Alerus Financial Filing 2019-08-16

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INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

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As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 16, 2019.

Registration No. 333-                  

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM S-1
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

ALERUS FINANCIAL CORPORATION
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

401 Demers Avenue
Grand Forks, North Dakota 58201
(701) 795-3200
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant's principal executive offices)

Randy L. Newman
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Alerus Financial Corporation
401 Demers Avenue
Grand Forks, North Dakota 58201
(701) 795-3200
(Name, address, including zip code and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public:
As soon as practicable after the effective date of this registration statement.

           If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box. o

           If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. o

           If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. o

           If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. o

           Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definition of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company" and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

           If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. o

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

(1)

Estimated solely for the purpose of calculating the amount of the registration fee in accordance with Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

(2)

Includes the aggregate offering price of additional shares that the underwriters have the option to purchase.

           The registrant hereby amends this registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this registration statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the registration statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

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The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the Registration Statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell nor does it seek an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED AUGUST 16, 2019

PROSPECTUS

             Shares

Common Stock

        This is the initial public offering of Alerus Financial Corporation. We are offering                  shares of our common stock.

        Prior to this offering, shares of our common stock were quoted on the OTC Markets Group, Inc. OTCQX Marketplace under the symbol "ALRS." We anticipate that the public offering price of our common stock will be between $             and $             per share. We have applied to list our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "ALRS."

Investing in our common stock involves risk. See "Risk Factors" beginning on page 16.

        We are an "emerging growth company" under the federal securities laws and will be subject to reduced public company reporting requirements.

        The underwriters have an option to purchase up to an additional                  shares at the public offering price, less the underwriting discount, within 30 days from the date of this prospectus.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any other regulatory body has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

        Shares of our common stock are not savings accounts or deposits and are not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.

        The shares of common stock will be ready for delivery on or about                      , 2019.

The date of this prospectus is                      , 2019.

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About this Prospectus

        You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectus that we authorize to be delivered to you. We and the underwriters have not authorized anyone to provide you with different or additional information. If anyone provides you with different or additional information, you should not rely on it. We and the underwriters are not making an offer of these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer is not permitted. You should not assume that the information contained in this prospectus is accurate as of any date other than the date on the front of this prospectus. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects may have changed since that date.

        Unless we state otherwise or the context otherwise requires, references in this prospectus to "we," "our," "us" or "the Company" refer to Alerus Financial Corporation, a Delaware

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corporation, and our consolidated subsidiaries, and references to "Alerus Financial" or "Bank" refer to our banking subsidiary, Alerus Financial, National Association, a national banking association. References to "common stock" refer to the common stock, par value $1.00 per share, of the Company.

        We have proprietary rights to trademarks and other intellectual property appearing in this prospectus that are important to our business. Solely for convenience, the trademarks appearing in this prospectus are without the ® symbol, but such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights or the rights of the applicable licensors to these trademarks and other intellectual property. All trademarks appearing in this prospectus are the property of their respective owners.

        Any discrepancies included in this prospectus between totals and the sums of the percentages and dollar amounts presented are due to rounding.

Market and Industry Data

        Although we are responsible for all of the disclosures contained in this prospectus, this prospectus contains industry, market and competitive position data and forecasts that are based on industry publications and studies conducted by independent third parties. The industry publications and third-party studies generally state that the information that they contain has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, although they do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such information. Although we believe that the economic, employment, industry and other market data, including market position, market opportunity and market size information included in this prospectus is generally reliable, we have not verified the data, which is inherently imprecise and subject to change. The forward-looking statements included in this prospectus related to industry, market and competitive data position may be materially different than actual results.

Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company

        As a company with less than $1.07 billion in revenues during our last fiscal year, we qualify as an "emerging growth company" under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. An emerging growth company may take advantage of reduced reporting requirements and is relieved of certain other significant requirements that are otherwise generally applicable to public companies. As an emerging growth company:

•

we may present as few as two years of audited financial statements and two years of related management discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations;



•

we are exempt from the requirement to obtain an attestation and report from our auditors on management's assessment of our internal control over financial reporting under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002;



•

we are permitted to provide reduced disclosure regarding our executive compensation arrangements pursuant to the rules applicable to smaller reporting companies, which means we do not have to include a compensation discussion and analysis and certain other disclosures regarding our executive compensation; and

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•

we are not required to give our stockholders non-binding advisory votes on executive compensation or golden parachute arrangements.

        In this prospectus, we have opted to present three years of audited financial statements and the related management discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations, but otherwise, we have elected to take advantage of the reduced disclosure requirements and other relief described above, and in the future we may take advantage of any or all of these exemptions for as long as we remain an emerging growth company. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (i) the end of the fiscal year during which we have total annual gross revenues of $1.07 billion or more, (ii) the end of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (iii) the date on which we have, during the previous three-year period, issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt and (iv) the end of the first fiscal year in which (A) the market value of our equity securities that are held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of June 30 of that year, (B) we have been a public reporting company under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or Exchange Act, for at least twelve calendar months and (C) we have filed at least one annual report on Form 10-K.

        In addition to the relief described above, the JOBS Act permits us to take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards affecting public companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period, which means that the financial statements included in this prospectus, as well as any financial statements that we file in the future, will not be subject to all new or revised accounting standards generally applicable to public companies for the transition period for so long as we remain an emerging growth company or until we affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the extended transition period under the JOBS Act. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of public companies that comply with such new or revised accounting standards on a non-delayed basis.

ESOP Repurchase Right Termination

        In accordance with provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, that are applicable to private companies, the terms of the Alerus Financial Corporation Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, currently provide that ESOP participants have the right, for a specified period of time, to require us to repurchase shares of our common stock that are distributed to them by the ESOP. As a result, the ESOP-owned shares are deducted from total stockholders' equity in our consolidated balance sheets. The shares of common stock held by the ESOP are reflected in our consolidated balance sheets as a line item called "ESOP-owned shares" appearing between total liabilities and stockholders' equity. Upon the completion of this offering and the listing of our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market, our repurchase liability will be extinguished and the ESOP-owned shares will be included in total stockholders' equity.

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RISK FACTORS

        Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. The material risks and uncertainties that management believes affect us are described below. Before you decide to invest, you should carefully review and consider the risks described below, together with all other information included in this prospectus. Any of the following risks, as well as risks that we do not know or currently deem immaterial, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. As a result, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could experience a partial or complete loss of your investment. Further, to the extent that any of the information in this prospectus constitutes forward-looking statements, the risk factors below are cautionary statements identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by us or on our behalf. See "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements."

Risks Related to Our Business

Credit Risks

Our business depends on our ability to manage credit risk.

        As a bank, our business requires us to manage credit risk. As a lender, we are exposed to the risk that our borrowers will be unable to repay their loans according to their terms, and that the collateral securing repayment of their loans, if any, may not be sufficient to ensure repayment. In addition, there are risks inherent in making any loan, including risks with respect to the period of time over which the loan may be repaid, risks relating to proper loan underwriting, risks resulting from changes in economic and industry conditions and risks inherent in dealing with individual borrowers, including the risk that a borrower may not provide information to us about its business in a timely manner, or may present inaccurate or incomplete information to us, as well as risks relating to the value of collateral. To manage our credit risk, we must, among other actions, maintain disciplined and prudent underwriting standards and ensure that our bankers follow those standards. The weakening of these standards for any reason, such as an attempt to attract higher yielding loans, a lack of discipline or diligence by our employees in underwriting and monitoring loans or our inability to adequately adapt policies and procedures to changes in economic or any other conditions affecting borrowers and the quality of our loan portfolio, may result in loan defaults, foreclosures and charge-offs and may necessitate that we significantly increase our allowance for loan losses, each of which could adversely affect our net income. As a result, our inability to successfully manage credit risk could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Our allowance for loan losses may prove to be insufficient to absorb potential losses in our loan portfolio.

        We establish and maintain our allowance for loan losses at a level that management considers adequate to absorb probable loan losses based on an analysis of our loan portfolio and current market environment. The allowance for loan losses represents our estimate of probable losses in the portfolio at each balance sheet date and is based upon relevant information available to us at such time. The allowance contains provisions for probable losses that have been identified relating to specific borrowing relationships, as well as probable losses inherent in the loan portfolio that are not specifically identified. Additions to the allowance for loan losses, which are charged to earnings through the provision for loan losses, are determined based on a

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variety of factors, including an analysis of the loan portfolio, historical loss experience and an evaluation of current economic conditions in our market area. The actual amount of loan losses is affected by, among other things, changes in economic, operating and other conditions within our markets, which may be beyond our control, and such losses may exceed current estimates.

        As of June 30, 2019, our allowance for loan losses as a percentage of total loans was 1.24% and as a percentage of total nonperforming loans was 459.57%. Although management believes that the allowance for loan losses was adequate on such date to absorb probable losses on existing loans that may become uncollectible, losses in excess of the existing allowance will reduce our net income and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. We may also be required to take additional provisions for loan losses in the future to further supplement the allowance for loan losses, either due to management's assessment that the allowance is inadequate or as required by our banking regulators. Our banking regulators periodically review our allowance for loan losses and the value attributed to nonaccrual loans or to real estate acquired through foreclosure and may require us to adjust our determination of the value for these items. These adjustments may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        In addition, in June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, issued a new accounting standard that will replace the current approach under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or GAAP, for establishing the allowance for loan losses, which generally considers only past events and current conditions, with a forward-looking methodology that reflects the expected credit losses over the lives of financial assets, starting when such assets are first originated or acquired. Under the revised methodology, credit losses will be measured based on past events, current conditions and reasonable and supportable forecasts of future conditions that affect the collectability of financial assets. The new standard is expected to generally result in increases to allowance levels and will require the application of the revised methodology to existing financial assets through a one-time adjustment to retained earnings upon initial effectiveness. As an emerging growth company, this standard will be effective for us for fiscal years and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2021, although FASB recently announced its intention to consider delaying the required implementation of this new accounting standard.

A decline in the business and economic conditions in our market areas could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        Our business activities and credit exposure, including real estate collateral for many of our loans, are concentrated in North Dakota, Minnesota and Arizona, although we also pursue business opportunities nationally. As of June 30, 2019, 95.7% of the loans in our loan portfolio were made to borrowers who live in or conduct business in those states. This concentration imposes risks from lack of geographic diversification. Weak economic conditions in North Dakota, Minnesota and Arizona may affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects, where adverse economic developments, among other things, could affect the volume of loan originations, increase the level of nonperforming assets, increase the rate of foreclosure losses on loans and reduce the value of our loans and loan servicing portfolio. Weak economic conditions are characterized by, among other indicators, state and local government deficits, deflation, elevated levels of unemployment, fluctuations in debt and equity capital markets, increased delinquencies on mortgage, consumer and commercial loans, residential and commercial real estate price declines and lower home sales and commercial

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activity. Any regional or local economic downturn that affects North Dakota, Minnesota or Arizona or existing or prospective borrowers or property values in such areas may affect us and our profitability more significantly and more adversely than our competitors whose operations are less geographically concentrated. Further, a general economic slowdown could decrease the value of the AUA and AUM of our retirement and benefit services and wealth management businesses resulting in lower fee income, and clients could potentially seek alternative investment opportunities with other providers, which could also result in lower fee income to us. Our business is also significantly affected by monetary, trade and other regulatory policies of the U.S. federal government, its agencies and government-sponsored entities. Changes in any of these policies are influenced by macroeconomic conditions and other factors that are beyond our control, are difficult to predict and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and growth prospects.

Because a significant portion of our loan portfolio is comprised of real estate loans, negative changes in the economy affecting real estate values and liquidity, as well as environmental factors, could impair the value of collateral securing our real estate loans and result in loan and other losses.

        At June 30, 2019, approximately 64.6% of our total loan portfolio was comprised of loans with real estate as a primary or secondary component of collateral. The repayment of such loans is highly dependent on the ability of the borrowers to meet their loan repayment obligations to us, which can be adversely affected by economic downturns that can lead to (i) declines in the rents and, therefore, in the cash flows generated by those real properties on which the borrowers depend to fund their loan payments to us, (ii) decreases in the values of those real properties, which make it more difficult for the borrowers to sell those real properties for amounts sufficient to repay their loans in full, and (iii) job losses of residential home buyers, which makes it more difficult for these borrowers to fund their loan payments. As a result, adverse developments affecting real estate values in our market areas could increase the credit risk associated with our real estate loan portfolio. The market value of real estate can fluctuate significantly in a short period of time as a result of market conditions in the area in which the real estate is located. Adverse changes affecting real estate values and the liquidity of real estate in one or more of our markets could increase the credit risk associated with our loan portfolio, significantly impair the value of property pledged as collateral on loans and affect our ability to sell the collateral upon foreclosure without a loss or additional losses or our ability to sell those loans on the secondary market. Such declines and losses would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. If real estate values decline, it is also more likely that we would be required to increase our allowance for loan losses, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. In addition, adverse weather events, including tornados, wildfires, flooding, and mudslides, can cause damage to the property pledged as collateral on loans, which could result in additional losses upon a foreclosure.

        In addition, if hazardous or toxic substances are found on properties pledged as collateral, the value of the real estate could be impaired. If we foreclose on and take title to such properties, we may be liable for remediation costs, as well as for personal injury and property damage. Environmental laws may require us to incur substantial expenses to address unknown liabilities and may materially reduce the affected property's value or limit our ability to use or sell the affected property. In addition, future laws or more stringent interpretations or enforcement policies with respect to existing laws may increase our exposure to environmental liability. The remediation costs and any other financial liabilities associated with an

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environmental hazard could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Many of our loans are to commercial borrowers, which have a higher degree of risk than other types of loans.

