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There are three mind blowing facts in this podcast.

Number one: credit unions currently have a greater appetite for offering crypto currencies to members than do banks to their customers.  The source of that  is Kian Sarreshteh, CEO of CryptoFi, a crypto as a service company formed to help traditional FIs to offer digital assets.  His proof: CryptoFi has pivoted in the last year to focus on offering its products to credit unions.

Number two: NCUA is much more open to crypto than is FDIC, said Kian.  So just when you think NCUA is a Stone Age relic chew on that.

Number three: the first credit union install for CryptoFi isn’t at a credit union in San Jose or Cambridge Mass or Brooklyn.  It’s WeStreet, a $950 million institution headquartered in Tulsa OK.

On the show are Kian from CryptoFi and Eric Hilaire, chief digital officer at WeStreet.

Face reality: credit unions have to take steps to stop the outflow of member dollars into more contemporary asset classes, crypto definitely on the list.  

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Real time. Dynamic. Personalized.

Accept this: what worked in combatting fraudsters 10 years ago is about as useful today as a 10 year old PC or cellphone.

Accept this too: it’s war on with fraudsters and smart financial institutions understand that very likely the criminals know a lot about the FI’s weaponry.

How to combat these criminals?

On the show today is Ravi Sandepudi, CEO of Effectiv.ai, a new-style anti fraud platform that has been built by a cyber team with deep histories at Google and PayPal - and know that PayPal is well known for how professional its anti fraud group is and Google is where much of today’s AI intellectual platform originated.

Go back a decade or two and much fraud prevention was built around hard wired rules which worked reasonably well but also true is that criminals learned the rules and then dreamed up workarounds.

What’s needed today is an intelligent, evolving fraud toolkit and that is what Effectiv seeks to provide its customers.

Know that credit unions are a particular target for Effectiv and in the show Sandepudi tells his own touching story about being an immigrant in the US who had come to go to school and of course he lacked a Social Security number because he had just arrived and banks, he said, showed him the exit door.

Then he went to a credit union affiliated with his school and a beautiful relationship blossomed.  They accepted his student ID and US issued visa as proof of identity and a credit union fan was made.

Nowadays too he also finds that credit unions quickly get why the Effectiv fraud fighting tools are better than the old tools they had been using and, said Sandepudi, adoptions are coming fast.

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What if you could increase your retirement income by 40%?

Nope, you don’t have to invest in a new crypto currency and neither do have to skate on the wrong side of tax shenanigans.

What you do have to do is listen to this podcast with Doug English, a North Carolina based financial planner who has specialized in optimizing the after tax income flow from a credit union executive’s typical retirement package which involves tools that frankly are little known outside credit unions such as SERPs and 457Fs.  

The power of English’s approach is that withdrawals and payouts are structured around the recipient’s age and tax bracket.

Remember, some of a credit union executive’s retirement income is taxable. Some - via SERP for instance - usually isn’t.

What English does is create a time sequence for payouts that - legally - minimize tax consequences and of course optimize the retiree’s quality of life.

Understand, I went into this show certain that I would be bored to tears - tax talk usually does that to me - but with English this is a straightforward and, dare I say it, easy to grasp solution to tax issues.

This thinking is all the more important as life expectancy for many of us just seems to be continually increasing. But in an age of inflation money on hand may seem to be going the other direction.

English just may have a fix.

Note: English does not sell SERPs or similar retirement products. What he offers is analysis on how to make those plans work better.

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Is a Greenlight card in your wallet?

If you have children – particularly school age kids – you want to know about Greenlight because this is a functioning debit card but it is designed for use by kids who are gaining financial skills as their parents guide them in the how to of using plastic.

Understand, too, that increasing numbers of retail venues are cashless – plastic is needed to transact.

Of course there also are online purchases that require plastic.

Greenlight solves those issues and it offers both a direct to consumer service (starting at $4.95 per month) and now it is fast signing up financial institutions who are offering Greenlight to their customers and members.

Already on board is Chase.

But know that Greenlight has already signed up credit unions and wants more because the company gets that the credit union mission syncs with Greenlight’s.

On the show today is Pete Steger, vice president of business development at Greenlight.

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Are generous pension plans for credit union executives only for those who work in the biggest institutions, the ones at the billion dollar plus credit unions?

Do only the rich get richer? What about the many executives toiling in the thousands of smaller credit unions?

Much of the discussion in past shows in this Money Talks series with Kirk Kordeleski has in fact been focused on pension options for the senior most executives at the biggest credit unions.

Now for something completely different.  In this show Kordeleski muses on his hopes and plans for bringing meaningful pension options to credit union c-suite executives at much smaller institutions.

This is not pie in the sky. These are real, tangible plans that Kordeleski is hashing out.

He’s honest and realistic.  It’s not straightforward to plan meaningful retirement options for executives in credit unions smaller than $100 million. They typically do not have the capital.  But even in this case Kordeleski has thoughts on what could happen to bring solid retirement plans to executives in these institutions.

He has even more solid ideas about how to fund retirement plans for executives in institutions from $100 million to $500 million in assets.

