**Kaw Valley Bank (the one headquartered in Topeka at 1110 N. Kansas Ave.) is owned by Topeka Bancorp, Inc., a Kansas-based bank holding company.**

It was acquired in March 2017 by longtime community bankers Dean Phillips (Quincy, Illinois / Las Vegas area) and Phil Burns (West Point, Nebraska) through the newly formed Topeka Bancorp. They bought it from the prior owners of Kaw Valley Bancorp and have kept it as a fully independent, Topeka-based community bank with local management and decision-making (not folded into a larger out-of-state network).

Your memory about a Nebraska connection is spot-on, just not quite a "holding firm out in Nebraska." Phil Burns is a Nebraska community banker who (together with Phillips and family trusts) also owns/operates other small banks in Nebraska (such as F&M Bank in West Point and Falls City), plus banks in Missouri, Illinois, and Nevada. Ownership of Kaw Valley itself sits under the Kansas holding company they created specifically for this purchase, with ties back to the Phillips family trust and Burns. Phil Burns serves as Chairman of the Board today, and Darnell "Dee" Phillips is also on the board.

(Note: There is a completely separate, smaller institution called **Kaw Valley State Bank & Trust Company** (in the Eudora/Wamego area) that is unrelated. It was family-owned by the Hoovers for generations and completed a merger into Farmers State Bank of Oakley, Kansas, in 2025. That one is not in Topeka and has no Nebraska ownership link.)

**Quick background on Kaw Valley Bank (Topeka):** It's been part of the Topeka community for over 150 years (roots trace back to the 1800s as Oakland State Bank and later consolidations). It offers standard personal and business banking, lending, mortgages, and trust/investment services, and it still positions itself as a hometown community bank focused on local relationships.

No public indications of any sale or ownership change since 2017—it remains under the same group. If you're a customer or have accounts there, everything continues to operate as the same local Topeka bank you've known. Let me know if you need branch details, services, or anything else specific!