        Commercial and industrial loans represented 29.9% of our total loan portfolio at June 30, 2019. These loans are often larger and involve greater risks than other types of lending. Because payments on such loans are often dependent on the successful operation of the business involved, repayment of such loans is often more sensitive than other types of loans to the general business climate and economy. Accordingly, a challenging business and economic environment may increase our risk related to commercial loans. Unlike residential mortgage loans, which generally are made on the basis of the borrowers' ability to make repayment from their employment and other income and which are secured by real property whose value tends to be more easily ascertainable, commercial loans typically are made on the basis of the borrowers' ability to make repayment from the cash flow of the commercial venture. Our commercial and industrial loans are primarily made based on the identified cash flow of the borrower and secondarily on the collateral underlying the loans. Most often, this collateral consists of accounts receivable, inventory and equipment. Inventory and equipment may depreciate over time, may be difficult to appraise and may fluctuate in value based on the success of the business. If the cash flow from business operations is reduced, the borrower's ability to repay the loan may be impaired. Due to the larger average size of each commercial loan as compared with other loans such as residential loans, as well as collateral that is generally less readily-marketable, losses incurred on a small number of commercial loans could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Our loan portfolio has a large concentration of commercial real estate loans, which involve risks specific to real estate values and the health of the real estate market generally.

        As of June 30, 2019, we had $469.4 million of commercial real estate loans, consisting of $360.6 million of loans secured by nonfarm nonresidential properties, $71.4 million of loans secured by multifamily residential properties, $26.6 million of construction and land development loans and $10.8 million of loans secured by farmland. Commercial real estate loans represented 27.4% of our total loan portfolio and 174.4% of the Bank's total capital at June 30, 2019. The market value of real estate securing our commercial real estate loans can fluctuate significantly in a short period of time as a result of market conditions. Adverse developments affecting real estate values in our market areas could increase the credit risk associated with our loan portfolio. Additionally, the repayment of commercial real estate loans generally is dependent, in large part, on sufficient income from the properties securing the loans to cover operating expenses and debt service. Economic events or governmental regulations outside of the control of the borrower or lender could negatively impact the future cash flow and market values of the affected properties. If the loans that are collateralized by real estate become troubled during a time when market conditions are declining or have declined, then we may not be able to realize the full value of the collateral that we anticipated at the time of originating the loan, which could force us to take charge-offs or require us to increase our provision for loan losses, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

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Construction and land development loans are based upon estimates of costs and values associated with the complete project. These estimates may be inaccurate, and we may be exposed to significant losses on loans for these projects.

        Construction and land development loans comprised approximately 1.6% of our total loan portfolio as of June 30, 2019. Such lending involves additional risks because funds are advanced upon the security of the project, which is of uncertain value prior to its completion, and costs may exceed realizable values in declining real estate markets. Because of the uncertainties inherent in estimating construction costs and the realizable market value of the completed project and the effects of governmental regulation of real property, it is relatively difficult to evaluate accurately the total funds required to complete a project and the related loan-to-value ratio. As a result, construction and land development loans often involve the disbursement of substantial funds with repayment dependent, in part, on the success of the ultimate project and the ability of the borrower to sell or lease the property, rather than the ability of the borrower or guarantor to repay principal and interest. If our appraisal of the value of the completed project proves to be overstated or market values or rental rates decline, we may have inadequate security for the repayment of the loan upon completion of construction of the project. If we are forced to foreclose on a project prior to or at completion due to a default, we may not be able to recover all of the unpaid balance of, and accrued interest on, the loan as well as related foreclosure and holding costs. In addition, we may be required to fund additional amounts to complete the project and may have to hold the property for an unspecified period of time while we attempt to dispose of it.

Nonperforming assets take significant time to resolve and adversely affect our net interest income.

        As of June 30, 2019, our nonperforming loans (which consist of nonaccrual loans and loans past due 90 days or more) totaled $4.6 million, or 0.27% of our total loan portfolio, and our nonperforming assets (which consist of nonperforming loans, foreclosed assets and other real estate owned) totaled $5.0 million, or 0.23% of total assets. In addition, we had $11.9 million in accruing loans that were 31-89 days delinquent as of June 30, 2019.

        Our nonperforming assets adversely affect our net interest income in various ways. We do not record interest income on nonaccrual loans or foreclosed assets, thereby adversely affecting our net income and returns on assets and equity. When we take collateral in foreclosure and similar proceedings, we are required to mark the collateral to its then-fair market value, which may result in a loss. These nonperforming loans and foreclosed assets also increase our risk profile and the level of capital our regulators believe is appropriate for us to maintain in light of such risks. The resolution of nonperforming assets requires significant time commitments from management, which increases our loan administration costs and adversely affects our efficiency ratio, and can be detrimental to the performance of their other responsibilities. If we experience increases in nonperforming loans and nonperforming assets, our net interest income may be negatively impacted and our loan administration costs could increase, each of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Our high concentration of large loans to certain borrowers may increase our credit risk.

        We have developed relationships with certain individuals and businesses that have resulted in a concentration of large loans to a small number of borrowers. As of June 30, 2019, our 10 largest borrowing relationships accounted for approximately 5.5% of our total loan portfolio. We

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have established an informal, internal limit on loans to one borrower, principal or guarantor, but we may, under certain circumstances, consider going above this internal limit in situations where management's understanding of the industry, the borrower's business and the credit quality of the borrower are commensurate with the increased size of the loan. Along with other risks inherent in these loans, such as the deterioration of the underlying businesses or property securing these loans, this high concentration of borrowers presents a risk to our lending operations. If any one of these borrowers becomes unable to repay its loan obligations as a result of business, economic or market conditions, or personal circumstances, such as divorce or death, our nonaccruing loans and our provision for loan losses could increase significantly, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

The small to midsized businesses that we lend to may have fewer resources to weather adverse business developments, which may impair their ability to repay their loans.

        We lend to small to midsized businesses, which generally have fewer financial resources in terms of capital or borrowing capacity than larger entities, frequently have smaller market share than their competition, may be more vulnerable to economic downturns, often need substantial additional capital to expand or compete and may experience substantial volatility in operating results, any of which may impair their ability to repay their loans. In addition, the success of a small and midsized business often depends on the management talents and efforts of one or two people or a small group of people, and the death, disability or resignation of one or more of these people could have a material adverse impact on the business and its ability to repay its loan. If general economic conditions negatively impact the markets in which we operate and small to midsized businesses are adversely affected or our borrowers are otherwise affected by adverse business developments, our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects may be materially adversely affected.

Real estate market volatility and future changes in our disposition strategies could result in net proceeds that differ significantly from our foreclosed asset fair value appraisals.

        As of June 30, 2019, we had $381 thousand of foreclosed assets, which consisted of properties that we obtained through foreclosure. Assets acquired through loan foreclosure are included in other assets and are initially recorded at estimated fair value less estimated selling costs. The estimated fair value of foreclosed assets is evaluated regularly and any decreases in value along with holding costs, such as taxes, insurance and utilities, are reported in noninterest expense.

        In response to market conditions and other economic factors, we may utilize alternative sale strategies other than orderly disposition as part of our foreclosed asset disposition strategy, such as immediate liquidation sales. In this event, as a result of the significant judgments required in estimating fair value and the variables involved in different methods of disposition, the net proceeds realized from such sales transactions could differ significantly from appraisals, comparable sales and other estimates used to determine the fair value of our foreclosed assets.

Our exposure to home equity lines of credit may increase the potential for loss.

        Our mortgage loan portfolio consists, in part, of home equity lines of credit. A large portion of home equity lines of credit are originated in conjunction with the origination of first mortgage loans eligible for sale in the secondary market, which we typically do not service if the loan is sold. By not servicing the first mortgage loans, we are unable to track the delinquency status

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which may indicate whether such loans are at risk of foreclosure by others. In addition, home equity lines of credit are initially offered as "revolving" lines of credit whereby the borrowers are only required to make scheduled interest payments during the initial terms of the loans, which is generally five years. Thereafter, the borrowers no longer have the ability to make principal draws from the lines and the loans convert to a fully-amortizing basis, requiring scheduled principal and interest payments sufficient to repay the loans within a certain period of time, which is generally 10 years. The conversion of a home equity line of credit to a fully amortizing basis presents an increased level of default risk to us since the borrower no longer has the ability to make principal draws on the line, and the amount of the required monthly payment could substantially increase to provide for scheduled repayment of principal and interest.

Operational, Strategic and Reputational Risks

Noninterest income represents a significant portion of our total revenue and may be negatively impacted by changes in economic or market conditions and competition.

        A significant portion of our revenue results from fee-based services provided by our retirement and benefit services business. This contrasts with many other community and regional banks that rely more heavily on interest-based sources of revenue, such as loans and investment securities. For the year ended December 31, 2018, noninterest income represented approximately 57.7% of our total revenue, a significant portion of which is derived from our retirement and benefit services business. For the six months ended June 30, 2019, noninterest income represented approximately 59.5% of our total revenue. This fee income business presents special risks not borne by other institutions that focus exclusively on banking. The level of these fees is influenced by several factors, including the number of plans and participants we provide retirement, advisory and other services for, the level of transactions within the plans, and the asset values of the plans whose fees are earned based on the level of assets in the plans. If we are unable to maintain our number of plans, participants and AUA and AUM at historical or greater levels, our fee income derived from this business may decline. For example, in a typical year we expect to experience outflows in AUA and AUM due to withdrawals, client turnover, plan terminations, mergers and acquisition activity. In 2018, we experienced outflows of $5.0 billion in our retirement and benefit services division partially offset by inflows of $4.6 billion.

        In addition, economic, market or other factors that reduce the level or rates of savings in or with our clients, either through reductions in financial asset valuations or through changes in investor preferences, could materially reduce our fee revenue. The financial markets and businesses operating in the securities industry are highly volatile (meaning that performance results can vary greatly within short periods of time) and are directly affected by, among other factors, domestic and foreign economic conditions and general trends in business and finance, all of which are beyond our control. We cannot assure you that broad market performance will be favorable in the future. Declines in the financial markets or a lack of sustained growth may result in a corresponding decline in our performance and may adversely affect the value of the assets that we manage. A general economic slowdown could decrease the value of the AUA and AUM in our retirement and benefit services and wealth management businesses and result in clients potentially seeking alternative investment opportunities with other providers, which could result in lower fee income to our Company.

        Even when economic and market conditions are generally favorable, our investment performance may be adversely affected by the investment style of our asset managers and the

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particular investments that they make. To the extent our future investment performance is perceived to be poor in either relative or absolute terms, the revenues and profitability of our wealth management business will likely be reduced and our ability to attract new clients will likely be impaired. In addition, our management contracts generally provide for fee payments for wealth management and trust services based on the market value of AUM. Because most contracts provide for a fee based on market values of securities, fluctuations in the underlying securities values may have a material adverse effect on our revenue. Fee compression due to competitive pressures has resulted in and continues to result in significant pressure to reduce the fees we charge for our services in both our retirement and benefit services and wealth management businesses.

We may not be successful in implementing our organic growth strategy, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        Part of our business strategy is to focus on organic growth, which includes leveraging our business lines across our entire client base, enhancing brand awareness and building our infrastructure. The success of our organic growth strategy depends on our ability to increase loans, deposits, AUM and AUA at acceptable risk levels without incurring offsetting increases in noninterest expense. We may not be successful in generating organic growth if we fail to effectively execute our integrated One Alerus strategy or as a result of other factors, including delays in introducing and implementing new products and services and other impediments resulting from regulatory oversight or lack of qualified personnel at our office locations. In addition, the success of our organic growth strategy will depend on maintaining sufficient regulatory capital levels and on favorable economic conditions in our primary market areas. Failure to adequately manage the risks associated with our anticipated organic growth could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

In addition to our organic growth strategy, we intend to expand our business by acquiring other banks and financial services companies, but we may not be successful in doing so, either because of an inability to find suitable acquisition candidates, constrained capital resources or otherwise.

        While a key element of our business strategy is to grow our banking franchise and increase our market share through organic growth, we intend to take advantage of opportunities to acquire other banks and financial services companies, including wealth management and retirement administration businesses, as such opportunities present themselves. Although we intend to continue to grow our business through organic growth and strategic acquisitions, because certain of our market areas are comprised of mature, rural communities with limited population growth, we anticipate that much of our future growth will be dependent on our ability to successfully implement our acquisition growth strategy. However, we may not be able to identify suitable acquisition targets or even if we do, we may not succeed in seizing such opportunities when they arise or in integrating any such banks or financial service companies within our existing business framework. In addition, even if suitable targets are identified, we expect to compete for such businesses with other potential bidders, many of which may have greater financial resources than we have, which may adversely affect our ability to make acquisitions at attractive prices. Our ability to execute on acquisition opportunities may require us to raise additional capital and to increase our capital position to support the growth of our franchise. It will also depend on market conditions over which we have no control. Moreover,

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certain acquisitions may require the approval of our bank regulators, and we may not be able to obtain such approvals on acceptable terms, if at all.

If we pursue additional acquisitions, it may expose us to financial, execution and operational risks that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and growth prospects.

        Since 2000, we have experienced significant growth, both organically and through acquisitions of banks and other financial service providers, including wealth management and retirement administration businesses. We plan to continue to grow our business by executing additional strategic acquisitions of all or parts of other banks or financial institutions or through the hiring of teams of employees that fit within our overall strategy and that we believe make financial and strategic sense. These acquisitions may result in us entering new markets.

        Although we do not have any current plans, arrangements or understandings to make any additional acquisitions, if we grow through acquisitions, it may expose us to financial, execution and operational risks that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and growth prospects. Acquiring other banks and financial service providers involve risks commonly associated with acquisitions, including:

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potential exposure to unknown or contingent liabilities of the banks and businesses we acquire;



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exposure to potential asset and credit quality issues of the acquired bank or related business;



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difficulty and expense of integrating the operations, culture and personnel of banks and businesses we acquire, including higher than expected deposit attrition;



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potential disruption to our business;



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potential restrictions on our business resulting from the regulatory approval process;



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an inability to realize the expected revenue increases, costs savings, market presence or other anticipated benefits;



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potential diversion of our management's time and attention; and



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the possible loss of key employees and clients of the banks and businesses we acquire.

        In addition to the foregoing, we may face additional risks in acquisitions to the extent we acquire new lines of business or new products, or enter new geographic areas, in which we have little or no current experience, especially if we lose key employees of the acquired operations. If we hire a new team of employees, we may incur additional expenses relating to their compensation without any guarantee that such new team will be successful in generating new business. In addition, if we later determine that the value of an acquired business has decreased and that the related goodwill is impaired, an impairment of goodwill charge to earnings would be recognized.

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        Acquisitions involve inherent uncertainty and we cannot assure you that we will be successful in overcoming these risks or any other problems encountered in connection with acquisitions. Our inability to overcome risks associated with acquisitions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Our retirement and benefit services business relies on acquisitions to maintain and grow our AUA.

