Nothing all that fancy, but the evolution of credit unions is worth noting. Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union has selected Independent Financial Marketing Group to provide retirement planning products and services -- including annuities, mutual funds and 401k plans -- to its 950 member companies and 215,000 members; an upgrade the Miramar, Fla.-based credit union designates as a move into providing wealth-management services.

More competitive

"Our members now have new wealth-management and retirement-planning solutions," says Eastern Financial's CEO Steve McGill. "This relationship allows our members to benefit from more investment choices in-house along with Independent Financial's industry expertise, service administration and commitment to innovation in its financial product offerings."

Michael Weiss, president of Purchase, N.Y.-based Independent Financial, says that investors "are looking for more investment options to meet their needs than what has been traditionally available." Credit unions have responded to this challenge in recent years by expanding the investment offerings available to their members -- a development he says is making them increasingly competitive with banks in many markets.

Eastern Financial is a full-service financial credit union with around $2.4 billion in assets. It mainly serves employees of the larges companies in southern Florida.

Independent Financial, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Sun Life Financial, provides investment and insurance products and sales support to community banks and credit unions. -FWR

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