woods & Martinsen LLP. Kembell has worked with Bonner for over a decade.

“Ms. Bonner quickly develops an excellent rapport with her clients, earning their trust by listening to their unique needs and carefully crafting her advice to achieve their specific wealth goals,” Kembell says.

Bonner has been a wealth adviser for 20 years. She started her career at U.S. Bank as an assistant vice president and trust officer in 2000 after graduating from Drury University. In 2009, she moved to Central Trust Co. to serve as vice president, and in 2016 she moved back to U.S. Bank.

She says the job as a wealth manager has never been boring. Bonner says she’s worked with several trust beneficiary clients who battled drug and alcohol addiction to find housing and to establish a budget. One such client had been imprisoned and visited several rehab facilities, which Bonner assisted him through as his parents had died. He’s now married with children and is established in his career.

“(He) actually came to the office several years later to thank me for all the times I had told him ‘no,’” she says.

In recent years, her primary book of business consists of administering irrevocable trusts and private foundations in which the bank operates in a fiduciary capacity and acts in the best interest of the beneficiaries.

“I am honored to work with wonderful people in our community who serve on the foundations’ grant committees in determining charitable distributions to worthy organizations across the Ozarks,” she says.

Outside of the office, she lends her expertise as a member of the Greene County Estate Planning Council and Community Foundation of the Ozarks’ Professional Advisors council. She also gives her time as a member of the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks’ finance committee and the vice president of endowment for the Ozarks Trails Council Executive Board.