VERNON HILLS, Ill. — Managing your money at Mint or Wesabe may be popular in the down economy, but some say that getting financial advice online from your credit union is better for the long-term-particularly when that advice recommends the CU's products and services.
Baxter Credit Union members here receive free steps for financial success from "Sophie," a virtual financial advisor, after members enter their income, assets, investments, debts and goals in a graphic-rich, online interface. Sophie then delivers a financial plan to the member and sparks leads within Baxter's sales and service software.
"We now have an outbound sales team that follows up on leads generated at the financial planning website," said Carey Price, VP-service and sales at the $1.4-billion CU. "We can also see who bails out of the plan and call them."
Baxter's SimpliFi Personal Planning Service is provided by BrightLeaf Financial Network, a CUSO near Winston-Salem, NC, created by MEMBERS Development Co..
Baxter recently beefed up the backend on referrals and then re-launched SimpliFi. Currently, the tool is being used by fewer than 50 members, and it's too soon to tell if the service is fueling sales, Price said.
Alliant CU in Chicago launched SimpliFi in June. The CU allows members to click on specific tasks within their resulting SimpliFi financial plan to go directly to relevant products on the credit union's savings and investment pages, said Laura Wallace, national manager for investments and relationship services at the $6.5-billion CU.
Baxter and Alliant's strategies are smart, according to Grizack. "Planning is just one piece of the puzzle. But what the member does with the plan is the most important. Connecting the plan to the credit union's products and services is the best way to implement the plan."
SimpliFi is helping Coastal FCU in Raleigh, N.C., identify member's investable assets, according to Kris Kovacs, VP-eCommerce Technologies at the $2.3-billion CU. In fact, the volume of investable assets members registered in SimpliFi increased by 75% in May and June, Kovacs said. Evidently, the members who use the service tell other members, who, in turn, register their assets with the service, he explained.
Members who feel unworthy of sitting down with a financial advisor face-to-face may be more at home with Sophie online, added Kovacs. "Members can use the tool and not be intimidated by a certified person on the other side of the table or think they are wasting the person's time. Plus, the online plan can be saved and updated anytime."
About 50 members have been registering with SimpliFi each month since Coastal started offering the service in December, Kovacs said. Half the members who register actually complete a plan, he said.
Coastal is working to integrate SimpliFi into a new sales lead system so that the CU can more easily "bridge the gap between the financial advice and our products," said Kovacs.
Getting sound financial-planning advice is better for the long-term than managing money, according to Bill Grizack, managing director, BrightLeaf. "There are quite a few personal financial management tools on the market for budgeting purposes, which is really important but relatively short-term. There aren't that many options in the marketplace providing comprehensive financial advice. We're a registered financial advisor, and we're trying to get members to be more holistic."
A management tool, in contrast, can help turn a credit union into "the primary financial hub for their members because it solves the most pressing needs of members today," suggested Katherine Jansen, staff strategist at Digital Insight. The Intuit company provides online financial management in the form of FinanceWorks.
FinanceWorks helps members "gain greater control over their spending by giving them a simplified view of their bills, expenses and cash flow," Jansen added. The software may also attract members to the CU for additional services, including in-person advice, she said.
