The CU2.0 Podcast

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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.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

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

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Of course you want more young members – members under 40 are on every credit union’s wish list.

Enter Sparrow, which calls itself “the world’s most powerful student loan search.”

Here’s what may be the best part: Put Sparrow to work on your website – it’s a white labeled tool and will blend in seamlessly – and students (as well as their parents) will be able to search for private student loans as well as options for refinancing current student loans.

If a loan gets made, the credit union gets what you might think of as a finder’s fee – but does not own the paper or service it.  That’s done by the lender that is found using Sparrow’s search tools.

It gets better still: Pen Fed already is a client.  So are more credit unions.

Hundreds of colleges include pointers to Sparrow in their student aid materials.

There’s little – maybe no – downside risk to a credit union to explore Sparrow.  The how to implement along with details on the financial relationship are outlined in this podcast with Harrison Hochman, a proud Stanford alum (class of 2021).

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

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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The answers you need to optimize member service – and keep your credit union on sound financial footing – are already available.

It’s just that they are hidden in your data.

That’s where Mitch Rutledge, CEO and co-founder of Vertice AI, comes in because his company are data scientists who specialize in finding useful information in the vast data stores just about all credit unions have.

Quiz time: what’s a vertice?  Don’t sweat it. Geometry wasn’t a strong suit of mine.  Yes, vertice is a term in geometry and what it is a place where two or more curves, lines, etc. meet.

What Rutledge wants to do with a credit union’s data is sift it in search of places where presently unmet member needs align with credit union offerings – it’s just that they have never connected. Vertice AI wants to help with that connecting.

Sure, we know, you’re hearing lots about AI and in past years you heard a lot about big data – but this show is different, it’s practical, hands on, definitely no need for a Carnegie Mellon or MIT degree.

Vertice AI, by the way, already has credit union customers – including one very big and very high prestige institution.

Listen up to find out what credit union already is seeing real value from Vertice AI’s work.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

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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Three CEOs, one podcast.

Today’s guests are Todd Adams, CEO of Alloya Corporate Federal Credit Union, Gary Swindler, CEO of Washington State Employees Credit Union, and Seth Brickman, CEO of QCash.  

What’s the occasion? Alloya has bought QCash which had been a CUSO founded by WSECU which also was its only investor.

This is big news. QCash is doing fascinating work that also happens to be at the core of the credit union mission. It is putting money in the hands of members who have experienced a life event – a blown car engine, a medical bill, maybe an emergency vet bill. Lots of events pop up and a huge percentage of Americans just don’t have the cash on hand to cope. Enter QCash which can get money in a member’s hands literally in seconds.  

The loan does not hinge on a FICO score.  In the show Brickman explain how QCash makes a decision on a loan application – it’s sophisticated, it’s fast, but it also aims to fund as many loans as it can within the limits of financial prudence.

Adams is on the show to explain why Alloya – and you know the corporate credit union reputation as stodgy dinosaurs – entered a bidding war for QCash and moved fast enough to snare the prize.  Adams tells also about the ambitious plans for Alloya which already claims around 25% of credit unions as members.

Swindler is here to offer some history of QCash and also to explain why the CUSO was spun out of WSECU.

There are three shows in the archives that explore QCash.  A 2022 show with Inclusiv on its deal with QCash.  

A 2022 show with Brickman on his plans for QCash.  

And a 2019 show with Ben Morales, a prior CEO of QCash.  

If you find the introductory first minute or two confusing, know that you will find the explanatory info you need in the 2022 Brickman podcast.

This is a lively show – and pay attention fintech founders because QCash had multiple suitors vying for a wedding.  

Listen up.

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Ask Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union on Long Island. How SERPs – supplemental executive retirement plans – figure into credit union strategic thinking and he comes back with a blunt answer: Talent retention.

Face this reality: today credit unions are at war but this is a war with multiple enemies – big banks, community banks, other credit unions, non banks, you name it.  Many kinds of institutions want to hoover up your members’ money and nowadays it is the better institutions that are winning.

Why are they winning? In most cases it’s simply that they have and retain better talent.

Serps play a key role in that.  Yes, they reward executives financially when they retire, but – structured properly – they also help keep those executives at the institution.  And that latter bit – retention – is not easy in a world where suddenly lots of institutions want to poach your best talent.

Consider this podcast a must listen for credit union board members, also credit union c-suiters, and, definitely, also credit union execs who aspire to a seat in the c-suite.

SERPs are often misunderstood on multiple levels.  In these shows Kordeleski gives the true skinny about SERPs.  

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.  

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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It’s not news that today’s members - unlike yesteryear’s - want to communicate with their financial institution on their own terms and that means how and when they want to.  Even though it is midnight Saturday.

Enter Agent IQ a digital platform that let’s members communicate with their FI via web chat, mobile messaging, video chat, SMS messaging and more. There’s even a co-browsing feature that lets an anxious member invite a credit union expert to look at his/her screen to insure that, say, a form is filled out correctly.

A powerful feature of Agent IQ is that it allows a member to designate a specific credit union employee as their primary contact - just as many members historically have had a preferred teller. 

Sound great, you may be thinking, but surely this technology is limited to the behemoth institutions.

Nope.

On the show today is Soren Bested, COO at Agent IQ, and the credit union customer is Pinal County Federal Credit Union - with assets around $280 million. Vice present Tiffany Tipton tells how and why Pinal decided to offer Agent IQ to its members.

It’s a good story that proves the little guys can run with the big guys.

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Quo Vadis?

Where are you going?

It’s about seven years since Kirk Drake founded CU 2.0 which was rooted in the realization that getting smarter about tech was a necessary step in the survival of the credit union industry. So Drake built a company that helps fintechs figure out how to effectively work with credit unions and helps credit unions figure out how to work with fintechs.

A lot of productive good – for credit unions and fintechs alike – has come out of CU 2.0 in its first seven years.

What do the years ahead look like?

In this show Drake talks about how he is designing the future of CU 2.0. He also talks about how his work with CUSO Painted Hills and also Quilo fit into his CU 2.0 efforts.

By any measure Drake is one of the credit union world’s most energetic innovators. He’s also a realist.  For credit unions the reality is that now is time to innovate – that means new, better tech – or perish.  He is putting his energy into helping credit unions find the path to prosperity.

It’s a good show.

Listen up.


Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

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

Send us Fan Mail

Small is beautiful.

That’s the title of a collection of essays by economist E. F. Schumacher but it might as well be the title of a new Filene research report that explores how small credit unions can thrive. 

You’re right, mathematically it seems there’s a drip drip drip of small credit union deaths but listen to Taylor Nelms, senior director of research at Filene, and he claims that there is plenty of research evidence to suggest that many credit unions are certifiably healthy.

In this show Nelms offers the details and he dazzles with surprising factoids. Did you know that the first mobile remote deposit occurred at a small credit union? Did you know there’s a small credit union that accepts an Alaska fishing license as an ID?

I sure didn’t know these factoids.

Which brings us back to Schumacher’s book which is something of an attack on the idea that bigger is just better.

Flash over to Nelms who tells us that small often can mean more nimble, faster, more in tune with a specific community.

In this podcast we come not to bury small credit unions but to praise them - and understand they are the faces of the credit union movement.

This show will put a smile on their faces - but also on the faces of all who hope for the best for the credit union movement.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

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