Have been banking at Home State located in Lake In The Hills for 20 years. Always enjoyed working…read morewith helpful and friendly staff. We are satisfied with loans and mortgage -all paid off now. Just an all around good bank to do business with. Staff is always considerate and helpful to explain questions we have taking time to help us understand completely. We highly recommend this bank because of these reasons. But, we have a special shoutout for a recent banking issue for my departed mom's PA account which no one was willing or able to help. Thank you Debbie L. For your kindness and understanding helping to resolve my problems. Sincerely, Ron L.

Knowledgeable friendly helpfull staff. I have never experienced an error with any of my accounts…read morefor over 40 years. I fell confident and secure with HSB. They go out of their way to answer questions and otherwise help. The Senior Class Club is a nice plus. No fee for counting my coins. No fee for blank checks. No fee for debit card. No fee for check or savings registers. No fee for paying real estate tax. No fee for bill payment checks. No fee for using ATM at HSB banking stations.

I have been a client (customer) of theirs for 20 years. Absolutely love the service and guidance…read more They treat me like family and look out for my best interests. Their knowledge of insurance is impeccable. I can call anytime if I have questions regarding insurance decisions and I feel secure in their expert advice.

Insurance is in my blood. Over 100 years ago my family started an insurance agency and I grew up…read morelistening to my mom and dad talk about the business. I didn't go into it which greatly disappointed them and have since worked with many others over the past forty years as we have bounced around. In every case I knew more about insurance than my agent - until I started working with Katy Zimmerman at Shelter. Incredibly knowledgeable, hard working, very prompt and an effective advocate for me with her underwriters. Couldn't imagine a better agent.

I needed to get a surety bond for a driving school and she really went above and beyond to get it…read more I highly recommend her to all my friends and family. I will definitely be coming back to reapply for the bond in a year or two.

In the past, the husband and I have always had his CPA/accountant brother look over our taxes…read morehaphazardly. This year, because we 1) just got married, 2) bought a home, and 3) have several incomes (some freelance) with us, we thought we'd get a professional. Also, because Husband's brother was being a pain in the ass about looking over our stuff. Having Charles do it was a lifesaver! He is so incredibly nice and extremely good at his job, and he actually is really invested in saving people money and helping them out. Yes, we had to pay someone to do our taxes, but he saved us so much time and stress. With our amateur calculations, we went from owing thousands to getting money back after Charles' attention to all the little details and advice. Not to mention, he is always responsive to emails and extremely fast - his rates are reasonable and he is worth every penny.

Charles was expensive, but I saw all the good reviews and was happy to pay a premium for good…read moreservice. However, I did not find him easy to reach when I had questions and did not feel he really spent much time with me. I would say that his unapologetic and cold responses to my Yelp review were characteristic of his communications with me, actually. After filing the taxes he prepared, I got a letter from the IRS about there being errors in the paperwork. I have seen the responses from Charles and my current accountant confirmed the errors made were Charles' fault and not due to an omission on my part. The errors were not a big hassle to fix beyond me needing to pay additional money, but I have never had this kind of problem with any other accountant nor have I ever hired an accountant who charged as much. It is true that Charles spent a lot of time telling me about his portal when I first met with him, but it was not clear to me initially that I would only get good service if I conformed to using this portal or how painful it would be to interact with him face-to-face or over the phone. If you like interacting with your accountant primarily through a computer portal, then you may like Charles a lot more than I did. He does have lots of good reviews so there are clearly people who like his approach. My advice, though, is that he may not be the best accountant for those like me who are not so computer savvy or who think paying top dollar for good service should involve more human interaction.