When the founding partners and I set out to form a new investment advisory firm in the smoldering ashes of the Great Financial Crisis ten years ago, we saw an opportunity to rebuild and refocus our efforts on local governments and public entities to better serve their needs; at the same time, others saw the need to exit the space with concerns of viability in a low-rate environment amidst the chaos of the financial markets. If you ask me, this mindset is foundational to everything we do at Public Trust Advisors: providing high-quality and cost-effective investment management services for the public sector in all economic conditions.

Before coming together to create Public Trust Advisors, we saw firsthand that public-sector investors were being underserviced and overcharged; with this in mind, we made it our mission to provide high-quality, cost-efficient services, striving to assist clients in maximizing investment income while providing additional services to local communities. Due in large part to our mission, we have grown from a small niche player to an established investment firm that provides a multitude of investment solutions with more to come on the horizon.

At the end of our first year of operations, we had just one client who took a chance on our fledgling firm based upon trust and now we operate in 16 states with well over $50 billion in assets under management, administration, and advisement as of September 30, 2021. It is hard not to attribute this success, in large part, to having the right people in the right jobs with the right tools. As of today, we have more than 70 employees across the nation, a monumental increase from the initial dozen employees who launched the firm just over a decade ago.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the trust and support of our Boards of Trustees and governmental entities nationwide. When we began, we had just one Board of Trustees that initiated an agreement for us to provide services, and today, we have over 5,000 participating accounts! I’m so proud of the amount of investment income we have been able to return to local governments nationwide over these ten years; despite the low-rate environment, we proudly returned in excess of $250 million of investment income to our clients in 2020 alone.

In the fall of 2020, Public Trust released an upgraded transaction portal for our local government investment pool clients with many exciting, time-saving enhancements. And in the spring of 2021, we rolled out a longer-term, enhanced cash investment product in a number of states aimed at providing additional investment income in a low interest rate environment. As we begin to look toward the years ahead, our focus remains on finding and creating value-added solutions with technology-driven products with local governments and local communities in mind.

While the last eighteen months have been challenging due to repeat economic conditions similar to the Great Financial Crisis, we have remained focused on not only meeting the needs of public-sector entities nationwide but adapting and optimizing our services to continue providing value. As we continue to expand in the coming years, our focus remains on providing excellent client service to thousands of local governments nationwide, continually adding industry experts to our team of professionals and looking for ways to enhance the experience for our clients, all while remaining true to our humble beginnings.

I want to sincerely thank you for your continued trust in us; I know I speak on behalf of our entire staff when I say we truly love what we do, and we will continue to serve you to the best of our abilities, now and in the future.