Competition is one of the biggest challenges Ron Drane faces…but not in the traditional sense of the word. Drane, executive vice president of Wealth Management at Busey Bank, is continually striving to build strong relationships and help clients to trust the financial services of Busey who may have had negative experience with another adviser in the financial investment field previously.

"The need in our field to show growth and the building of a client base sometimes causes some to lack integrity or have short-sightedness when dealing with their clients. When someone has a bad experience, it hurts everyone - not only the client but everyone they deal with in the future," he said. "There is probably a tremendous amount of financial advisers with high integrity, but when a client has a bad situation, they have a cloud, and that's unfortunate."

Drane, a Decatur native and MacArthur High School graduate, received his bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Illinois and his MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

After working at Illinois Power as vice president of Business Planning and Strategy, he joined Busey Wealth Management in April of 2001 in Champaign and then returned to Decatur to his current position of executive vice president of Busey Wealth Management in August 2007. His area of responsibility increased to include Wealth Management in Bloomington and Peoria in March 2009.

When asked what his job entails, he didn't hesitate.

"Customer service, customer service, customer service," he said. "That is truly the way I treat it. Of course we provide financial planning expertise, trusts, estate planning, asset management, but ultimately it comes down to customer service. We try to deal with issues in a way that provides comfort for our clients."

"As seen in financial markets recently," he added, "we don't want our clients losing sleep or worrying about how (the market) will affect their lives. If I'm doing my job correctly, they're not worrying about that."

Drane said he is glad to be back in the community where he grew up and to be raising his family here. He is impressed with the growth and vitality of the community in recent years.

"One thing that I enjoy is the downtown area," he said. "When I was growing up, downtown was in a declining state; now I see that it's vital again and revitalizing. There are new stores, new construction - it's very exciting."

"My father and all of his friends worked at CAT in the factories, so that's what I thought of when I thought of Decatur when I was younger," he continued. "Now Decatur encompasses many new entities across the community, which also provides for a strong foundation for growth in the future."

In addition to his duties at Busey, Drane serves on the boards of the Decatur Area Arts Council, the Mid-Illinois Chapter of the American Red Cross and Junior Achievement. He previously served as a board member and treasurer of Talks Mentoring, a non-profit mentoring program with over 120 mentors. He is also Board President of 40 North/88 West - the Champaign County Arts, Culture & Entertainment Council

Drane also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, a designation achieved by only one in five individuals who begin the program. He is a member of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Society of Chicago and the CFA Institute.

Drane is not all business, however, and enjoys spending time with his family most: his wife of 12 years, Amy, and his children, Caleb, 8, and Olivia, 6.

"I love playing with my kids; they have enough energy to use up all of my spare time," he said with a laugh. "We like to ride our bikes together, go to my son's hockey and baseball games, and my daughter is in ballet. If I can spend my time like that, that's my kind of thing."

As for the future of wealth management at Busey, Drane hopes that the department will continue to add specialized expertise in a variety of places, he said.

"Having taken the time to develop specialized services, I know it's impossible for one or two people to know it all," he said. "We want to be a one-stop shop for our clients because we actually have the expertise and experience to deal with their issues. I think the more I am able to talk to our clients - not to interrogate but to get to know them better - I'm more likely to be an adviser and anticipate their needs not only now but five or ten years from now."