As credit unions continue to celebrate Leadership Month, Doug welcomes three credit union advocates in the fintech space who believe leaders should get comfortable taking risks, innovating, and making bold strategic decisions if the credit union movement is to stay competitive—and survive. The conversation invites listeners to embrace bold leadership and ask hard questions about how credit unions will remain relevant in a rapidly changing technological landscape.

Doug is joined by:

Stream the episode to learn how to build a foundation of bold leadership at your credit union and what the industry's future may look like without it.

As part of Leadership Month, Doug was thrilled to welcome NAFCU CEO Dan Berger to the show to discuss leadership and how it applies universally and specifically to the credit union movement. With over 17 years of experience at NAFCU, 10 of which as CEO, Dan shared how he continually hones his skills in relationship building, communication, and strategic alignment.

Stream the episode to hear his valuable insights, what he wishes other leaders knew, and his tips for staying on track with your mission and goals. For Dan, it starts with your people. 

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How can credit union boards build more effective executive recruitment and retention packages? On the show, Doug is joined by representatives from CUES and Industry Insights to discuss how the annual CUES Executive Compensation Survey can help empower board members and executives with benchmark data to reach more effective and fair salary agreements.

Learn more about how the survey can help streamline salary conversations and the tools, access, and insights credit unions and executives can gain from increased survey participation.

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On the show, Doug welcomes back Maurice Smith, the recently retired CEO of Local Government Federal Credit Union. After 43 years of credit union service, half of which as a CEO, Maurice shares how studying failures helped develop his leadership approach, and in retirement enables him to consult credit unions in identifying blind spots, recognizing warning signs, and uncovering new opportunities.

Stream the episode to hear valuable insight from Maurice and why he believes studying failure can help protect an organization and preserve the credit union movement.

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Eric Stearns and Jay Rogers of Stearns Financial are back for another episode to share how their firm’s LifeNotes Strategy can help rescue a credit union’s deferred compensation plan, including 457(f) and collateral assignment split-dollar (CASD) plans.

With lower-than-average dividends and interest rates impacting projection illustrations, credit unions are searching for ways to reduce the duration of these plans and get repaid earlier while maintaining favorable tax treatment and benefits to their executives.

Eric, principal at Stearns Financial, provides use cases in which the LifeNotes Strategy can help augment or change an existing deferred compensation plan for the greatest value to all parties involved. Stream the episode to hear how your credit union can use the new strategy to address various duration, risk, and capital challenges.

In a previous podcast interview, Jay Rogers of Stearns Financial shared the firm's groundbreaking LifeNotes Strategy. The process involves purchasing life insurance-based plans to develop more adaptive features that aim to reduce duration risk and increase value to credit unions and executive participants.

In this episode, Eric Stearns, principal at Stearns Financial, joins the show to share use cases of how the LifeNotes Strategy has helped credit unions optimize their credit union-owned life insurance (CUOLI) plans.

Stream the episode to hear examples that might give you ideas to help your credit union and executives gain more value and flexibility to navigate a changing world.

One of the original intentions has always been to leverage life insurance-based executive benefits, such as collateral assignment split dollar plans, to retain a credit union executive. However, these plans generally come with floating maturity dates that may not be tenable long-term. So, what happens when the original goal of these benefits changes; for example, when an executive considers leaving the organization sooner than expected or for other reasons? In these scenarios, credit unions have historically been forced to keep a less desirable asset on their balance sheet—until now. 

Jay Rogers, senior executive consultant and director of business development at Stearns Financial, shares how credit unions can now use a new strategy to create or modify adaptive life insurance-based benefits plans that are attractive to credit unions and executives.

Stream the episode to learn how Stearns Financial is helping credit unions remove the risks inherent to traditional life insurance-based benefit plans to create more value for everyone involved.

With a decrease in deposits and lending activity, credit unions face a new set of challenges in today’s economic environment that require strategic, proactive planning. During periods like this, “just-in-time” capital may provide the peace of mind credit unions need to pursue a necessary merger or acquisition, create organic growth, increase their net worth, or spend for other purposes. Credit unions can access this kind of capital in the subordinated debt (sub-debt) markets but is today’s higher interest rate environment the right time to issue sub-debt?

We introduced the benefits of credit unions issuing sub-debt on the podcast in 2021. Podcast guest Jeff Cardone, partner at Luse Gorman, returns to the show to give Doug an update on the sub-debt capital markets and what credit unions should think about when planning around today’s issues.

Stream the episode to learn more about the value of sub-debt, why a credit union may consider getting pre-approval as soon as possible, and why sub-debt may be attractive in today’s market environment.

With a philosophy of “people helping people,” community outreach and charitable giving play critical roles in a credit union’s overall strategy. So what does it take for your credit union's charitable giving to make a real impact? According to our “C.U. on the Show” guest, every credit union should make critical decisions when developing and scaling its charitable giving to create a more meaningful and sustainable strategy.

Jama Campbell, senior vice president and executive director of the State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) Foundation in North Carolina, joins Doug on the show. She shares how SECU developed and refined its approach to charitable giving and made the decision to create a dedicated foundation.

Stream the episode to hear more about Jama’s early-stage recommendations, such as identifying focus areas, funding models, and giving criteria including creative solutions beyond financial giving.

When you think of a digital-first organization, you may imagine the opposite of a personalized and thoughtful experience. However, “C.U. on the Show” guest Thomas Novak, vice president and chief digital officer at Visions Federal Credit Union, shares that’s exactly what his team is creating through strategic innovation and a buy, build, or partner approach to fintech.

Tom explains how Visions leverages technology and partners with fintech and other companies to deliver value, support seamless end-to-end member experiences, and augment what the credit union movement represents, from affordable pricing to altruism.

Stream the episode to hear Tom’s insight, recommendations, and notes of caution for other credit unions establishing a digital-first organization.