        In 2018 and 2017, our retirement and benefit services business experienced outflows of AUA and AUM of $5.0 billion and $4.8 billion, respectively, due to withdrawals, client turnover, plan terminations, mergers and acquisition activity. For the six months ended June 30, 2019, we experienced outflows of $2.6 billion or 9.5 percent. We believe this level of runoff is typical in the industry. To maintain and grow this business, we believe we need to be an active acquirer and seek to complete acquisitions of retirement administration providers if we are able to find quality acquisition opportunities. If we are unable to source a pipeline of potential acquisitions of companies that we determine are a good strategic fit for our Company, our retirement and benefit services business may fail to grow or even shrink, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We have a concentration of large clients in our retirement and benefit services business, and if one of these clients were to terminate their business relationship with us or be acquired by another organization, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        For the year ended December 31, 2018, our 10 largest client relationships accounted for approximately 8.9% of the revenue attributable to our retirement and benefit services business. For the six months ended June 30, 2019, our 10 largest client relationships accounted for approximately 8.6% of this revenue. During a typical year, our retirement and benefit services business loses clients due to plan terminations, primarily as a result of merger and acquisition activity. If any one of these larger clients terminates their business relationship with us, either voluntarily or as a result of being acquired by another organization, it could decrease the revenue of this business line and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

If we are unable to continue to originate residential real estate loans and sell them into the secondary market for a profit, our noninterest income could decrease.

        We derive a portion of our noninterest income from the origination of residential real estate loans and the subsequent sale of such loans into the secondary market. If we are unable to continue to originate and sell residential real estate loans at historical or greater levels, our residential real estate loan volume would decrease, which could decrease our earnings. A rising interest rate environment, general economic conditions, market volatility or other factors beyond our control could adversely affect our ability to originate residential real estate loans. Mortgage banking income is highly influenced by the level and direction of mortgage interest rates and real estate and refinancing activity. In a lower interest rate environment, the demand for mortgage loans and refinancing activity will tend to increase. This has the effect of increasing fee income, but could adversely impact the estimated fair value of our Company's mortgage servicing rights as the rate of loan prepayments increase. In a higher interest rate environment, the demand for mortgage loans and refinancing activity will generally be lower. This has the effect of decreasing fee income opportunities.

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        The financial services industry is experiencing an increase in regulations and compliance requirements related to mortgage loan originations necessitating technology upgrades and other changes. If new regulations continue to increase and we are unable to make technology upgrades, our ability to originate mortgage loans will be reduced or eliminated. Additionally, we sell a large portion of our residential real estate loans to third party investors, and rising interest rates could negatively affect our ability to generate suitable profits on the sale of such loans. If interest rates increase after we originate the loans, our ability to market those loans is impaired as the profitability on the loans decreases. These fluctuations can have an adverse effect on the revenue we generate from residential real estate loans and in certain instances, could result in a loss on the sale of the loans.

        In addition, a prolonged period of illiquidity in the secondary mortgage market, and an increase in interest rates, could reduce the demand for residential mortgage loans and increase investor yield requirements for those loans. As a result, we may be at higher risk of retaining a larger portion of mortgage loans than in other environments until they are sold to investors. Our ability to retain residential mortgage loans is limited and could result in a reduction of loan production volumes, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

The occurrence of fraudulent activity, breaches or failures of our information security controls or cybersecurity-related incidents could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        As a financial institution, we are susceptible to fraudulent activity, information security breaches and cybersecurity-related incidents that may be committed against us, our clients or third parties with whom we interact, which may result in financial losses or increased costs to us or our clients, disclosure or misuse of our information or our client information, misappropriation of assets, privacy breaches against our clients, litigation or damage to our reputation. Such fraudulent activity may take many forms, including check fraud, electronic fraud, wire fraud, phishing, social engineering and other dishonest acts. Information security breaches and cybersecurity-related incidents may include fraudulent or unauthorized access to systems used by us or our clients, denial or degradation of service attacks and malware or other cyber-attacks.

        In recent periods, there continues to be a rise in electronic fraudulent activity, security breaches and cyber-attacks within the financial services industry, especially in the commercial banking sector due to cyber criminals targeting commercial bank accounts. Consistent with industry trends, we have also experienced an increase in attempted electronic fraudulent activity, security breaches and cybersecurity related incidents in recent periods. Moreover, in recent periods, several large corporations, including financial institutions and retail companies, have suffered major data breaches, in some cases exposing not only confidential and proprietary corporate information, but also sensitive financial and other personal information of their clients and employees and subjecting them to potential fraudulent activity. We are not aware that we have experienced any material misappropriation, loss or other unauthorized disclosure of confidential or personally identifiable information as a result of a cyber-security breach or other act, however, some of our clients may have been affected by these breaches, which could increase their risks of identity theft and other fraudulent activity that could involve their accounts with us.

        Information pertaining to us and our clients is maintained, and transactions are executed, on networks and systems maintained by us and certain third-party partners, such as our online

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banking, mobile banking, record keeping or accounting systems. The secure maintenance and transmission of confidential information, as well as execution of transactions over these systems, are essential to protect us and our clients against fraud and security breaches and to maintain the confidence of our clients. Breaches of information security also may occur through intentional or unintentional acts by those having access to our systems or the confidential information of our clients, including employees. In addition, increases in criminal activity levels and sophistication, advances in computer capabilities, new discoveries, vulnerabilities in third party technologies (including browsers and operating systems) or other developments could result in a compromise or breach of the technology, processes and controls that we use to prevent fraudulent transactions and to protect data about us, our clients and underlying transactions, as well as the technology used by our clients to access our systems. Our third party partners' inability to anticipate, or failure to adequately mitigate, breaches of security could result in a number of negative events, including losses to us or our clients, loss of business or clients, damage to our reputation, the incurrence of additional expenses, disruption to our business, additional regulatory scrutiny or penalties or our exposure to civil litigation and possible financial liability, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We depend on information technology and telecommunications systems, and any systems failures, interruptions or data breaches involving these systems could adversely affect our operations and financial condition.

        Our business is highly dependent on the successful and uninterrupted functioning of our information technology and telecommunications systems, third party servicers, accounting systems, mobile and online banking platforms and financial intermediaries. The risks resulting from use of these systems result from a variety of factors, both internal and external. We are vulnerable to the impact of failures of our systems to operate as needed or intended. Such failures could include those resulting from human error, unexpected transaction volumes, or overall design or performance issues.

        We outsource to third parties many of our major systems, such as data processing and mobile and online banking. In addition, we recently partnered with a leading financial technology company to create an online account portal that integrates our diverse product applications into a user-friendly experience for our consumer clients. The failure of these systems, or the termination of a third-party software license or service agreement on which any of these systems is based, could interrupt our operations. Because our information technology and telecommunications systems interface with and depend on third party systems, we could experience service denials if demand for such services exceeds capacity or such third-party systems fail or experience interruptions. A system failure or service denial could result in a deterioration of our ability to process loans or gather deposits and provide customer service, compromise our ability to operate effectively, result in potential noncompliance with applicable laws or regulations, damage our reputation, result in a loss of client business or subject us to additional regulatory scrutiny and possible financial liability, any of which could have a material adverse effect on business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. In addition, failures of third parties to comply with applicable laws and regulations, or fraud or misconduct on the part of employees of any of these third parties, could disrupt our operations or adversely affect our reputation.

        It may be difficult for us to replace some of our third-party vendors, particularly vendors providing our core banking and information services, in a timely manner if they are unwilling or unable to provide us with these services in the future for any reason and even if we are able to

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replace them, it may be at higher cost or result in the loss of clients. Any such events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        Our operations rely heavily on the secure processing, storage and transmission of information and the monitoring of a large number of transactions on a minute-by-minute basis, and even a short interruption in service could have significant consequences. We also interact with and rely on retailers, for whom we process transactions, as well as financial counterparties and regulators. Each of these third parties may be targets of the same types of fraudulent activity, computer break-ins and other cyber security breaches described above, and the cyber security measures that they maintain to mitigate the risk of such activity may be different than our own and may be inadequate.

        Because financial entities and technology systems are becoming more interdependent and complex, a cyber incident, information breach or loss, or technology failure that compromises the systems or data of one or more financial entities could have a material impact on counterparties or other market participants, including ourselves. As a result of the foregoing, our ability to conduct business may be adversely affected by any significant disruptions to us or to third parties with whom we interact.

Uncertainty relating to the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate ("LIBOR") calculation process and potential phasing out of LIBOR may adversely affect our results of operations.

        Regulators and law enforcement agencies in a number of countries are conducting civil and criminal investigations into whether the banks that contribute to the British Bankers' Association ("BBA") in connection with the calculation of LIBOR may have been under-reporting or otherwise manipulating or attempting to manipulate LIBOR. A number of BBA member banks have entered into settlements with their regulators and law enforcement agencies with respect to this alleged manipulation of LIBOR. Actions by the BBA, regulators or law enforcement agencies may result in changes to the manner in which LIBOR is determined or the establishment of alternative reference rates. At this time, it is not possible to predict the effect of any such changes, any establishment of alternative reference rates or any other reforms to LIBOR that may be enacted. Uncertainty as to the nature of such potential changes, alternative reference rates or other reforms may adversely affect the value of LIBOR-based loans and securities in our portfolio, and may impact the availability and cost of hedging instruments and borrowings. If LIBOR rates are no longer available, and we are required to implement substitute indices for the calculation of interest rates under our loan agreements, we may incur additional expenses in effecting the transition, and we may be subject to disputes or litigation with clients over the appropriateness or comparability to LIBOR of the substitute indices, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations. As of June 30, 2019, approximately $366.0 million of our outstanding loans had interest rates tied to LIBOR market rates.

Potential losses incurred in connection with possible repurchases and indemnification payments related to mortgages that we have sold into the secondary market may require us to increase our financial statement reserves in the future.

        We engage in the origination and sale of residential real estate loans into the secondary market. In connection with such sales, we make certain representations and warranties, which, if breached, may require us to repurchase such loans or indemnify the purchasers of such loans for actual losses incurred in respect of such loans. These representations and warranties vary based on the nature of the transaction and the purchaser's or insurer's requirements but generally

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pertain to the ownership of the mortgage loan, the real property securing the loan and compliance with applicable laws and applicable lender and government-sponsored entity underwriting guidelines in connection with the origination of the loan. While we believe our mortgage lending practices and standards to be adequate, we may receive repurchase or indemnification requests in the future, which could be material in volume. If that were to happen, we could incur losses in connection with loan repurchases and indemnification claims, and any such losses might exceed our financial statement reserves, requiring us to increase such reserves. In that event, any losses we might have to recognize and any increases we might have to make to our reserves could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and growth prospects.

We are highly dependent on our executive management team, and the loss of any of our senior executive officers or other key employees, or our inability to attract and retain qualified personnel, could harm our ability to implement our strategic plan and impair our relationships with clients.

        Our success is dependent, to a large degree, upon the continued service and skills of our executive management team, which consists of Randy Newman, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Katie Lorenson, our Chief Financial Officer, Ann McConn, our Chief Business Officer, Kris Compton, our Chief Strategy Officer and Karin Taylor, our Chief Risk Officer. Our business and growth strategies are built primarily upon our ability to retain employees with experience and business relationships within our market areas. The loss of any of the members of our executive management team or any of our other key personnel, including our client relationship managers, could have an adverse impact on our business and growth because of their skills, years of industry experience, knowledge of our market areas, the difficulty of finding qualified replacement personnel and any difficulties associated with transitioning of responsibilities to any new members of the executive management team. As such, we need to continue to attract and retain key personnel and to recruit qualified individuals who fit our culture to succeed existing key personnel to ensure the continued growth and successful operation of our business. Leadership changes may occur from time to time, and except as noted below, we cannot predict whether significant retirements or resignations will occur or whether we will be able to recruit additional qualified personnel. Kris Compton, our Chief Strategy Officer, has advised us that she is planning to retire from our Company at the end of 2019. As part of our succession plan, we intend to fill the vacated position by identifying a pool of internal and external candidates and ultimately selecting the most qualified individual. But we may be unsuccessful in finding a qualified candidate to replace Ms. Compton, which could negatively impact our Company.

        Competition for senior executives and skilled personnel in the financial services industry is intense, which means the cost of hiring, incentivizing and retaining skilled personnel may continue to increase. In addition, our ability to effectively compete for senior executives and other qualified personnel by offering competitive compensation and benefit arrangements may be restricted by applicable banking laws and regulations. The loss of the services of any senior executive or other key personnel, the inability to recruit and retain qualified personnel in the future or the failure to develop and implement a viable succession plan could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

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Our ability to retain and recruit employees is critical to the success of our business strategy and any failure to do so could impair our customer relationships and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        Our ability to retain and grow our loans, deposits and fee income depends upon the business generation capabilities, reputation and relationship management skills of our employees. If we lose the services of any of our employees, including successful employees employed by banks or other businesses that we may acquire, to a new or existing competitor or otherwise, we may not be able to retain valuable relationships and some of our customers could choose to use the services of a competitor instead of our services.

        Our success and growth strategy also depends on our continued ability to attract and retain experienced employees for all of our business lines. We may face difficulties in recruiting and retaining personnel of our desired caliber, including as a result of competition from other financial institutions. Competition for high quality personnel is strong and we may not be successful in attracting or retaining the personnel we require. In particular, many of our competitors are significantly larger with greater financial resources, and may be able to offer more attractive compensation packages and broader career opportunities. Additionally, we may incur significant expenses and expend significant time and resources on training, integration and business development before we are able to determine whether a new employee will be profitable or effective in his or her role. If we are unable to attract and retain a successful customer development and management team or if our customer development and management team fails to meet our expectations in terms of customer relationships and profitability, we may be unable to execute our business strategy and our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects may be negatively affected.

Our ability to maintain our reputation is critical to the success of our business, and the failure to do so may materially adversely affect our business and the value of our stock.

