Family Office
Small credit unions combine to access investments
CFS stoops to serve CUs that simply weren't big enough to offer
investments. CUSO Financial Services (CFS), a broker-dealer and
RIA that provides investment and insurance products to
credit-union members, is out with an offering specifically for
small credit unions. In effect, it's encouraging credit unions
with low deposit levels to band together and share CFS reps.
The first consortium using CFS' new service is in Georgia. Its
members are Statesboro-based CORE Credit Union, Hinesville-based
Fort Stewart Georgia Federal Credit Union and Savannah-based
Georgia Heritage Federal Credit Union.
Too small
"As a partner to the credit unions, we felt it was important to
provide the kind of investment support they need, no matter what
size they are," says Valorie Seyfert, president and CEO of CFS.
"With these consortium programs we bring competitive advantages
to our credit unions to increase assets beyond deposit
accounts.
Credit unions have been accessing investment, insurance and
lending products through credit-union service organizations
(CUSOs) since the mid 1990s. But smaller credit unions -- ones
with under $100 million or $150 million in deposits -- weren't
able to drum up enough business to justify a CUSO rep dropping by
more than once a week or so. "That looked more like a referral
than a real offering by the credit union," says Seyfert. "But
these smaller credit unions, like some of the smaller banks, see
big opportunities to serve boomers who are inheriting money and
rolling over their retirement accounts."
Bobby Michael, president and CEO of CORE Credit Union, says the
prospect of new revenue is certainly a consideration, but the
main reason his bank helped form the consortium to use CFS'
services was to "provide the program to make sure our members get
the attention they deserve when it comes to their retirement
funds."
San Diego-based CFS, whose investment platform includes
fractional-share separately managed accounts from Denver-based
Curian, says it works with 26 of the top 100 credit unions in the
U.S. It has about $10 billion in assets under management.
Seyfert says there's a much bigger consortium than the
three-credit union grouping it already has that's on the verge of
going live with CFS on a similar basis. -FWR
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