LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y. — As stagnant membership growth continues to plague the movement, one CUSO is working with one of its client CUs to tackle that very problem.
UNFCU Financial Advisors, a CUSO wholly owned by United Nations Federal Credit Union, will not only be offering Seacaucus, N.J.-based XCEL FCU financial and tax planning, investment management, and insurance solutions for its members, but it will also be working to expand the credit union's reach both inside its existing SEGs and with potential additions.
"With XCEL it's an interesting situation and for us quite exciting," said Steve Ryerson, president of UNFCU FA. "The new relationship with XCEL is what could be the model in terms of how we work with a credit union,"
Like a few other CUSOs and a number of insurance companies, UNFCU FA has worked directly with employee groups, especially in the case of single-SEG credit unions, and delivered assistance on employee benefits, insurance and other questions. But the relationship with XCEL is different in that the marketing teams have been fully integrated and UNFCU FA has pledged to be a part of meetings with potential new SEGs to explain its products and services. Ryerson said the CUSO would even host workshops on XCEL's behalf if they took place in the New York City or Washington, D.C. metro areas.
As a first step, UNFCU FA has created a microsite on XCEL's servers that lays out all of the new services available to the membership, but did so in a way that eases them into the alliance by keeping XCEL's site framework and branding.
"Members are immediately introduced to the partnership [on the site]," Ryerson noted. "As members navigate through the information on the new program they are doing it within the framework of XCEL's brand so they are comfortable with the experience."
To help attract new members, and possibly new SEGs, the CUSO is building web banners for XCEL and strategically placing them on the Internet. What makes this arrangement particularly interesting is that XCEL currently serves PATH employees around New York City, where UNFCU FA's parent credit union calls home. Though there is no potential for SEG overlap at this time, Ryerson conceded that such a possibility existed in the future with other client credit unions and that there could be complications as the CUSO tried to help multiple credit unions, including its parent, compete for the same SEGs.
"In the credit union space I would like to believe that there would be some kind of amicable solution on how we could work together," he said when asked to speculate on the end result of such a conflict.
