JUNE 28, 2017 | VOL. 28 | NO. 22 | CUTIMES.COM
CU
Lawmaker
Landscape
DAVID BAUMANN
dbaumann@cutimes.com
fter almost a year
of work, the Maine
Credit Union League
succeeded in June
in pushing legislation updating
the state’s credit union charter
through the House and Senate.
There was only one problem.
Gov. Paul LePage vetoed the
legislation.
“We were surprised,” Elise Bal-
dacci, the league’s assistant vice
president of government affairs,
said. “It was his first real swipe at
credit unions.”
Within days, credit union of-
ficials across the state convinced
the legislature to override the gov-
ernor’s veto, ensuring that the bill
becomes law.
“It’s never easy to override a
veto,” Baldacci said.
While not all states have had
such drama involving credit
unions, legislatures across the
country have enacted laws affecting credit unions this year.
Some, such as Maine, overhauled their state charters.
The Maine bill increases the
percentage of total surplus that
state-chartered credit unions may
invest in real estate and fixed assets from 50% to 60%.
The legislation creates parity between state-chartered and
federally chartered credit
POLITICS
Y21
DOL IMPACT
Upside Down Annuities
If you sell or market annuities, you may face a frustrating
problem.
This should be the best market
for retirement savings products
ever. Employment is pretty good.
More than 15,000 U.S. adults are
turning 50 every weekday. At
least about 3,000 of those adults
probably earn enough that they
should be flooding into the offices asking for retirement planning services.
Meanwhile, most of the news
coming out about annuities is
either bad or (frankly) pretty
boring.
One reason is that it’s summer.
Many advisors and annuity industry luminaries are either networking at conferences or relaxing on beaches.
A second reason is that it’s
right before the end of the quarter. Many publicly traded insurers release big, juicy news with
their earnings reports, or soon
after they release earnings.
A third reason is the U.S. Department of Labor’s fiduciary
rule. DOL officials turned part of
the annuity world upside down
June 9, when much of the rule
took effect, and are warning that
some of the rest of the annuity
world could turn upside down
Jan. 1, if they cannot figure out
how to keep other provisions
and interpretations from taking
effect.
Some financial advisors and
insurers like the goals behind the
fiduciary rule effort, and Y18
Must Reads
redit union executives have to know
a lot to perform in
their demanding
jobs. Ironically, their extensive
knowledge won’t help them think
creatively for ideas to improve
products or member services.
In a standing room-only ses-
sion packed with credit union
professionals at the Southeast
Credit Union Con-
ference last week
in Orlando, Lara
O’Connor Hodg-
son declared that
creative thinking is
not about what you
know, it’s about
what you notice.
Hodgson knows a lot. She
earned an MBA from the Har-
vard Business School and a Bach-
elor’s in aerospace engineering
with highest honors from Georgia
Tech. She admits, however, that
her extensive knowledge wasn’t
responsible for her creative think-
ing that led to breakthrough ideas,
helping her launch various prod-
uct and service businesses over
the years, including a successful
CUSO payments company, called
the NOW Corp. in 2011.
Before beginning her presentation on creative thinking, Hodgson asked whether anyone in the
crowded room thought they were
creative.
EXECUTIVES
CUs Harness Creative Thinking
PETER STROZNIAK
pstrozniak@cutimes.com
Y19
FOCUSREPORT:
INNOVATION
As more and more consumers head online to research financial products and
services, credit unions are shifting their marketing priorities from branches to digital.
Learn how they’re doing it in this Focus Report. Y6
Common-Sense
Regulation
CUs continue their
fight on Capitol
Hill. Y13
Embracing
Disruption
CUs must ride
the wave of
change. Y10
Hodgson