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Our businesses: Century Financial & Insurance Services

Business name: Century Financial & Insurance Services. Locations: 130 N. 25th St. in Fort Dodge, 513 Sumner Ave. in Humboldt and 931 Main St. in Manson. When was it founded? I’ve been an independent financial advisor for 8 years and in the insurance industry for over 13 years now. I have acquired two books of business over the last two years and created the DBA Century Financial & Insurance Services last year. Who are the key leaders? I am the sole proprietor of the LLC; however, I have an entire team of front and back office staff who help assist me and my clients. How many ...

Economic impact of COVID-19 on farmers

The impacts of COVID-19 on agricultural assets and lending markets were the topic of a webinar held by the University of Illinois as part of their Coronavirus and Ag series. Jackson Takach, chief economist and head of strategy, research and analytics for the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac) said because they are not a local lender they have been assessing the effect of the pandemic and how it has been emerging in the ag rural states throughout the U.S. “Not that they are coming down with COVID-19, but, it’s more of the economic knock-on effect,” he said. ...

Happy 25th anniversary to Farm News

Editor’s note: Farm News, a sister publication of The Messenger dedicated to covering agriculture in northern Iowa, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. In this column, Farm News Editor Kriss Nelson reflects on the paper's history. Farm News has embarked on their 25th year and ...

Helping Hands make light work

When Melissa Cook and April Tyre went through Margie Loomis’s Fort Dodge estate in the fall of 2018, they soon discovered artwork with a local connection. “There was a lot of cool, interesting Fort Dodge stuff related to Edna Hogan,” said Cook, who co-owns Helping Hands Estate and ...

‘There is no playbook for this’

During a town hall meeting led by the Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Naig took the chance to speak out about some of the circumstances surrounding COVID-19 and agriculture in our state with an update from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship in regards to what some of the external things they are focused on and watching. “We are certainly in unprecedented times,” he said. “There is no playbook for this and we are learning something new every day. That’s how we start each day. We get our incident team together and then we ...

From barn to BARn for Kollasch family

MILFORD — Joe and Amber Kollasch decided to renovate the barn on their acreage just east of Milford because they wanted more storage. But now they can also entertain there. The barn, standing when Joseph Berning, Joe Kollasch’s great-great-grandfather, moved there in 1912, ...