When is the appropriate time to undertake your boldest or most innovative projects? As a credit union CEO, you’ve likely considered how the risk of significant organizational changes may affect your future employment, and ultimately, long-term finances. These risks may arise from financial strain on your credit union or political challenges among your board. We’re exploring this crossroads and offering solutions to help reduce your risk in our recently published white paper, “When To Take Strategic Risk In Your Credit Union—Your ACTion Point.”
The report highlights how significant transformations, such as pursuing an acquisition strategy or exploring indirect and non-traditional lending, can put additional risk squarely on your shoulders and potentially affect your financial strategy and goals. When you consider a possible early termination, proactive planning is imperative to benefit the credit union’s interests while best protecting the financial plan you’ve put in place for yourself.
In the paper, we dive into the planning tools we use and hypothetical examples that mirror common CEO scenarios to help you better gauge the appropriate time—or what we call the ACTion Point—to undertake ambitious projects without sacrificing your income before and after retirement. For example, using simulation planning, you may discover the optimal time to propose a major change, begin implementing new systems, or position other leaders for your succession that aligns with your personal financial objectives. We also explore the powerful executive benefit, the collateral assignment split-dollar, and how it can provide some leverage on both sides of the credit union/CEO equation.
There will always be a risk with “going big,” especially as the leader of your organization. The goal is to present a win-win situation that encourages forward-thinking strategic leadership that adds the most value to the credit union while giving you the confidence that your personal financial plan is poised for success. Read the white paper to learn more about how you can balance strategic risk at your credit union.
