Building Trust: Inside Greenleaf Trust's northern Michigan growth
March 2026
Asked what makes Greenleaf Trust so special, local leadership is quick to point out that they always put their customers first.
And while that’s most likely true, it’s something that any financial institution (or any business, really) might say. Talk like this is easy to dismiss as simple lip service. Nothing to see here.
But consider the numbers: The northern Michigan office of this Kalamazoo-based bank, which primarily manages wealth, had about $218 million in assets under management in 2015. It was nearly $1 billion by 2020. It’s likely to break $2 billion this year.
Even with a booming stock market, that’s remarkable growth. And it’s mostly driven by happy customers.
“About 80 percent of our business comes from current client referrals,” said Regina Jaeger, senior vice president and Traverse City market director. “That’s been huge.”
What’s more, someone who signs on is really unlikely to jump ship.
“Nationally, we have one of the lowest attrition rates in our field,” Jaeger said. “Our client runoff is less than 2% a year. Clients don’t leave us.”
No matter how you slice it, all of these data points suggest Greenleaf is doing a lot of things right.
The TCBN sat down with Jaeger and Bay Harbor/Petoskey market director Lauree K. VanderVeen (who in tandem run the northern Michigan office) to learn more about Greenleaf’s presence in – and appreciation for – the northern reaches of the state.
About Greenleaf
Greenleaf Trust was founded in 1998 as one of Michigan’s first “trust-only banks.” Despite having the word bank in there, these specialized financial institutions focus almost exclusively on fiduciary services – acting as a trustee or custodian – rather than traditional retail banking like checking and lending.
VanderVeen and JaegerTrust-only banks frequently provide a variety of wealth management services within this fiduciary capacity, bound by legal and ethical standards to act in clients’ best interests. This – along with private, independent ownership in Greenleaf's case – means no backdoor commissions, proprietary products or anything else getting in the way of delivering the best possible service.
“Doing what’s in the best interest of the client is really part of our DNA,” Jaeger said. “It’s what we live and breathe every single day. Everything we do is wrapped in a strict fiduciary standard where we are legally and ethically bound to act solely in our clients’ best interests, placing a client’s financial well-being above our own.”
The bulk of Greenleaf’s business comes from providing comprehensive wealth management services, including investment management, financial planning, trust and estate services, retirement planning and family office services. To this end it functions as wealth management firm first and foremost, catering to high-net-worth individuals, institutions, businesses and families.
Greenleaf was founded by and is still led by William D. Johnston, who owns it with his wife, Ronda Stryker. While Stryker is a director and major shareholder of the Fortune 500 medical technology company Stryker Inc., leaders say the two Kalamazoo-based companies are completely separate.
"We're very careful about that perceived conflict of interest," Jaeger said. "You can't get around the conversation because we were founded by Ronda Stryker and Bill Johnston, but as an organization, we have our own independent board of directors, and we have nothing to do with Stryker as a company."
Notably, Greenleaf Trust is set up to be independent in perpetuity, with a merger or acquisition explicitly barred in its bylaws.
“We will never be bought or sold,” Jaeger said. “It’s why most of our employees have chosen to be here, and it’s something a lot of our clients love because they have already experienced mergers or acquisitions [with previous companies]. We can commit to being the same Greenleaf Trust today, tomorrow and for our clients’ children and grandchildren, and that’s pretty amazing.”
Greenleaf also boasts about having one of the lowest client-to-advisor ratios in the industry.
“Even at another bank trust company, your trust officers will likely have several hundred clients,” Jaeger said. “We do not load up our employees with more clients. We hire more teammates to keep that ratio manageable so that we can continue to provide that very high-touch, client-focused service.”
Northern Michigan growth
While only 14 (soon to be 18) of Greenleaf’s nearly 200 employees service northern Michigan, it’s the second largest of the company’s six Michigan (and one Florida) offices in terms of assets managed, behind only the home office.
Jaeger says northern Michigan could become a $4 billion to $5 billion market (at least in terms of assets under management) for Greenleaf in the coming years.
“The growth trajectory is incredible,” Jaeger said. “We’re an exciting market, and we’re growing much faster than the competition."
This growth is mostly organic. The company does limited advertising, leaving its satisfied customers to do the rest.
“Our clients are excited to send their family members to us, their neighbors to us, the guy that they spend their Monday mornings having coffee with,” Jaeger said. “They're excited to say, ‘You need to go talk to Greenleaf Trust because they do a great job.’”
Aside from 80 percent of referrals coming from existing clients, Jaeger credits “centers of influence” like attorneys, CPAs, realtors and other professionals that are impressed with Greenleaf.
Northern Michigan is also simply an exciting place to be right now from a financial services standpoint, Jaeger says.
“[Our area] continues to attract retirees, entrepreneurs and remote professionals who value lifestyle without sacrificing sophistication,” she said.
The client base has a lot of who you might expect, but plenty that you might not.
“While the majority of clients we serve in northern Michigan are retirees, business owners and families with generational wealth, we are experiencing an increase in serving much younger generations who are in the wealth accumulation phase,” Jaeger said.
Greenleaf has had a presence here since 2008, but stepped up its game considerably with a spare-no-expense revamp of the Old City Hall building at Cass and State Streets in 2021.
“It was such a big commitment to the organization to purchase the space and renovate it in the manner in which we did,” Jaeger said. “It really represents our permanence, professionalism and community commitment.”
As with everyone else, hiring hasn’t been the easiest. Part of that is in line with staffing challenges plaguing nearly every business in northern Michigan for a variety of reasons, and another part is that Greenleaf is very selective by design. After all, its reputation is on the line with every employee.
“We’re a very high-performance organization, and that doesn't fit everybody,” Jaeger said. “When we're hiring to fill positions, we have a very robust hiring process to
make sure that it is a good fit on both ends, and finding that good fit is often a challenge.”
Personality and drive are just as important as experience, VanderVeen says.
“We hire really talented individuals that have a heart of a servant,” she said. “And that sounds so clichéd, but it’s hugely important.”
Trends and tidbits
Big in this world are things like the “Great Wealth Transfer.” Many, many conversations are ongoing now about effectively and efficiently passing wealth on to the next generation.
“There's over $120 billion in assets that are getting ready to transfer from the baby boomers and the Silent Generation to Gen X, millennials and charitable organizations,” Jaeger said. “That transfer requires thoughtful solutions, and we need to be prepared. And we feel like we are. We’re prepared to have those conversations.”
With constantly changing tax laws, clients are increasingly eager for solutions to best shield themselves from tax liability. From a purely financial standpoint, it’s one of the most common topics of discussion.
“Clients are really looking for tax-efficient portfolios,” Jaeger said. “That’s a huge trend. And that's one of the things that we feel like we excel at. What are those strategies we can put in place that will keep more in your pocket?”
Finally, the folks at Greenleaf are hearing more and more about making sure that values get passed on along with that wealth, particularly in an increasingly divided world.
“I see more and more [concern] about transferring not just money, but belief systems onto the next generation, and that's becoming increasingly important in the volatile environment that we live in,” VanderVeen said.
