Steven Schaeffer brings more than 30 years of direct trust and wealth management operating experience to his consulting work at Pohl Consulting and Training. Unlike consultants who come primarily from advisory or regulatory backgrounds, Steven spent his career running trust and wealth management organizations from the inside, giving him a practitioner’s understanding of how compliance, operations, and business development actually function together in a community bank trust environment.
For more than 21 years, Steven managed Dacotah Bank Trust and Wealth Management in Aberdeen, South Dakota, one of the region’s established trust organizations serving wealthy families with complex needs across multiple states. His tenure there encompassed money management, farm and ranch asset management, administration of South Dakota trusts for high net worth families, business development, and full regulatory and compliance oversight of the trust operation.
South Dakota trust administration is a specialized discipline. The state’s trust laws are among the most favorable in the country for dynasty trusts, asset protection, and directed trust structures, attracting clients from across the nation. Steven’s deep familiarity with South Dakota trust situs and administration gives Pohl Consulting a practitioner-level resource for clients evaluating or operating South Dakota trust arrangements.
His consulting expertise spans:
- Trust compliance and regulatory management for community bank trust departments
- Estate planning concepts, tools, and techniques
- Planned giving structures and implementation
- South Dakota trust administration and situs considerations
- Farm, ranch, and agricultural asset management within trust structures
- Business development and client relationship building for trust organizations
- Delegation and specialization in trust operations
Steven has presented on trust, estate planning, and compliance topics to audiences ranging from foundation boards to conferences of more than 200 participants.
He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of South Dakota School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and History from Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