        We rely, in part, on our reputation to attract clients and retain our client relationships. Damage to our reputation could undermine the confidence of our current and potential clients in our ability to provide high-quality financial services. Such damage could also impair the confidence of our counterparties and vendors and ultimately affect our ability to effect transactions. In particular, our ability to attract and retain clients and employees could be adversely affected to the extent our reputation is damaged. Our actual or perceived failure to address various issues could give rise to reputational risk that could cause harm to us and our business prospects. These issues include, but are not limited to, legal and regulatory requirements; privacy; client and other third-party fraud; properly maintaining and safeguarding client and employee personal information; money-laundering; illegal or fraudulent sales practices; ethical issues; appropriately addressing potential conflicts of interest; and the proper identification and disclosure of the legal, reputational, credit, liquidity, and market risks inherent in our products. Failure to appropriately address any of these issues could also give rise to additional regulatory restrictions, reputational harm and legal risks, which could, among other consequences, increase the size and number of litigation claims and damages asserted or subject us to enforcement actions, fines, and penalties and cause us to incur related costs and expenses. In addition, our businesses are dependent on the integrity of our relationship, asset managers and other employees. If a relationship manager, asset manager or other employee were to misappropriate any client funds or client information, the reputation of our businesses could be negatively affected, which may result in the loss of accounts and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

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        Maintenance of our reputation depends not only on our success in maintaining our service-focused culture and controlling and mitigating the various risks described in this prospectus, but also on our success in identifying and appropriately addressing issues that may arise in the areas described above. Maintaining our reputation also depends on our ability to successfully prevent third parties from infringing on the "Alerus" brand and associated trademarks and our other intellectual property. Defense of our reputation, trademarks and other intellectual property, including through litigation, could result in costs that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Our use of third-party vendors and our other ongoing third-party business relationships is subject to increasing regulatory requirements and attention.

        Our use of third party vendors, including the financial technology company we recently partnered with to create a customer portal, for certain information systems is subject to increasingly demanding regulatory requirements and attention by our federal bank regulators. Recent regulations require us to enhance our due diligence, ongoing monitoring and control over our third-party vendors and other ongoing third-party business relationships. In certain cases, we may be required to renegotiate our agreements with these vendors to meet these enhanced requirements, which could increase our costs. We expect that our regulators will hold us responsible for deficiencies in our oversight and control of our third-party relationships and in the performance of the parties with which we have these relationships. As a result, if our regulators conclude that we have not exercised adequate oversight and control over our third party vendors or other ongoing third party business relationships or that such third parties have not performed appropriately, we could be subject to enforcement actions, including civil money penalties or other administrative or judicial penalties or fines, as well as requirements for client remediation, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We have a continuing need for technological change, and we may not have the resources to effectively implement new technology or we may experience operational challenges when implementing new technology.

        The financial services industry is undergoing rapid technological changes with frequent introductions of new technology-driven products and services. In addition to better serving clients, the effective use of technology increases efficiency and enables financial institutions to reduce costs. Our future success will depend in part upon our ability to address the needs of our clients by using technology to provide products and services that will satisfy client demands for convenience as well as to create additional efficiencies in our operations. We may experience operational challenges as we implement these new technology enhancements, which could result in us not fully realizing the anticipated benefits from such new technology or require us to incur significant costs to remedy any such challenges in a timely manner.

        Many of our larger competitors have substantially greater resources to invest in technological improvements. As a result, they may be able to offer additional or superior products to those that we will be able to offer, which would put us at a competitive disadvantage. Accordingly, a risk exists that we will not be able to effectively implement new technology-driven products and services or be successful in marketing such products and services to our clients.

        In addition, the implementation of technological changes and upgrades to maintain current systems and integrate new ones may also cause service interruptions, transaction processing errors and system conversion delays and may cause us to fail to comply with applicable laws.

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We expect that new technologies and business processes applicable to the financial services industry will continue to emerge, and these new technologies and business processes may be better than those we currently use. Because the pace of technological change is high and our industry is intensely competitive, we may not be able to sustain our investment in new technology as critical systems and applications become obsolete or as better ones become available. A failure to successfully keep pace with technological change affecting the financial services industry and failure to avoid interruptions, errors and delays could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We are subject to certain operational risks, including, but not limited to, customer or employee fraud and data processing system failures and errors.

        Employee errors and employee and customer misconduct could subject us to financial losses or regulatory sanctions and seriously harm our reputation. Misconduct by our employees could include hiding unauthorized activities from us, improper or unauthorized activities on behalf of our customers or improper use of confidential information. It is not always possible to prevent employee errors and misconduct, and the precautions we take to prevent and detect this activity may not be effective in all cases. Employee errors could also subject us to financial claims for negligence.

        We maintain a system of internal controls and insurance coverage to mitigate against operational risks, including data processing system failures and errors and customer or employee fraud. If our internal controls fail to prevent or detect an occurrence, or if any resulting loss is not insured or exceeds applicable insurance limits, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition results of operations and growth prospects.

Our business and operations may be adversely affected in numerous and complex ways by weak economic conditions and global trade.

        Our businesses and operations, which primarily consist of lending money to clients in the form of commercial and residential mortgage loans, borrowing money from clients in the form of deposits and savings accounts, investing in securities, and providing wealth management, trust and fiduciary and recordkeeping services, are sensitive to general business and economic conditions in the United States. If the United States economy weakens, our growth and profitability from our lending, deposit and investment operations could be constrained. Uncertainty about the federal fiscal policymaking process, the medium- and long-term fiscal outlook of the federal government, and future tax rates is a concern for businesses, consumers and investors in the United States. In addition, economic conditions in foreign countries and weakening global trade due to increased anti-globalization sentiment and recent tariff activity could affect the stability of global financial markets, which could hinder the economic growth of the United States. Weak economic conditions are characterized by deflation, fluctuations in debt and equity capital markets, a lack of liquidity or depressed prices in the secondary market for loans, increased delinquencies on mortgage, consumer and commercial loans, residential and commercial real estate price declines and lower home sales and commercial activity. The current economic environment is also characterized by interest rates remaining at historically low levels, which impacts our ability to attract deposits and to generate attractive earnings through our investment portfolio. Further, a general economic slowdown could decrease the value of our AUA and AUM resulting in clients potentially seeking alternative investment opportunities with other providers, which could result in lower fee income. All of these factors are detrimental to our business, and the interplay between these factors can be complex and unpredictable. Adverse economic conditions and government policy responses to such conditions could have a

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material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We depend on the accuracy and completeness of information about clients and counterparties.

        In deciding whether to extend credit or enter into other transactions, and in evaluating and monitoring our loan portfolio on an ongoing basis, we may rely on information furnished by or on behalf of clients and counterparties, including financial statements, credit reports and other financial information. We may also rely on representations of those clients or counterparties or of other third parties, such as independent auditors, as to the accuracy and completeness of that information. Reliance on inaccurate, incomplete, fraudulent or misleading financial statements, credit reports or other financial or business information, or the failure to receive such information on a timely basis, could result in loan losses, reputational damage or other effects that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

New lines of business, products, product enhancements or services may subject us to additional risks.

        From time to time, we may implement new lines of business or offer new products and product enhancements as well as new services within our existing lines of business. There are substantial risks and uncertainties associated with these efforts, particularly in instances in which the markets are not fully developed. In implementing, developing or marketing new lines of business, products, product enhancements or services, we may invest significant time and resources, although we may not assign the appropriate level of resources or expertise necessary to make these new lines of business, products, product enhancements or services successful or to realize their expected benefits. Further, initial timetables for the introduction and development of new lines of business, products, product enhancements or services may not be achieved, and price and profitability targets may not prove feasible.

        External factors, such as compliance with regulations, competitive alternatives and shifting market preferences, may also affect the successful implementation of a new line of business or offerings of new products, product enhancements or services. Further, any new line of business, product, product enhancement or service or system conversion could have a significant impact on the effectiveness of our system of internal controls. Failure to successfully manage these risks in the development and implementation of new lines of business or offerings of new products, product enhancements or services could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We face intense competition from other banks and financial services companies that could hurt our business.

        We operate in the highly competitive financial services industry and face significant competition for clients from financial institutions located both within and beyond our market areas. Overall, we compete with national commercial banks, regional banks, private banks, mortgage companies, online lenders, savings banks, credit unions, non-bank financial services companies, other financial institutions, including investment advisory and wealth management firms, financial technology companies and securities brokerage firms, operating within or near the areas we serve. Many of our non-bank competitors are not subject to the same extensive regulations that govern our activities and may have greater flexibility in competing for business. The financial services industry could become even more competitive as a result of legislative, regulatory and technological changes and continued consolidation.

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        In our banking business, we may not be able to compete successfully with other financial institutions in our markets, particularly with larger financial institutions that have significantly greater resources than us, and we may have to pay higher interest rates to attract deposits, accept lower yields to attract loans and pay higher wages for new employees, resulting in lower net interest margins and reduced profitability. In addition, increased lending activity of competing banks has also led to increased competitive pressures on loan rates and terms for high-quality credits.

        Competition in the retirement and benefit services and wealth management businesses is especially strong in our geographic market areas because there are numerous well-established, well-resourced, well-capitalized, and successful investment management, wealth advisory and wealth management and trust firms in these areas. In addition, the record keeping and administration industry is dominated by a small number of larger institutions that may charge fees that are lower than we charge for similar services. Our ability to successfully attract and retain retirement and benefit services and wealth management clients is dependent upon our ability to compete with competitors' investment, advisory, fiduciary and recordkeeping products and services, levels of investment performance and marketing and distribution capabilities. If we are unable to compete effectively with other banking or other financial services businesses, we could find it more difficult to attract new and retain existing clients and our noninterest income could decline, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        We originate, sell and service residential mortgage loans. Our mortgage business faces vigorous competition from banks and other financial institutions, including larger financial institutions and independent mortgage companies. Our mortgage business competes on a number of factors including customer service, quality and range of products and services offered, price, reputation, interest rates, closing process and duration, and loan origination fees, and the ability to attract and retain skilled mortgage origination professionals is critical to our mortgage origination business. Changes in interest rates and pricing decisions by our loan competitors affect demand for our residential mortgage loan products, the revenue realized on the sale of loans and revenues received from servicing such loans for others, ultimately reducing our noninterest income. In addition, if we are unable to attract and retain enough skilled employees, our mortgage origination volume may decline.

Our business and operations may be adversely affected in numerous and complex ways by external business disruptors in the financial services industry.

        The financial services industry is undergoing rapid change, as technology enables traditional banks to compete in new ways and non-traditional entrants to compete in certain segments of the banking market, in some cases with reduced regulation. As client preferences and expectations continue to evolve, technology has lowered barriers to entry and made it possible for banks to expand their geographic reach by providing services over the internet and for non-banks to offer products and services traditionally provided by banks, such as automatic transfer and automatic payment systems, online lending and low-cost investment advisory services. New entrants may use new technologies, advanced data and analytic tools, lower cost to serve, reduced regulatory burden or faster processes to challenge traditional banks. For example, new business models have been observed in retail payments, consumer and commercial lending, foreign exchange and low-cost investment advisory services. While we closely monitor business disruptors and seek to adapt to changing technologies, matching the pace of innovation exhibited by new and differently situated competitors may require us and policy-makers to adapt at a greater pace. Because the financial services industry is experiencing

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rapid changes in technology, our future success will depend in part on our ability to address our clients' needs by using technology. Client loyalty can be influenced by a competitor's new products, especially offerings that could provide cost savings or a higher return to the client.

The investment management contracts we have with our clients are terminable without cause and on relatively short notice by our clients, which makes us vulnerable to short-term declines in the performance of the securities under our management.

        Like most investment advisory and wealth management businesses, the investment advisory contracts we have with our clients are typically terminable by the client without cause upon less than 30 days' notice. As a result, even short-term declines in the performance of the securities we manage, which can result from factors outside our control, such as adverse changes in market or economic conditions or the poor performance of some of the investments we have recommended to our clients, could lead some of our clients to move assets under our management to other asset classes such as broad index funds or treasury securities, or to investment advisors which have investment product offerings or investment strategies different than ours. Therefore, our operating results are heavily dependent on the financial performance of our investment portfolios and the investment strategies we employ in our investment advisory businesses and even short-term declines in the performance of the investment portfolios we manage for our clients, whatever the cause, could result in a decline in AUM and a corresponding decline in investment management fees, which would adversely affect our results of operations.

Severe weather, natural disasters, pandemics, acts of war or terrorism or other adverse external events could significantly impact our business.

        Severe weather, natural disasters, widespread disease or pandemics, acts of war or terrorism or other adverse external events could have a significant impact on our ability to conduct business. In addition, such events could affect the stability of our deposit base, impair the ability of borrowers to repay outstanding loans, impair the value of collateral securing loans, cause significant property damage, result in loss of revenue or cause us to incur additional expenses. The occurrence of any of these events in the future could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Our wealth management business is dependent on asset managers to produce investment returns and financial advisors to solicit and retain clients, and the loss of a key asset manager or financial advisor could adversely affect our wealth management business.

        We rely on our asset managers to produce investment returns and financial advisors to advise clients of our wealth management business. We believe that investment performance is an important factor for the growth of our AUM. Poor investment performance could impair our revenues and growth because existing clients might withdraw funds in favor of better performing products, which would result in lower investment management fees, or our ability to attract funds from existing and new clients might diminish.

        The market for asset managers and financial advisors is extremely competitive and is increasingly characterized by frequent movement of these types of employees among different firms. In addition, our asset managers and financial advisors often have regular direct contact with our clients, which can lead to a strong client relationship based on the client's trust in that individual manager or advisor. The loss of a key asset manager or financial advisor could jeopardize our relationships with our clients and lead to the loss of client accounts. Losses of

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such accounts could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We may be adversely affected by the soundness of certain securities brokerage firms.

        At the end of 2018, we made the decision to no longer provide custodial services for our clients through our broker-dealer subsidiary. Instead, client investment accounts are maintained under custodial arrangements with large, well established securities brokerage firms or bank institutions that provide custodial services, either directly or through arrangements made by us with those firms. As a result, the performance of, or even rumors or questions about the integrity or performance of, any of those firms could adversely affect the confidence of our clients in the services provided by those firms or otherwise adversely impact their custodial holdings. Such an occurrence could negatively impact our ability to retain existing or attract new clients and, as a result, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Liquidity and Funding Risks

Liquidity risks could affect our operations and jeopardize our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        Liquidity is essential to our business. Liquidity risk is the risk that we will not be able to meet our obligations, including financial commitments, as they come due and is inherent in our operations. An inability to raise funds through deposits, borrowings, the sale of loans or investment securities and from other sources could have a substantial negative effect on our liquidity.

