Crafting Your Investment Strategy

Our vision at First Citizens Bank is to inspire financial well-being for everyone.  We use the term “financial well-being” to refer to your comprehensive financial health.   Part of financial health includes having a strong investment strategy.  In this blog post, we will discuss how we utilize a tool call Riskalyze to capture a client’s Risk Number® and engineer a portfolio to fit into an overall investment
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Gift cards are a great way to give a gift. But did you know that gift cards are also popular with scammers? That’s because they are used as an untraceable method to steal your money. In fact, gift cards are the number one payment method that imposters demand. Gift cards are like cash: if you buy a gift card and someone uses it, you probably cannot get your money back. The key to avoid becoming a victim is to remember, GIFT CARDS ARE FOR GIFTS, NOT PAYMENTS. Anyone who demands payment
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Now more than ever, it is nice to have a memory vivid enough to bring a smile and content sigh. Remember the fun summer pastime of being outside at night catching fireflies that lit up the darkness? You may recall gazing at their pulsing light through a glass jar or watching them blink inside your hands before letting them fly away. With firefly season in full swing, their enchanting light displays often spark our curiosity and capture our imaginations. How much do you know about them and their magical
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Do you have any pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters (especially nickels and dimes)? They are in high demand due to the Fed coin distribution being restricted. Local businesses, such as grocery stores, convenience stores, and gas stations, still rely on these coins and we need your help with helping them. As mentioned in a previous blog post, the U.S. Mint is responsible for all coin production, while the Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) is responsible for keeping track of it all. If a
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Our vision at First Citizens Bank is to inspire financial well-being for everyone.  We use the term “financial well-being” to refer to your comprehensive financial health.   Preparing for the future when you won't be here to care for your family is a challenge that all parents face. But as the parent of a child with special needs, your estate planning is especially complex. Our Trust Officers have experience working with families to provide peace of mind in navigating
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First Citizens Bank is pleased to announce the hiring of one employee and the promotion of two members of the Wealth Management team.     Erin Trask has joined First Citizens as a Trust Operations Specialist in our Mason City office and will support the Trust Operations team in this role. With more than 20 years of banking experience, Erin most recently worked as a Compliance Officer/Assistant Cashier. She and her husband, Jason, have two daughters and live just outside Nora Springs.   Brad
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It’s an all too unfortunate reality that older adults are attractive targets for financial exploitation because they tend to possess more wealth than other potential victims. This is wealth that in many instances has been accumulated over their lifetime through hard work and conscientious saving.    The COVID-19 pandemic made the problem even worse with fraudsters coming out of the woodwork. Many of our vulnerable citizens found themselves the victim of scammers pretending to assist
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First Citizens Bank is pleased to announce that Grant Petersen recently joined the First Citizens Bank lending team as a Vice President, Lending Officer in the west Mason City location. Petersen is a graduate of Rockwell-Swaledale High School. He went on to earn his B.A in finance from the University of Northern Iowa. Prior to joining First Citizens, Petersen worked as a VP Lending Officer and Branch Manager at another financial institution in North Iowa. Petersen currently serves as President
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Why is your credit report important and how do you go about checking it? Watch this video to learn how: As mentioned in the video, you have the right to one free copy of your credit report every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, however, free credit reports are available on a weekly basis through April 2022. Order yours online from annualcreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228.
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For many Americans, the idea of an unanticipated expense, like a car breaking down, is cringeworthy. If you had to come up with $5000 today to pay for a car repair, how would you feel? Are your palms sweating? What if instead of your car needing a repair, you experience an unexpected job loss? Now, do we have your attention?  Although “Budgeting” is our topic this month we didn’t want to scare you with bringing up this dreaded word before grabbing your attention. Too often,
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