LENEXA, Kan. — The Special Needs Planning Center at CommunityAmerica CU here is ready to run at full steam in 2014, having spent much of 2013 establishing the partnership and transitioning the group's existing client base over to the credit union.
Mike Haggerty, CACU's VP of financial planning services, said the focus during 2013 was on making the shift as seamless as possible for families already working with the group, a process which included establishing them as members of the credit union and transitioning them to the institution's broker dealer.
"This has absolutely been what we had expected," said Haggerty, noting that it's no easy task to transition 1,000 new families.
As such, the rollout and awareness campaign didn't really begin until the third and into the fourth quarter of the year.
"Since then it's been very well received," said Haggerty. "Not only with our membership, but with our employees and at the branch level and so on. We look for the uptick — the deepening of the member relationship — to take place into 2014."
While Haggerty said the impact on the bottom line probably won't begin to materialize until sometime during the first quarter of 2014, CommunityAmerica has seen an increase in activity among members who joined the CU as a result of the partnership. Additionally, the credit union has increased its staffing in preparation for more business from special needs families, adding two employees to work specifically with that market.
"We have a good idea of what the opportunity is," he said. "Census information tell us that one-in-five families with children have a child with special needs, so that's significant. And that percentage has been growing. So there are a lot of impacted families we feel we can help — initially within our member base, and beyond that within the Kansas City area."
Haggerty said that the Special Needs Planning Center's mission aligns well with CommunityAmerica's "people helping people" mission.
"To my knowledge, there's nothing in the Kansas City area doing this," he said. "It meshes well with what the credit union is trying to do as a whole in the Kansas City area."