        Our most important source of funds consists of our client deposits, which can decrease for a variety of reasons, including when clients perceive alternative investments, such as the stock market, as providing a better risk/return tradeoff. Our future growth will largely depend on our ability to maintain and grow a strong deposit base and our ability to retain our largest retirement and benefit services and wealth management clients, many of whom are also depositors. If clients, including our retirement and benefit services and wealth management clients, move money out of bank deposits and into other investments, we could lose a relatively low-cost source of funds, which would require us to seek other funding alternatives, including increasing our dependence on wholesale funding sources, in order to continue to grow, thereby increasing our funding costs and reducing our net interest income and net income.

        Additionally, we access collateralized public funds, which are bank deposits of state and local municipalities. These deposits are required to be secured by certain investment grade securities to ensure repayment, which reduces standby liquidity by restricting the potential liquidity of the pledged collateral. As of June 30, 2019, we had pledged $129.4 million of investment securities for this purpose, which represented approximately 50.5% of our total securities portfolio. If we are unable to pledge sufficient collateral to secure public funding, we may lose access to this source of liquidity that we have historically relied upon. In addition, the availability of and fluctuations in these funds depends on the individual municipality's fiscal policies and cash flow needs.

        Other primary sources of funds consist of cash from operations, investment security maturities and sales and proceeds from the issuance and sale of our equity and debt securities to investors. Additional liquidity is provided by repurchase agreements and the ability to borrow

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from the Federal Reserve and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, or FHLB. We may also borrow from third-party lenders from time to time. Our access to funding sources in amounts adequate to finance or capitalize our activities or on terms that are acceptable to us could be impaired by factors that affect us directly or the financial services industry or economy in general, such as disruptions in the financial markets or negative views and expectations about the prospects for the financial services industry. Economic conditions and a loss of confidence in financial institutions may increase our cost of funding and limit access to certain customary sources of capital, including inter-bank borrowings, repurchase agreements and borrowings from the discount window of the Federal Reserve. There is also the potential risk that collateral calls with respect to our repurchase agreements could reduce our available liquidity.

        Any decline in available funding could adversely impact our ability to continue to implement our strategic plan, including originating loans and investing in securities, or to fulfill obligations such as paying our expenses, repaying our borrowings or meeting deposit withdrawal demands, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We may not be able to maintain a strong core deposit base or other low-cost funding sources.

        We depend primarily on core deposits from our clients, which consist of noninterest bearing deposits, interest bearing checking accounts, certificates of deposit less than $250,000 and money market savings accounts, as our primary source of funding for our lending activities. Our future growth will largely depend on our ability to maintain and grow this strong, core deposit base and our ability to retain our retirement and benefit and wealth management clients, many of whom are also depositors. Deposit and account balances can decrease when clients perceive alternative investments, such as the stock market or real estate, as providing a better risk/return tradeoff. If clients, including our retirement and benefit and wealth management clients, move money out of bank deposits or money market accounts and into investments (or similar deposit products at other institutions that may provide a higher rate of return), we could lose a relatively low-cost source of funds, increasing our funding costs and reducing our net interest income and net income.

        We supplement our core deposit funding with non-core, short-term funding sources, including FHLB advances and fed funds purchased. As of June 30, 2019, we had approximately $6.4 million of secured fed funds purchased from the FHLB and no unsecured fed funds purchased. Our maximum borrowing capacity from the FHLB is based on the amount of mortgage and commercial loans we can pledge. As of June 30, 2019, our advances from the FHLB were collateralized by $865.5 million of real estate loans. If we are unable to pledge sufficient collateral to secure funding from the FHLB, we may lose access to this source of liquidity. If we are unable to access any of these types of funding sources or if our costs related to them increases, our liquidity and ability to support demand for loans could be materially adversely affected.

Our high concentration of large depositors may increase our liquidity risk.

        We have developed relationships with certain individuals and businesses that have resulted in a concentration of large deposits from a small number of clients. As of June 30, 2019, our 10 largest depositor relationships accounted for approximately 12.1% of our total deposits. This high concentration of depositors presents a risk to our liquidity if one or more of them decides to change its relationship with us and to withdraw all or a significant portion of their accounts. If such an event occurs, we may need to seek out alternative sources of funding that may not be

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on the same terms as the deposits being replaced, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Our liquidity is largely dependent on dividends from the Bank.

        The Company is a legal entity separate and distinct from the Bank. A substantial portion of our cash flow, including cash flow to pay principal and interest on our debt, comes from dividends the Company receives from the Bank. Various federal and state laws and regulations limit the amount of dividends that the Bank may pay to the Company. As of June 30, 2019, the Bank had the capacity to pay the Company a dividend of up to $44.2 million without the need to obtain prior regulatory approval. Also, the Company's right to participate in a distribution of assets upon a subsidiary's liquidation or reorganization is subject to the prior claims of the subsidiary's creditors. In the event the Bank is unable to pay dividends to us, we may not be able to service our debt, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We may need to raise additional capital in the future, and if we fail to maintain sufficient capital, whether due to losses, an inability to raise additional capital or otherwise, our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects, as well as our ability to maintain regulatory compliance, would be adversely affected.

        We face significant capital and other regulatory requirements as a financial institution. Although management believes that funds raised in this offering will be sufficient to fund operations and growth initiatives for at least the next 18 months based on our estimated future operations, we may need to raise additional capital in the future to provide us with sufficient capital resources and liquidity to meet our commitments and business needs, which could include the possibility of financing acquisitions. We do not have any current plans, arrangements or understandings to make any additional acquisitions.

        In addition, our Company, on a consolidated basis, and the Bank, on a stand-alone basis, must meet certain regulatory capital requirements and maintain sufficient liquidity. Regulatory capital requirements could increase from current levels, which could require us to raise additional capital or contract our operations. Our ability to raise additional capital depends on conditions in the capital markets, economic conditions and a number of other factors, including investor perceptions regarding the banking industry, market conditions and governmental activities, our credit ratings, our ability to maintain a listing on Nasdaq and our financial condition and performance. If we fail to maintain an investment grade credit rating, it may adversely impact our ability to raise capital or incur additional debt. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that we will be able to raise additional capital if needed or on terms acceptable to us. If we fail to maintain capital to meet regulatory requirements, our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects would be materially and adversely affected.

We may be adversely affected by changes in the actual or perceived soundness or condition of other financial institutions.

        Financial services institutions that deal with each other are interconnected as a result of trading, investment, liquidity management, clearing, counterparty and other relationships. Concerns about, or a default by, one institution could lead to significant liquidity problems and losses or defaults by other institutions, as the commercial and financial soundness of many financial institutions is closely related as a result of these credit, trading, clearing and other relationships. Even the perceived lack of creditworthiness of, or questions about, a counterparty

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may lead to market-wide liquidity problems and losses or defaults by various institutions. This systemic risk may adversely affect financial intermediaries with which we interact on a daily basis or key funding providers such as the FHLB, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our access to liquidity or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We receive substantial deposits and AUM as a result of referrals by professionals, such as attorneys, accountants, and doctors, and such referrals are dependent upon the continued positive interaction with and financial health of those referral sources.

        Many of our deposit clients and clients of our wealth management business are individuals involved in professional vocations, such as lawyers, accountants, and doctors. These clients are a significant source of referrals for new clients in both the deposit and wealth management areas. If we fail to adequately serve these professional clients with our deposit services, lending, wealth management products and other services, this source of referrals may diminish, which could have a negative impact on our financial results. Further, if the economy in the geographic areas that we serve is negatively impacted, the amount of deposits and services that these professional individuals will utilize and the number of referrals that they will make may decrease, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Legal, Accounting and Compliance Risks

Our risk management framework may not be effective in mitigating risks or losses to us.

        Our risk management framework is comprised of various processes, systems and strategies, and is designed to manage the types of risk to which we are subject, including, among others, credit, market, liquidity, interest rate and compliance. Our framework also includes financial or other modeling methodologies that involve management assumptions and judgment. Our risk management framework may not be effective under all circumstances and it may not adequately mitigate any risk or loss to us. If our framework is not effective, we could suffer unexpected losses and our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects could be materially and adversely affected. We may also be subject to potentially adverse regulatory consequences.

Our accounting estimates and risk management processes and controls rely on analytical and forecasting techniques and models and assumptions, which may not accurately predict future events.

        Our accounting policies and methods are fundamental to the way we record and report our financial condition and results of operations. Our management must exercise judgment in selecting and applying many of these accounting policies and methods so they comply with GAAP and reflect management's judgment of the most appropriate manner to report our financial condition and results of operations. In some cases, management must select the accounting policy or method to apply from two or more alternatives, any of which may be reasonable under the circumstances, yet which may result in our reporting materially different results than would have been reported under a different alternative.

        Certain accounting policies are critical to presenting our financial condition and results of operations. They require management to make difficult, subjective or complex judgments about matters that are uncertain. Materially different amounts could be reported under different

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conditions or using different assumptions or estimates. If our underlying assumptions or estimates prove to be incorrect, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        Our risk management processes, internal controls, disclosure controls and corporate governance policies and procedures are based in part on certain assumptions and can provide only reasonable (not absolute) assurances that the objectives of the system are met. Any failure or circumvention of our controls, processes and procedures or failure to comply with regulations related to controls, processes and procedures could necessitate changes in those controls, processes and procedures, which may increase our compliance costs, divert management attention from our business or subject us to regulatory actions and increased regulatory scrutiny. Any of these could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Changes in accounting policies or standards could materially impact our financial statements.

        From time to time, the FASB or the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, may change the financial accounting and reporting standards that govern the preparation of our financial statements. Such changes may result in us being subject to new or changing accounting and reporting standards. In addition, the bodies that interpret the accounting standards (such as banking regulators or outside auditors) may change their interpretations or positions on how these standards should be applied. These changes may be beyond our control, can be hard to predict and can materially impact how we record and report our financial condition and results of operations. In some cases, we could be required to apply a new or revised standard retroactively, or apply an existing standard differently, in each case resulting in our needing to revise or restate prior period financial statements.

The obligations associated with being a public company will require significant resources and management attention, which may divert time and attention from our business operations.

        As a result of this offering, we will become subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Exchange Act requires that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and financial condition with the SEC. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we establish and maintain effective internal controls and procedures for financial reporting. As a result, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not previously incur. We anticipate that these costs will materially increase our general and administrative expenses, which will negatively affect our efficiency ratio. Further, the need to establish the corporate infrastructure demanded of a public company may divert management's attention from implementing our strategic plan, which could prevent us from successfully implementing our growth initiatives and improving our business, results of operations and financial condition.

        As an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend to take advantage of certain temporary exemptions from various reporting requirements, including reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements and an exemption from the requirement to obtain an attestation from our auditors on management's assessment of our internal control over financial reporting. When these exemptions cease to apply, we expect to incur additional expenses and devote increased management effort toward ensuring compliance with them.

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The financial reporting resources we have put in place may not be sufficient to ensure the accuracy of the additional information we are required to disclose as a publicly listed company.

        As a result of becoming a publicly listed company, we will be subject to the heightened financial reporting standards under GAAP and SEC rules, including more extensive levels of disclosure. Complying with these standards requires enhancements to the design and operation of our internal control over financial reporting as well as additional financial reporting and accounting staff with appropriate training and experience in GAAP and SEC rules and regulations.

        If we are unable to meet the demands that will be placed upon us as a public company, including the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we may be unable to report our financial results accurately, or report them within the timeframes required by law or stock exchange regulations. Failure to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, when and as applicable, could also potentially subject us to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities. If material weaknesses or other deficiencies occur, our ability to report our financial results accurately and timely could be impaired, which could result in late filings of our annual and quarterly reports under the Exchange Act, restatements of our consolidated financial statements, a decline in our stock price, suspension or delisting of our common stock from the Nasdaq Capital Market, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. Even if we are able to report our financial statements accurately and in a timely manner, any failure in our efforts to implement the improvements or disclosure of material weaknesses in our future filings with the SEC could cause our reputation to be harmed and our stock price to decline significantly.

        In addition, the JOBS Act provides that, so long as we qualify as an emerging growth company, we will be exempt from the provisions of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which would require that our independent registered public accounting firm provide an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. We may take advantage of this exemption so long as we qualify as an emerging growth company.

Litigation and regulatory actions, including possible enforcement actions, could subject us to significant fines, penalties, judgments or other requirements resulting in increased expenses or restrictions on our business activities.

        Our business is subject to increased litigation and regulatory risks because of a number of factors, including the highly regulated nature of the financial services industry and the focus of state and federal prosecutors on banks and the financial services industry generally. This focus has only intensified since the financial crisis, with regulators and prosecutors focusing on a variety of financial institution practices and requirements, including foreclosure practices, compliance with applicable consumer protection laws, classification of "held for sale" assets and compliance with anti-money laundering statutes, the Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, or U.S. Treasury.

        In the normal course of business, from time to time, we have in the past and may in the future be named as a defendant in various legal actions, including arbitrations, class actions and other litigation, arising in connection with our current or prior business activities. Legal actions could include claims for substantial compensatory or punitive damages or claims for indeterminate amounts of damages. We may also, from time to time, be the subject of subpoenas,

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requests for information, reviews, investigations and proceedings (both formal and informal) by governmental agencies regarding our current or prior business activities. Any such legal or regulatory actions may subject us to substantial compensatory or punitive damages, significant fines, penalties, obligations to change our business practices or other requirements resulting in increased expenses, diminished income and damage to our reputation. Our involvement in any such matters, whether tangential or otherwise and even if the matters are ultimately determined in our favor, could also cause significant harm to our reputation and divert management attention from the operation of our business. Further, any settlement, consent order or adverse judgment in connection with any formal or informal proceeding or investigation by government agencies may result in litigation, investigations or proceedings as other litigants and government agencies begin independent reviews of the same activities. As a result, the outcome of legal and regulatory actions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        Moreover, U.S. authorities have been increasingly focused on "conduct risk," a term that is used to describe the risks associated with behavior by employees and agents, including third-party vendors, that could harm clients, consumers, investors or the markets, such as failures to safeguard consumers' and investors' personal information, failures to identify and manage conflicts of interest and improperly creating, selling and marketing products and services. In addition to increasing compliance risks, this focus on conduct risk could lead to more regulatory or other enforcement proceedings and litigation, including for practices which historically were acceptable but are now receiving greater scrutiny. Further, while we take numerous steps to prevent and detect conduct by employees and agents that could potentially harm clients, investors or the markets, such behavior may not always be deterred or prevented. Banking regulators have also focused on the overall culture of financial services firms. In addition to regulatory restrictions or structural changes that could result from perceived deficiencies in our culture, such focus could also lead to additional regulatory proceedings.

