Psst! How about an investment vehicle with that?

For several years, banks in Northern Colorado have offered products not normally associated with banks, including a full range of insurance and investment services.

But many of those banks still consider those products their best-kept secrets, even the larger nationwide banks such as Wells Fargo.

“Many people still think of us as just a bank,´ said Cristie Drumm, vice president of corporate communications for Wells Fargo in Colorado. “They don’t know we offer anything else.”

Federal legislation in 1999 permitted banks to enter the insurance and securities businesses, industries that had until then been off limits.

Banks offer nontraditional products…