Midland States Bank is headquartered in Effingham and is the 7th largest bank in the state of Illinois. It is also the 211th largest bank in the nation. It was established in 1881 and as of June of 2021, it had grown to 912 employees at 60 locations. Midland States Bank has an A health rating.
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Poor Estate Management
If anyone is considering using Midland States Bank for estate or trust planning and administration, I’d urge you to be careful and do your due diligence. I’ll first say that I am a CPA with experience in corporate and estate tax/management who tried to step in and help. My experience over the last 2+ years is that this group fails to properly adhere to the industry standards and fiduciary responsibilities of a trustee. They fail to focus on the beneficiaries but instead focus on the bank/trustees wealth maximization. They hold monies of outside business shareholders that are not related to the estate/decedent as if they are part of the estate itself, take an excessive amount of time to liquidate assets (more than 14 months for an on-line land auction), and continue to hold an astronomical amount of the estate and shareholders funds that far exceeds any potential liabilities, with none known after 2 years time. They have made multiple mistakes in application of received funds, failed to ensure maximum value was received for property and sold items from the business that business owners stated they wanted to purchase. Those owners were told it had to be sold at auction and would be notified when they could bid. Assets were instead sold to unnamed parties with no notification and not at auction. Additionally they fail to provide proper documentation and full tax return copies on all accounts to the proper parties, even when requested on multiple occasions. Their ability to communicate is almost non-existent, even when escalating to upward management.
Given their experiences, impacted businesses shareholders and estate beneficiaries chose to reach out to multiple CPAs and attorneys to confirm consensus that this was being handled not just poorly, but in a grossly improper and egregious manner. The family/shareholders hired an attorney of their own to get the business funds not owned by the estate released, funds Midland knew they had no legal right to hold as part of the estate based on atty discussions. I myself had previously discussed the topic with both Connie Bontz and her manager Nicole Fasano. The hired attorney then brought it to their attention that the trust documents allowed for them to be terminated. At that time Ms Bontz agreed to disperse the business and rather than doing the legal thing timely, they continued to drag the process out and delay payments to the S-Corp Shareholders for more than 2.5 months while trying to blame others. It took re-clarifying we’d terminate them to get it. They paid out one business but not the other, after they had agreed to do so in writing. They continue to hold this businesses funds from its shareholders, and the estate funds from their proper owners, and not just a reasonable holdback amount, but the very large remainder of the estate that didn’t automatically transfer to heirs. They are stating it is the “policy and decision of Midland States Bank Fiduciary Review Committee to NOT make ANY distributions to beneficiaries from the estate or trust until we have received the federal estate tax closing letter from the IRS”. This can be a 2-4 year time frame.
The family and shareholders had preferred to try to make the relationship work so as to not add a complicated transfer part way through, esp at the point everything is in cash and is beyond the creditors claim period, but Midland and Connie Bontz continue to make that nearly impossible. The level of apathy/ignorance/incompetence I’ve witnessed is infuriating as a professional accountant. No family should EVER have to go through this with a paid trustee, one who has the moral, legal and fiduciary responsibility to manage funds with the beneficiaries interest as a priority over their own wealth gain.
Gotta Go.
We talked to a gal that failed to inform us all branches closed at noon today. It was after noon when we called. We were asking where an open branch was. I don't know who I talked to or where she was but we called the number for the. Bradley branch. We ended up driving 120 miles back and forth out of our way. Going bank shopping soon
Check Your Statements
Opened a no-fee checking account ($500 min.) in April with Alpine Bank in Rockford. Shortly after Midlands State Bank acquired Alpine. Check your "FREE" checking account statements because you are now charged a $6 service charge. Must be for protecting my $500. ZERO STARS
Advertised The Use Of Charitable Trust Funds To Give The Impression It Was A Corporate Sponsorship
Was at a charity banquet in Rockford in the Spring and when I opened the program their was a full page ad promoting a gift from a Charitable Trust from their trust department with a giant logo and advertising how theiy were the trustee's and how great they were. All the fat cats in the Trust department got a sponsors table, etc.
The only thing was, the money came from the one of trust funds, not the Bank!! I can imagine the gall. If it were my family charitable trust why would I want the bank hogging the glory. They didn't donate any money to the charity, they just showed up for the fancy dinner!!
Guess thats what you can expect from a podunk bank.
Bad Midland Experiences
My husband and I have struggled along with this bank for far too long. I am about to move all of our accounts, adding to the amazing decrease in deposits I see that they have had. Here are a few reasons why: rude tellers, changing current accounts from one type to another, with increased rates and fees, mistakes for which they were unapologetic. I was coming in to transfer money from one account to another because I hadn't ordered checks for the one account. One day I got two pads of checks in the mail and my account was charged $20 for them. For TWO pads of checks! Obviously whomever ordered them without our knowledge or permission, ordered the most expensive ones available. The final straw was the third time we were charged overdraft fees when our account was not overdrawn. I called the main bank instead of our branch. After I explained the situation, the lady who answered my call said she would have to check into it and get back to me even though she could clearly see online that my account was never in the negative. She called back and stumble, mumbled around trying to defend the charges, saying something about a debit for gas that the seller had reserved twice before it was hardposted. The problem was, that debit was made on the same day as a large deposit. I really couldn't believe my ears. Were they really doing this?! We called our branch (we've learned who to talk to there and who not to) and were told that there were problems with the software (which they have just changed) and she immediately refunded the charges. These people don't care about the "little" depositors. No more Midland States Bank headaches for me.
Data as of Q2 2021
Learn why bank health mattersHealth Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| FDIC Certificate # | 1040 |
| Year Established | 1881 |
| Employees | 912 |
| Primary Regulator | FED |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 1.23% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 10.71% |
| Annual Interest Income | $118.9MM |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q2 2021vs Q2 2020 | $6.62B$6.63B |
| Loans | Q2 2021vs Q2 2020 | $4.79B$4.82B |
| Deposits | Q2 2021vs Q2 2020 | $5.24B$5.01B |
| Equity Capital | Q2 2021vs Q2 2020 | $786.2MM$774.1MM |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q2 2021vs Q2 2020 | $58.7MM$47.1MM |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q2 2021vs Q2 2020 | $54.9MM$55.7MM |
| Real Estate Owned | Q2 2021vs Q2 2020 | $12.8MM$12.7MM |