If the goodwill that we recorded in connection with our recent acquisitions becomes impaired, it could have a negative impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

        As of June 30, 2019, we had goodwill of $27.3 million, or 12.8% of our total stockholders' equity, including ESOP-owned shares. The excess purchase consideration over the fair value of net assets from acquisitions, or goodwill, is evaluated for impairment at least annually and on an interim basis if an event or circumstance indicates that it is more likely than not that an impairment has occurred. In testing for impairment, we conduct a qualitative assessment, and we also estimate the fair value of net assets based on analyses of our market value, discounted cash flows and peer values. Consequently, the determination of the fair value of goodwill is sensitive to market-based economics and other key assumptions. Variability in market conditions or in key assumptions could result in impairment of goodwill, which is recorded as a non-cash adjustment to income. An impairment of goodwill could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We are subject to extensive regulation, and the regulatory framework that applies to us, together with any future legislative or regulatory changes, may significantly affect our operations.

        The banking industry is extensively regulated and supervised under both federal and state laws and regulations that are intended primarily for the protection of depositors, clients, federal deposit insurance funds and the banking system as a whole, not for the protection of our

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stockholders. Our Company is subject to supervision and regulation by the Federal Reserve, and the Bank is subject to supervision and regulation by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, and the FDIC. The laws and regulations applicable to us govern a variety of matters, including permissible types, amounts and terms of loans and investments we may make, the maximum interest rate that may be charged, the amount of reserves we must hold against deposits we take, the types of deposits we may accept, maintenance of adequate capital and liquidity, changes in the control of us and our Bank, restrictions on dividends and establishment of new offices. We must obtain approval from our regulators before engaging in certain activities, and there is the risk that such approvals may not be obtained, either in a timely manner or at all. Our regulators also have the ability to compel us to take certain actions, or restrict us from taking certain actions entirely, such as actions that our regulators deem to constitute an unsafe or unsound banking practice. Our failure to comply with any applicable laws or regulations, or regulatory policies and interpretations of such laws and regulations, could result in sanctions by regulatory agencies, civil money penalties or damage to our reputation, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        Since the financial crisis, federal and state banking laws and regulations, as well as interpretations and implementations of these laws and regulations, have undergone substantial review and change. In particular, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or Dodd-Frank Act, drastically revised the laws and regulations under which we operate. As an institution with less than $10 billion in assets, certain elements of the Dodd-Frank Act have not been applied to us and provisions of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act of 2018, or Regulatory Relief Act, are intended to result in meaningful regulatory relief for community banks and their holding companies. While we endeavor to maintain safe banking practices and controls beyond the regulatory requirements applicable to us, our internal controls may not match those of larger banking institutions that are subject to increased regulatory oversight.

        Financial institutions generally have also been subjected to increased scrutiny from regulatory authorities. This increased regulatory burden has resulted and may continue to result in increased costs of doing business and may in the future result in decreased revenues and net income, reduce our ability to compete effectively to attract and retain clients, or make it less attractive for us to continue providing certain products and services. Any future changes in federal and state laws and regulations, as well as the interpretation and implementation of such laws and regulations, could affect us in substantial and unpredictable ways, including those listed above or other ways that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. Recent political developments, including the change in administration in the United States, have increased additional uncertainty to the implementation, scope and timing of regulatory reforms.

Our retirement and benefit services and wealth management businesses are highly regulated, and the regulators have the ability to limit or restrict our activities and impose fines or suspensions on the conduct of our business.

        Our retirement and benefit services and wealth management businesses are highly regulated, primarily at the federal level. The failure of any of our businesses that provide investment management or wealth management and trust services to comply with applicable laws or regulations could result in fines, suspensions of individual employees or other sanctions. We are also subject to the provisions and regulations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or ERISA, to the extent that we act as a "fiduciary" under ERISA with respect to certain

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of our clients. ERISA and the applicable provisions of the federal tax laws, impose a number of duties on persons who are fiduciaries under ERISA and prohibit certain transactions involving the assets of each ERISA plan which is a client, as well as certain transactions by the fiduciaries (and certain other related parties) to such plans. Changes in these laws or regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We may be subject to claims and litigation relating to our fiduciary responsibilities.

        Some of the services we provide, such as trust and investment services, require us to act as fiduciaries for our clients and others. From time to time, third parties make claims and take legal action against us pertaining to the performance of our fiduciary responsibilities. If these claims and legal actions are not resolved in a manner favorable to us, we may be exposed to significant financial liability or our reputation could be damaged. Either of these results may adversely impact demand for our products and services or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Changes in tax laws and regulations, or changes in the interpretation of existing tax laws and regulations, may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        We operate in an environment that imposes income taxes on our operations at both the federal and state levels to varying degrees. We engage in certain strategies to minimize the impact of these taxes. Consequently, any change in tax laws or regulations, or new interpretation of an existing law or regulation, could significantly alter the effectiveness of these strategies.

        The net deferred tax asset reported on our balance sheet generally represents the tax benefit of future deductions from taxable income for items that have already been recognized for financial reporting purposes. The bulk of these deferred tax assets consists of deferred loan loss deductions and deferred compensation deductions. The net deferred tax asset is measured by applying currently-enacted income tax rates to the accounting period during which the tax benefit is expected to be realized. As of June 30, 2019, our net deferred tax asset was $7.6 million.

        On December 22, 2017, Public Law 115-97, commonly known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, was signed into law. The act includes numerous changes to existing tax law, including a permanent reduction in the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, which took effect on January 1, 2018. The reduction in the federal corporate income tax rate resulted in an impairment of our net deferred tax asset based on our revaluation of the future tax benefit of these deferrals using the lower tax rate. We recorded this impairment as an additional expense of $4.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2017.

        In addition, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act contains several provisions that will affect the tax consequences of home ownership and related borrowing. We cannot predict what impact, if any, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will have on our mortgage lending business or the value of homes securing mortgages or other loans, but any decrease in mortgage lending, decrease in home values, or early repayment of mortgage loans caused by changes to the tax code as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act could have a material adverse effect on our earnings and capital.

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There is uncertainty surrounding potential legal, regulatory and policy changes by new presidential administrations in the United States that may directly affect financial institutions and the global economy.

        Changes in federal policy and at regulatory agencies occur over time through policy and personnel changes following elections, which lead to changes involving the level of oversight and focus on the financial services industry. The nature, timing and economic and political effects of potential changes to the current legal and regulatory framework affecting financial institutions remain highly uncertain. Uncertainty surrounding future changes may adversely affect our operating environment and therefore our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We are subject to stringent capital requirements.

        Banking institutions are required to hold more capital as a percentage of assets than most industries. In the wake of the global financial crisis, our capital requirements increased, both in the amount of capital we must hold and in the quality of the capital to absorb losses. Holding high amounts of capital compresses our earnings and constrains growth. In addition, the failure to meet applicable regulatory capital requirements could result in one or more of our regulators placing limitations or conditions on our activities, including our growth initiatives, or restricting the commencement of new activities, and could affect client and investor confidence, our costs of funds and FDIC insurance costs and our ability to make acquisitions and result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Federal regulators periodically examine our business, and we may be required to remediate adverse examination findings.

        The Federal Reserve and the OCC periodically examine us, including our operations and our compliance with laws and regulations. If, as a result of an examination, a banking agency were to determine that our financial condition, capital resources, asset quality, asset concentrations, earnings prospects, management, liquidity, sensitivity to market risk or other aspects of any of our operations had become unsatisfactory, or that we were in violation of any law or regulation, they may take a number of different remedial actions as they deem appropriate. These actions include the power to enjoin "unsafe or unsound" practices, to require affirmative action to correct any conditions resulting from any violation or practice, to issue an administrative order that can be judicially enforced, to direct an increase in our capital, to restrict our growth, to assess civil money penalties, to fine or remove officers and directors and, if it is concluded that such conditions cannot be corrected or there is an imminent risk of loss to depositors, to terminate our deposit insurance and place us into receivership or conservatorship. Any regulatory action against us could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We are subject to numerous laws designed to protect consumers, including the Community Reinvestment Act and fair lending laws, and failure to comply with these laws could lead to a wide variety of sanctions.

        The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, or CRA, requires the Bank, consistent with safe and sound operations, to ascertain and meet the credit needs of its entire community, including low and moderate-income areas. Our failure to comply with the CRA could, among other things, result in the denial or delay of certain corporate applications filed by us, including applications for branch openings or relocations and applications to acquire, merge or consolidate with

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another banking institution or holding company. In addition, the CRA, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Housing Act and other fair lending laws and regulations prohibit discriminatory lending practices by financial institutions. The U.S. Department of Justice, federal banking agencies and other federal agencies are responsible for enforcing these laws and regulations. A successful challenge to an institution's compliance with fair lending laws and regulations could result in a wide variety of sanctions, including damages and civil money penalties, injunctive relief, restrictions on mergers and acquisitions activity, restrictions on expansion and restrictions on entering new business lines. Private parties may also challenge an institution's performance under fair lending laws in private class action litigation. In addition, new regulations, increased regulatory reviews or changes in the structure of the secondary mortgage markets which we utilize to sell mortgage loans may be introduced and may increase costs and make it more difficult to operate a residential mortgage origination business. Any of the actions described above could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Noncompliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and other anti-money laundering statutes and regulations could result in fines or sanctions against us.

        The Bank Secrecy Act, the USA Patriot Act and other laws and regulations require financial institutions, among other duties, to institute and maintain effective anti-money laundering programs and to file reports such as suspicious activity and currency transaction reports. We are required to comply with these and other anti-money laundering requirements. The federal banking agencies and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network are authorized to impose significant civil money penalties for violations of those requirements and have recently engaged in coordinated enforcement efforts against banks and other financial services providers with the U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration and IRS. We are also subject to increased scrutiny of compliance with the rules enforced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. If our policies, procedures and systems are deemed deficient or the policies, procedures and systems of any financial institution we acquire in the future are deemed deficient, we would be subject to liability, including fines and regulatory actions, which may include restrictions on our ability to pay dividends and the necessity to obtain regulatory approvals to proceed with certain aspects of our business plan, including any acquisitions.

        Failure to maintain and implement adequate programs to combat money laundering and terrorist financing could also have serious reputational consequences for us. Any of these results could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

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Regulations relating to privacy, information security and data protection could increase our costs, affect or limit how we collect and use personal information and adversely affect our business opportunities.

        We are subject to various privacy, information security and data protection laws, including requirements concerning security breach notification, and we could be negatively affected by these laws. For example, our business is subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which, among other things (i) imposes certain limitations on our ability to share nonpublic personal information about our clients with nonaffiliated third parties, (ii) requires that we provide certain disclosures to clients about our information collection, sharing and security practices and afford clients the right to "opt out" of any information sharing by us with nonaffiliated third parties (with certain exceptions) and (iii) requires that we develop, implement and maintain a written comprehensive information security program containing appropriate safeguards based on our size and complexity, the nature and scope of our activities and the sensitivity of client information we process, as well as plans for responding to data security breaches. Various state and federal banking regulators and states have also enacted data security breach notification requirements with varying levels of individual, consumer, regulatory or law enforcement notification in certain circumstances in the event of a security breach. Moreover, legislators and regulators in the United States are increasingly adopting or revising privacy, information security and data protection laws that potentially could have a significant impact on our current and planned privacy, data protection and information security-related practices, our collection, use, sharing, retention and safeguarding of consumer or employee information and some of our current or planned business activities. This could also increase our costs of compliance and business operations and could reduce income from certain business initiatives. This includes increased privacy-related enforcement activity at the federal level, by the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, as well as at the state level, such as with regard to mobile applications.

        Compliance with current or future privacy, data protection and information security laws (including those regarding security breach notification) affecting client or employee data to which we are subject could result in higher compliance and technology costs and could restrict our ability to provide certain products and services, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. Our failure to comply with privacy, data protection and information security laws could result in potentially significant regulatory or governmental investigations or actions, litigation, fines, sanctions and damage to our reputation, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

The Federal Reserve may require us to commit capital resources to support the Bank.

        As a matter of policy, the Federal Reserve expects a financial holding company to act as a source of financial and managerial strength to a subsidiary bank and to commit resources to support such subsidiary bank. The Dodd-Frank Act codified the Federal Reserve's policy on serving as a source of financial strength. Under the "source of strength" doctrine, the Federal Reserve may require a bank holding company to make capital injections into a troubled subsidiary bank and may charge the bank holding company with engaging in unsafe and unsound practices for failure to commit resources to a subsidiary bank. A capital injection may be required at times when the holding company may not have the resources to provide it and therefore may be required to borrow the funds or raise capital. Any loans by a holding company to its subsidiary bank are subordinate in right of payment to deposits and to certain other indebtedness of such subsidiary bank. In the event of a bank holding company's bankruptcy, the

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bankruptcy trustee will assume any commitment by the holding company to a federal bank regulatory agency to maintain the capital of a subsidiary bank. Moreover, bankruptcy law provides that claims based on any such commitment will be entitled to a priority of payment over the claims of the institution's general unsecured creditors, including the holders of its note obligations. Thus, any borrowing that must be done by our Company to make a required capital injection becomes more difficult and expensive and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

New and future rulemaking by the CFPB and other regulators, as well as enforcement of existing consumer protection laws, may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        The CFPB has the authority to implement and enforce a variety of existing federal consumer protection statutes and to issue new regulations but, with respect to institutions of our size, does not have primary examination and enforcement authority with respect to such laws and regulations. The authority to examine depository institutions with $10.0 billion or less in assets, like us, for compliance with federal consumer laws remains largely with our primary federal regulator, the OCC. However, the CFPB may participate in examinations of smaller institutions on a "sampling basis" and may refer potential enforcement actions against such institutions to their primary regulators. In some cases, regulators such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice also retain certain rulemaking or enforcement authority, and we also remain subject to certain state consumer protection laws. As an independent bureau within the Federal Reserve, the CFPB may impose requirements more severe than the previous bank regulatory agencies. The CFPB has placed significant emphasis on consumer complaint management and has established a public consumer complaint database to encourage consumers to file complaints they may have against financial institutions. We are expected to monitor and respond to these complaints, including those that we deem frivolous, and doing so may require management to reallocate resources away from more profitable endeavors.

