# Stephenson National Bank and Trust

Stephenson National Bank and Trust is a Bank / Wealth / Trust based in Marinette, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Bank / Wealth / Trust
- **Headquarters:** Marinette, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Marinette, WI, United States
- **Founded:** 1874
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** snbt.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://linkedin.com/company/the-stephenson-national-bank-&-trust

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Stephenson National Bank and Trust opened in 1874 as a local bank in Marinette, Wisconsin, and has operated continuously since, now serving northeastern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The firm became employee-owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in 2022, shifting governance to its workforce — a move that embeds retention and long-term decision-making into the institution's architecture. Its client base skews toward privately held manufacturers and small businesses, evidenced by testimonials from the owners of Oconto Metal Finishing, Mikutowski Woodworking, and S&C Machine on the bank's website. The bank's deployment is channeled through a traditional community-bank balance sheet: commercial and industrial loans, owner-occupied real estate financing, residential mortgages, and consumer lending. On the wealth side, the trust department offers estate planning, retirement planning, and fiduciary services, branded under "The Retirement Experts." The geographic footprint is concentrated in Wisconsin's Marinette and Oconto counties and Michigan's Menominee County, with no disclosed out-of-market lending or fee-based asset management vehicles beyond the trust charter. The firm does not publicly report assets under management or trust-department scale. Employee ownership dates to April 2022, when the ESOP acquired a stake, aligning the bank's incentives with its roughly 100 employees (per SNBT, April 2022). No separate family-office entity, philanthropic foundation, or adjacent investment vehicle is disclosed. Stephenson's structural differentiator is the ESOP itself. By making every employee a shareholder, the bank ties its investment horizon — loan origination, underwriting standards, trust relationships — to the retirement outcomes of its own staff, a governance mechanism that distinguishes it from both publicly traded regional banks and family-controlled community lenders in the Upper Midwest.

## Questions

### How did the 2022 employee-ownership conversion change the bank's governance?

Stephenson National Bank and Trust adopted an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in April 2022, making the workforce the beneficial owners of the company. The ESOP does not change day-to-day management — Gregory P. Seiler continues as President and CEO — but it ties long-term capital allocation and credit decisions to the retirement accounts of the bank's employees. This structure eliminates external shareholder pressure and reduces the likelihood of a sale to a larger regional consolidator.

### Is the bank's loan portfolio predominantly commercial real estate or operating-company lending?

Public disclosure is limited, but the client testimonials and the bank's positioning emphasize operating-company lending to manufacturers and small businesses, supplemented by owner-occupied commercial real estate. The bank does not publish a detailed loan-book breakdown, and it does not appear to operate a dedicated CRE lending unit targeting speculative construction outside its core market.

## Related profiles

- [Stephenson and Company](https://altss.com/profile/stephenson-and-company)
- [Stephens Wealth Management Group](https://altss.com/profile/stephens-wealth-management-group)

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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