And for those working at institutions in the $500 million to $1 billion range there are plenty of options, says Kordeleski.

Want to read Kordeleski's white paper on bringing SERPs to more and smaller credit unions? Click here

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This show is in a Money Talks series where credit union compensation is untangled.  This show will help some executives negotiate better pay packages and will also help some board members understand the ways in which 2023 credit union compensation is utterly different from 1993 comp plans, even 2013 plans because now competition for talent is so much fiercer.

Hear episode one in Money Talks here.  Episode 2 is here. Episode 3 is here. Episode 4 is here. Episode 5 is here. Episode 6 is here. Episode 7 is here. Episode 8 is here.  Episode 9 is here. Episode 10 is here.  11 is here. Episode 12 is here.  

Want to know more about SERPs - or other matters raised in this podcast? Email Kordeleski [email protected]

Have suggestions for topics to explore in this show? Email me, Robert McGarvey - rjmcgarvey@gmail

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You want to make more commercial loans. Join the club. So do more other credit unions.

But that is why this show is a must listen.  In it Gary Lewis, managing director of lending and deposit solutions at Jack Henry, and Dennis Janikowski, senior vice president of lending at P1FCU, tell the secret sauce that is helping P1FCU, a northern Idaho  institution, enjoy significant growth in its commercial lending.  

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Did you know that there are many, many loan programs available from the US Department of Agriculture – and many feature government guarantees?

Probably you didn’t know – these programs are something of a secret.

But over 100 credit unions – including Navy Federal – know about the programs and work with Greater Commercial Lending, a company that works with borrowers, USDA and also credit unions to get loans funded.

What kinds of loans? Don’t be misled by the word agriculture.  USDA makes all kinds of loans, funding everything from farm equipment to renewable energy.  And some loans even can fund projects in urban areas.

On the show is GCL executive vice president Jeremy Gilpin who explains how the program works and how credit unions can get involved.

He also tells that GCL is in the process from beginning to end.  It helps fill out the loan app, works with USDA, even helps syndicate many loans.

Now do you want to find out more from GCL?

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Medicare – you’d almost think it’s a four letter word, not the three syllable word it is.  That’s because it is an immensely complicated issue – Congress did write the federal laws that shape it! – and as Americans approach 65 suddenly they have to make an immensely complicated decision about their health care.

How easy is that? Not.

But consider this an enormous opportunity for credit unions, with their memberships that skew older.  Credit unions can step in as trusted advisors and help members make better decisions while also bringing in a few dollars in fees into the credit union.

That’s win win.

But doing this requires skill.  The complexities of Medicare demand talents to navigate it.

Enter Rock Carter, president  of Medicare CU, a CUSO  set up to help credit unions help their members into good Medicare decisions.

You may remember a recent show with Silvur, the winner of CU 2.0’s Fintech Madness battle in Las Vegas.  Silvur – which helps credit unions and their members with both Social Security and Medicare – is a related but fundamentally quite different approach.

Credit unions contemplating offering senior members help with Medicare decisions are advised to listen to both podcasts. One approach just may suit your credit union better than the other.

But know this: Members need help making Medicare decisions. Credit unions are well positioned to provide that help.

What are you waiting for?

Listen up.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

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Here’s a possible cure: John Findlay and LemonadeLXP. The LemonadeLXP promise is that it’s easy to use tools will turn your staff into digital mavens and  your members will learn to use the tools that very probably your institution already has.

A case in point found in this show: I ask Findlay how LemonadeLXP would help a member whose question is, I want to send money to a relative using Zelle. How do I do that?

Findlay also talks about actual cases where FI clients dramatically cut call center calls – costs – by deploying LemonadeLXP tools.  

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We have entered a brave new world of retirement planning – and that very much includes planning in the credit union c-suite.

Maybe the biggest change: there today is no fixed retirement age. A generation ago, for most executives, 65 was the target.  That was widely accepted in retirement planning.

Now we have executives who want to retire early.  Others want to stay on past 65, perhaps to 70 or longer.  Exactly how does this impact executive retirement income packages such as SERPs and 457Fs, the two most common c-suite retirement plans?

On the show to help us understand how retirement plans are flexing to accommodate a new generation’s needs is Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union and now an executive with OM, a firm that specializes in executive retirement planning.

It turns out there already is flexibility built into most plans – and more flexibility is on its way, says Kordeleski.

Along the way Kordeleski muses on credit union mergers and their impact on retirement plans.

Listen up.

This show is in a Money Talks series where credit union compensation is untangled.  This show will help some executives negotiate better pay packages and will also help some board members understand the ways in which 2023 credit union compensation is utterly different from 1993 comp plans, even 2013 plans because now competition for talent is so much fiercer.

Hear episode one in Money Talks here.  Episode 2 is here. Episode 3 is here. Episode 4 is here. Episode 5 is here. Episode 6 is here. Episode 7 is here. Episode 8 is here.  Episode 9 is here. Episode 10 is here.  11 is here. 

Want to know more about SERPs - or other matters raised in this podcast? Email Kordeleski [email protected]

Have suggestions for topics to explore in this show? Email me, Robert McGarvey - rjmcgarvey@gmail