The level of our commercial real estate portfolio may subject us to heightened regulatory scrutiny.

        The federal banking regulators have issued guidance regarding concentrations in commercial real estate lending directed at institutions that have particularly high concentrations of commercial real estate loans within their lending portfolios. This guidance suggests that institutions whose commercial real estate loans exceed certain percentages of capital should implement heightened risk management practices appropriate to their concentration risk and may be required to maintain higher capital ratios than institutions with lower concentrations in commercial real estate lending. As of June 30, 2019, our commercial real estate loans represented 174.4% of the Bank's total capital, and as of such date, we were not deemed to have a concentration in commercial real estate lending under applicable regulatory guidelines. We may, at some point, be considered to have a concentration in the future, or our risk management practices may be found to be deficient, which could result in increased reserves and capital costs, as well as potential regulatory enforcement actions, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

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Market and Interest Rate Risks

Our business is subject to interest rate risk, and fluctuations in interest rates may adversely affect our earnings.

        Fluctuations in interest rates may negatively affect our business and may weaken demand for some of our products. Our earnings and cash flows are dependent, in part, on our net interest income, which is the difference between the interest income that we earn on interest earning assets, such as loans and investment securities, and the interest expense that we pay on interest bearing liabilities, such as deposits and borrowings. Changes in interest rates might also impact the values of equity and debt securities under management and administration by our retirement and benefit services and wealth management businesses which may have a negative impact on our fee income. Additionally, changes in interest rates also affect our ability to fund our operations with client deposits and the fair value of securities in our investment portfolio. Therefore, any change in general market interest rates, including changes in federal fiscal and monetary policies, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

        Our interest earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities may react in different degrees to changes in market interest rates. Interest rates on some types of assets and liabilities may fluctuate prior to changes in broader market interest rates, while rates on other types of assets and liabilities may lag behind. The result of these changes to rates may cause differing spreads on interest earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities. We cannot control or accurately predict changes in market rates of interest. If short-term interest rates remain at the current low levels for a prolonged period, and if longer term interest rates fall, we could experience net interest margin compression as our interest-earning assets would continue to reprice downward while our interest-bearing liability rates could fail to decline in tandem. This could have a material adverse effect on our net interest income and our results of operations.

        Interest rates are volatile and highly sensitive to many factors that are beyond our control, such as economic conditions and policies of various governmental and regulatory agencies, and, in particular U.S. monetary policy. For example, we face uncertainty regarding the interest rate risk, and resulting effect on our portfolio, that could result when the Federal Reserve reduces the amount of securities it holds on its balance sheet. In recent years, it has been the policy of the Federal Reserve to maintain interest rates at historically low levels through a targeted federal funds rate and the purchase of U.S. Treasury and mortgage-backed securities. As a result, yields on securities we have purchased, and market rates on the loans we have originated, have generally been at levels lower than were available prior to the financial crisis. Consequently, the average yield on our interest-earning assets has generally decreased during the current low interest rate environment. If a low interest rate environment persists, we may be unable to increase our net interest income.

        In addition, we could be prevented from increasing the interest rates we charge on loans or from reducing the interest rates we offer on deposits and money market savings accounts due to "price" competition from other banks and financial institutions with which we compete. As of June 30, 2019, we had $506.0 million of noninterest bearing deposit accounts and $1.1 billion of non-maturity interest bearing deposit accounts. Interest rates for interest bearing accounts have been at historically low levels in recent periods due to market conditions, although banks and financial institutions are starting to increase rates in response to recent increases by the Federal Reserve in the targeted fed funds rate and market competition. We do not know what market rates will eventually be, especially if the Federal Reserve pauses its interest rate increases or cuts

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its target interest rate in the near term. We have started to offer higher interest rates to maintain current clients or attract new clients, and as a result, our interest expense has increased in recent periods and may increase further, perhaps materially. If we fail to offer interest in a sufficient amount to keep these non-maturity deposits, our core deposits may be reduced, which would require us to obtain funding in other ways or risk slowing our future asset growth.

We could recognize losses on securities held in our securities portfolio, particularly if interest rates continue to increase or economic and market conditions deteriorate.

        As of June 30, 2019, the fair value of our securities portfolio was approximately $256.3 million, or 11.6% of our total assets. Factors beyond our control can significantly influence and cause potential adverse changes to the fair value of securities in our portfolio. For example, fixed-rate securities acquired by us are generally subject to decreases in market value when interest rates rise. Additional factors include, but are not limited to, rating agency downgrades of the securities or our own analysis of the value of the securities, defaults by the issuers or individual mortgagors with respect to the underlying securities and instability in the credit markets. Any of the foregoing factors, as well as changing economic and market conditions and other factors, could cause other-than-temporary impairments and realized or unrealized losses in future periods and declines in other comprehensive income, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. The process for determining whether impairment is other-than-temporary usually requires complex, subjective judgments, which could subsequently prove to have been wrong, about the future financial performance and liquidity of the issuer, the fair value of any collateral underlying the security and whether and the extent to which the principal and interest on the security will ultimately be paid in accordance with its payment terms.

Monetary policies and regulations of the Federal Reserve could adversely affect our operations.

        In addition to being affected by general economic conditions, our earnings and growth are affected by the policies of the Federal Reserve. An important function of the Federal Reserve is to regulate the money supply and credit conditions. Among the instruments used by the Federal Reserve to implement these objectives are open market purchases and sales of U.S. government securities, adjustments of the discount rate and changes in banks' reserve requirements against bank deposits. These instruments are used in varying combinations to influence overall economic growth and the distribution of credit, bank loans, investments and deposits. Their use also affects interest rates charged on loans or paid on deposits.

        The monetary policies and regulations of the Federal Reserve have had a significant effect on the operating results of commercial banks in the past and are expected to continue to do so in the future. The effects of such policies upon our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects cannot be predicted.

Risks Related to this Offering and an Investment in Our Common Stock

An active, liquid trading market for our common stock does not currently exist and may not develop after this offering, and as a result, you may not be able to sell your common stock at or above the public offering price, or at all.

        Prior to this offering, shares of our common stock were quoted on the OTC Markets Group, Inc. OTCQX Marketplace under the symbol "ALRS." Trading on the OTCQX marketplace

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has been infrequent and in limited volume. Although we have applied to list our shares of common stock on Nasdaq in connection with this offering, an active trading market for shares of our common stock may never develop or be sustained following this offering. If an active trading market does not develop, you may have difficulty selling your shares of common stock at an attractive price, or at all. The initial public offering price for our common stock will be determined by negotiations between us and the underwriters and may not be indicative of prices that will prevail in the open market following this offering. Consequently, you may not be able to sell your common stock at or above the public offering price or at any other price or at the time that you would like to sell. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling our common stock and may impair our ability to expand our business by using our common stock as consideration in an acquisition.

The price of our common stock could be volatile following this offering, and you could lose some or all of your investment as a result.

        Stock price volatility may make it more difficult for you to resell your common stock when you want and at prices you find attractive. The market price of our common stock following this offering may be volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in price in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include, among other things:

•

actual or anticipated variations in our quarterly results of operations;



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recommendations or research reports about us or the financial services industry in general published by securities analysts;



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the failure of securities analysts to cover, or continue to cover, us after this offering;



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operating and stock price performance of other companies that investors or analysts deem comparable to us;



•

news reports relating to trends, concerns and other issues in the financial services industry;



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perceptions in the marketplace regarding us, our competitors or other financial institutions;



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future sales of our common stock;



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departures of members of our executive management team or other key personnel;



•

new technologies used, or services offered, by competitors;



•

significant acquisitions or business combinations, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments by or involving us or our competitors;



•

the effects of, and changes in, trade, monetary and fiscal policies, including the interest rate policies of the Federal Reserve;



•

changes or proposed changes in laws or regulations, or differing interpretations of existing laws and regulations, affecting our business, or enforcement of these laws and regulations;

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•

litigation and governmental investigations; and



•

geopolitical conditions such as acts or threats of terrorism or military conflicts.

        If any of the foregoing occurs, it could cause our stock price to fall and may expose us to lawsuits that, even if unsuccessful, could be costly to defend and a distraction to management.

        In addition, the stock market and, in particular, the market for financial institution stocks have experienced substantial fluctuations in recent years, which in many cases have been unrelated to the operating performance and prospects of particular companies. If the market for stocks in our industry, or the stock market in general, experiences a loss of investor confidence, the trading price of our common stock could decline for reasons unrelated to our business, financial condition, results of operations or growth prospects. In addition, significant fluctuations in the trading volume in our common stock may cause significant price variations to occur. Increased market volatility may materially and adversely affect the market price of our common stock, which could make it difficult to sell your shares at the volume, prices and times desired.

An investment in our common stock is not an insured deposit and is subject to risk of loss.

        An investment in our common stock is not a bank deposit and, therefore, is not insured against loss by the FDIC, the deposit insurance fund or by any other public or private entity. Investment in our common stock is inherently risky for the reasons described in this prospectus, and is subject to the same market forces that affect the price of common stock in any company. As a result, if you acquire our common stock, you could lose some or all of your investment.

Our dividend policy may change.

        Although we have historically paid dividends to our stockholders and currently intend to maintain or increase our current dividend levels in future quarters, we have no obligation to continue doing so and may change our dividend policy at any time without notice to our stockholders. Holders of our common stock are only entitled to receive such cash dividends as our board of directors, in its discretion, may declare out of funds legally available for such payments. Further, consistent with our strategic plans, growth initiatives, capital availability, projected liquidity needs, and other factors, we have made, and will continue to make, capital management decisions and policies that could adversely impact the amount of dividends paid to our common stockholders.

        In addition, we are a financial holding company, and our ability to declare and pay dividends is dependent on certain federal regulatory considerations, including the guidelines of the Federal Reserve regarding capital adequacy and dividends. It is the policy of the Federal Reserve that bank and financial holding companies should generally pay dividends on capital stock only out of earnings, and only if prospective earnings retention is consistent with the organization's expected future needs, asset quality and financial condition.

        We are a separate and distinct legal entity from our subsidiaries, including the Bank. We receive substantially all of our revenue from dividends from the Bank, which we use as the principal source of funds to pay our expenses. Various federal and state laws and regulations limit the amount of dividends that the Bank and certain of our non-bank subsidiaries may pay us. Such limits are also tied to the earnings of our subsidiaries. If the Bank does not receive regulatory approval or if its earnings are not sufficient to make dividend payments to us while

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maintaining adequate capital levels, our ability to pay our expenses and our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially and adversely impacted.

If equity research analysts do not publish research reports about us, or if they publish reports but issue unfavorable commentary or downgrade our common stock, the price and trading volume of our common stock could decline.

        The trading market for our common stock could be affected by whether equity research analysts publish research reports about us and our business. We cannot predict at this time whether any research analysts will publish research reports on us and our common stock. If one or more equity analysts cover us and our common stock and publish research reports about us, the price of our stock could decline if one or more securities analysts downgrade our stock or if those analysts issue other unfavorable commentary or cease publishing reports about us or our business.

        If any of the analysts who elects to cover us downgrades our stock, our stock price could decline rapidly. If any of these analysts ceases to cover us, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our common stock price or trading volume to decline and our common stock to be less liquid and more volatile.

Future sales of our common stock in the public market, including by our current stockholders, could lower our stock price, and any increase in shares issued as part of our equity-based compensation plans or for other purposes may dilute your ownership in us.

        The market price of our common stock could decline as a result of sales of a large number of shares of our common stock available for sale after completion of this offering or from the perception that such sales could occur. These sales, or the possibility that these sales may occur, also may make it more difficult for us to raise additional capital by selling equity securities in the future, at a time and price that we deem appropriate. Upon completion of this offering, we will have a total of           outstanding shares of common stock, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional shares. Of the outstanding shares, the           shares sold in this offering (or           shares if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares) will be freely tradable without restriction or further registration under the Securities Act, except that any shares purchased or held by our affiliates, as that term is defined under Rule 144 of the Securities Act, may be sold only in compliance with the certain limitations imposed by the securities laws. The remaining           shares outstanding that are not sold in this offering are restricted securities as defined under Rule 144 subject to certain restrictions on resale.

        In connection with this offering, we, our directors and executive officers have agreed with the underwriters not to offer, pledge, sell or otherwise dispose of or hedge any shares of our common stock, subject to certain exceptions, for a 180-day period following the date of this prospectus, without the prior consent of the underwriters. The underwriters may, at any time, release us or any of the others from this lock-up agreement and allow us or them to sell shares of our common stock within this 180-day period. In addition, any shares purchased by our directors and executive officers through the reserved share program described in this prospectus are subject to the same 180-day lockup period.

        Upon the expiration of the lock-up agreements described above, all of such shares will be eligible for resale in a public market, subject, in the case of shares not sold in this offering, to certain restrictions on resale under Rule 144 or registration under the Securities Act, and, in the

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case of shares held by our affiliates, to volume, manner of sale and other limitations under Rule 144 or registration under the Securities Act.

        We cannot predict the size of future issuances or sales of our common stock or the effect, if any, that future issuances or sales of shares of our common stock may have on the market price of our common stock. Sales or distributions of substantial amounts of our common stock (including shares issued in connection with an acquisition), or the perception that such sales could occur, may cause the market price of our common stock to decline or to be more volatile.

        In addition, immediately following this offering, we intend to file a registration statement on Form S-8 registering under the Securities Act the shares of common stock reserved for issuance as incentive awards issued under our equity incentive plans. If a large number of shares are sold in the public market, the sales could reduce the trading price of our common stock. These sales also could impede our ability to raise future capital.

We have broad discretion in the use of the net proceeds from this offering, and our use of those proceeds may not yield a favorable return on your investment.

        We intend to use the net proceeds generated by this offering to support our growth and for other general corporate purposes, which may include, but is not limited to, the repayment or refinancing of debt, maintenance of our required regulatory capital levels and the funding of potential future acquisition opportunities. We do not currently have any specific plans for the net proceeds and do not have any current plans, arrangements or understandings to make any acquisitions. Our management has broad discretion over how these proceeds are to be used and could spend the proceeds in ways with which you may not agree. In addition, we may not end up using the net proceeds of this offering effectively or in a manner that increases our market value or enhances our profitability. We have not established a timetable for the effective deployment of the net proceeds, and we cannot predict how long it will take to deploy the net proceeds. Investing the net proceeds in securities until we are able to deploy the proceeds will provide lower yields than we generally earn on loans, which could have an adverse effect on our profitability.

Investors in this offering will experience immediate and substantial dilution.

        The initial public offering price is substantially higher than the tangible book value per share of our common stock immediately following this offering. As a result of this offering and the termination of the repurchase liability under our ESOP, if you purchase shares in this offering, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution in tangible book value per share in relation to the price that you paid for your shares. We expect the dilution as a result of the offering to be $         per common share, representing the difference between the public offering price of $         per common share (the mid-point of the range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus) and our adjusted tangible book value of $         per common share as of June 30, 2019, after giving effect to the termination of the repurchase liability under our ESOP and this offering. Accordingly, if we were liquidated at our adjusted tangible book value, you would not receive the full amount of your investment.

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We are an emerging growth company within the meaning of the Securities Act and because we have decided to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting and other requirements applicable to emerging growth companies, our common stock could be less attractive to investors.

        For as long as we remain an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act, we will have the option to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting and other requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, being permitted to have an extended transition period for adopting any new or revised accounting standards that may be issued by the FASB or the SEC, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We have elected to, and expect to continue to, take advantage of certain of these and other exemptions until we are no longer an emerging growth company. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (i) the end of the fiscal year during which we have total annual gross revenues of $1.07 billion or more, (ii) the end of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (iii) the date on which we have, during the previous three-year period, issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt and (iv) the end of the first fiscal year in which (A) the market value of our equity securities that are held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of June 30 of that year, (B) we have been a public reporting company under the Exchange Act for at least twelve calendar months and (C) we have filed at least one annual report on Form 10-K.

Because we have elected to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards for an emerging growth company, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with these accounting standards as of the public company effective dates.

        We have elected to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards under Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. This election allows us to delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates for public and private companies until those standards apply to private companies. As a result of this election, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with these accounting standards as of the public company effective dates. Because our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with public company effective dates, investors may have difficulty evaluating or comparing our business, financial results or prospects in comparison to other public companies, which may have a negative impact on the value and liquidity of our common stock. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we plan to rely on this exemption. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

Future issuances of common stock could result in dilution, which could cause our common stock price to decline.

        We are generally not restricted from issuing additional shares of stock, up to the 30,000,000 shares of common stock and 2,000,000 shares of preferred stock authorized in our certificate of incorporation, which in each case could be increased by a vote of the holders of a majority of our shares of common stock. We may issue additional shares of our common stock in the future

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pursuant to current or future equity compensation plans, upon conversions of preferred stock or debt, or in connection with future acquisitions or financings. If we choose to raise capital by selling shares of our common stock for any reason, the issuance would have a dilutive effect on the holders of our common stock and could have a material negative effect on the market price of our common stock.

We may issue shares of preferred stock in the future, which could make it difficult for another company to acquire us or could otherwise adversely affect holders of our common stock, which could depress the price of our common stock.

        Although there are currently no shares of our preferred stock issued and outstanding, our certificate of incorporation authorizes us to issue up to 2,000,000 shares of one or more series of preferred stock. Our board of directors also has the power, without stockholder approval, to set the terms of any series of preferred stock that may be issued, including voting rights, dividend rights, preferences over our common stock with respect to dividends or in the event of a dissolution, liquidation or winding up and other terms. If we issue preferred stock in the future that has preference over our common stock with respect to payment of dividends or upon our liquidation, dissolution or winding up, or if we issue preferred stock with voting rights that dilute the voting power of our common stock, the rights of the holders of our common stock or the market price of our common stock could be adversely affected. In addition, the ability of our board of directors to issue shares of preferred stock without any action on the part of our stockholders may impede a takeover of us and prevent a transaction perceived to be favorable to our stockholders.

The holders of our debt obligations and preferred stock, if any, will have priority over our common stock with respect to payment in the event of liquidation, dissolution or winding up and with respect to the payment of interest and dividends.

        In any liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the Company, our common stock would rank junior in priority to all claims of debt holders against us and claims of all of our outstanding shares of preferred stock. As of June 30, 2019, we had $50.0 million of subordinated notes payable and $10.0 million of junior subordinated debentures outstanding. We do not currently have any shares of preferred stock outstanding. As a result, holders of our common stock will not be entitled to receive any payment or other distribution of assets upon the liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the Company until after all of our obligations to our debt holders have been satisfied and holders of senior equity securities, including any preferred shares, if any, have received any payment or distribution due to them.

Certain banking laws and certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may have an anti-takeover effect.

        Provisions of federal banking laws, including regulatory approval requirements, could make it difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if doing so would be perceived to be beneficial to our stockholders. In general, acquisitions of 10% or more of any class of voting stock of a bank holding company or depository institution, including shares of our common stock following completion of this offering, generally creates a rebuttable presumption that the acquirer "controls" the bank holding company or depository institution. Also, a bank holding company must obtain the prior approval of the Federal Reserve before, among other things, acquiring direct or indirect ownership or control of more than 5% of the voting shares of any bank, including the Bank.

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        There are also provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws that could have the effect of delaying, deferring or discouraging another party from acquiring control of us, even if such acquisition would be viewed by our stockholders to be in their best interests. These include supermajority stockholder voting thresholds and requirements relating to stockholder meetings and nominations or proposals. Upon the completion of this offering, we will also be subject to a statutory antitakeover provision included in the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, or DGCL. In addition, our board of directors is authorized under our certificate of incorporation to issue shares of preferred stock, and determine the rights, terms conditions and privileges of such preferred stock, without stockholder approval. These provisions may effectively inhibit a non-negotiated merger or other business combination, which, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.

Our certificate of incorporation has an exclusive forum provision, which could limit a stockholder's ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees.

        Our certificate of incorporation has an exclusive forum provision providing that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for: (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty by any of our directors, officers, employees or agents; (iii) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws; or (iv) any action asserting a claim that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. However, Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. As a result, the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. In addition, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. As a result, there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce such a provision, and our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

        Our stockholders approved this provision at our annual stockholders' meeting held on May 13, 2014. Any person purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to this provision of our certificate of incorporation. The exclusive forum provision, if enforced, may limit a stockholder's ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find the exclusive forum provision to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

        This prospectus contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to, among other things, future events and our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as "may," "might," "should," "could," "predict," "potential," "believe," "expect," "continue," "will," "anticipate," "seek," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "projection," "goal," "target," "outlook," "aim," "would," "annualized" and "outlook," or the negative version of those words or other comparable words or phrases of a future or forward-looking nature. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts, and are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by management, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and beyond our control. Accordingly, we caution you that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, assumptions, estimates and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date made, actual results may prove to be materially different from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

        A number of important factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements, including those factors identified in "Risk Factors" or "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" or the following:

•

our ability to successfully manage credit risk;



•

our ability to maintain an adequate level of allowance for loan losses;



•

business and economic conditions generally and in the financial services industry, nationally and within our market areas;



•

the overall health of the local and national real estate market;



•

concentrations within our loan portfolio;



•

the level of nonperforming assets on our balance sheet;



•

our ability to implement our organic and acquisition growth strategies;



•

the impact of economic or market conditions on our fee-based services;



•

our ability to continue to grow our retirement and benefit services business;



•

our ability to continue to originate a sufficient volume of residential mortgages;



•

the occurrence of fraudulent activity, breaches or failures of our information security controls or cybersecurity-related incidents;



•

interruptions involving our information technology and telecommunications systems or third-party servicers;

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•

potential losses incurred in connection with mortgage loan repurchases;



•

the composition of our executive management team and our ability to attract and retain key personnel;



•

our ability to maintain our reputation;



•

rapid technological change in the financial services industry;



•

increased competition in the financial services industry;



•

our ability to successfully manage liquidity risk;



•

our ability to raise additional capital to implement our business plan;



•

the effectiveness of our risk management framework;



•

the costs and obligations associated with being a public company;



•

the commencement and outcome of litigation and other legal proceedings and regulatory actions against us or to which we may become subject;



•

potential impairment to the goodwill we recorded in connection with our past acquisitions;



•

the extensive regulatory framework that applies to us;



•

the impact of recent and future legislative and regulatory changes, including changes in banking, securities and tax laws and regulations, and their application by our regulators;



•

interest rate risks associated with our business;



•

fluctuations in the values of the securities held in our securities portfolio;



•

governmental monetary and fiscal policies;



•

material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting; and



•

our success at managing the risks involved in the foregoing items.

        The foregoing factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read together with the other cautionary statements included in this prospectus. Because of these risks and other uncertainties, our actual future results, performance or achievement, or industry results, may be materially different from the results indicated by the forward-looking statements in this prospectus. In addition, our past results of operations are not necessarily indicative of our future results. You should not rely on any forward-looking statements, which represent our beliefs, assumptions and estimates only as of the dates on which they were made, as predictions of future events. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict which will arise. In addition, we cannot assess the impact of each factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

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USE OF PROCEEDS

        We estimate that the net proceeds to us from this offering, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, will be approximately $          million (or approximately $          million if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares), based on an assumed public offering price of $         per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus. Each $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed public offering price of $         per share would increase or decrease the net proceeds to us from this offering, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, by approximately $          million (or approximately $          million if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares).

        We intend to initially retain the net proceeds we will receive from this offering in the Company. We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering to support our organic growth and for general corporate purposes, which may include, but is not limited to, the repayment or refinancing of debt, maintenance of our required regulatory capital levels and the funding of potential future acquisition opportunities. We do not currently have any specific plans for the net proceeds and do not have any current plans, arrangements or understandings to make any acquisitions. Our management will retain broad discretion to allocate the net proceeds of this offering, and the precise amounts and timing of our use of the net proceeds will depend upon market conditions, among other factors. Until we deploy the proceeds of this offering for the uses described above, we expect to hold such proceeds in short-term investments.

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DIVIDEND POLICY

General

        It has been our policy to pay quarterly dividends to holders of our common stock, and we intend to maintain or increase our current dividend levels in future quarters. Our dividend policy and practice may change in the future, however, and our board of directors may change or eliminate the payment of future dividends at its discretion, without notice to our stockholders. Any future determination to pay dividends to holders of our common stock will depend on our results of operations, financial condition, capital requirements, banking regulations, contractual restrictions and any other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant.

        The following table shows recent quarterly dividends on our common stock during the periods indicated:

Dividend Restrictions

        As a Delaware corporation, we are subject to certain restrictions on dividends under the DGCL. In general, a Delaware corporation may only pay dividends either out of surplus (as defined and computed in accordance with the provisions of the DGCL) or out of the current or the immediately preceding year's net profits. Surplus is defined as the excess, if any, at any given time, of the total assets of a corporation over its total liabilities and statutory capital. The value of a corporation's assets can be measured in a number of ways and may not necessarily equal their book value.

        Under the terms of our subordinated notes issued in December of 2015, and the related subordinated note purchase agreements, we are not permitted to declare or pay any dividends on our capital stock if an event of default occurs under the terms of the subordinated notes, excluding any dividends or distributions in shares of, or options, warrants or rights to subscribe for or purchase shares of, any class of our common stock and any declaration of a non-cash dividend in connection with the implementation of a stockholders' rights plan. In addition, under the terms of our junior subordinated debentures issued to our two statutory trusts, we are not permitted to pay dividends on our capital stock if an event of default occurs under the terms of the debentures, we are otherwise in default with respect to our payment obligations or we have elected to defer interest payments on the debentures.

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        In addition, we are subject to certain restrictions on the payment of cash dividends as a result of banking laws, regulations and policies. See "Supervision and Regulation—Supervision and Regulation of the Company—Dividend Payments." Because we are a holding company and do not engage directly in business activities of a material nature, our ability to pay dividends to our stockholders depends, in large part, upon our receipt of dividends from the Bank, which is also subject to numerous limitations on the payment of dividends under federal banking laws, regulations and policies. See "Supervision and Regulation—Supervision and Regulation of the Bank—Dividend Payments."

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MARKET FOR OUR COMMON STOCK

        Prior to this offering, shares of our common stock were quoted on the OTC Markets Group, Inc. OTCQX Marketplace under the symbol "ALRS." Although our shares were quoted on the OTCQX Marketplace, because trading on the OTCQX Marketplace has been infrequent and limited in volume, the prices at which such transactions occurred may not necessarily reflect the price that would be paid for our common stock in a more liquid market. As of July 31, 2019, there were approximately 237 record holders of our common stock and an estimated 1,003 beneficial holders of our common stock.

        The following table sets forth the high and low reported sales prices for our common stock for each quarter for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 and for the first and second quarter of 2019. These reported sales prices represent trades that were either quoted on the OTCQX Marketplace or reported to the Company's stock transfer agent, and do not include retail markups, markdowns or commissions, and do not necessarily reflect actual transactions.

        We have applied to list our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "ALRS." However, we cannot assure you that a liquid trading market for our common stock will develop or be sustained after this offering. You may not be able to sell your shares quickly or at the market price if trading in our common stock is not active. See "Underwriting" beginning on page 202 for more information regarding our arrangements with the underwriters and the factors considered in setting the initial public offering price.

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CAPITALIZATION

        The following table shows our capitalization, including regulatory capital ratios, on a consolidated basis as of June 30, 2019:

•

on an actual basis;



•

on a pro forma basis after giving effect to the termination of the repurchase liability under our ESOP; and



•

on a pro forma as adjusted basis after giving effect to (1) the termination of the repurchase liability under our ESOP and (2) the net proceeds from the sale of                  shares (assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional shares) at an assumed public offering price of $             per share, which is the midpoint of the price range on the cover of this prospectus, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.

        You should read the following table in conjunction with the sections titled "Selected Historical Consolidated Financial Data" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," and our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this prospectus.

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