On “The Talk,” fixed assets, and settlement money
by. Henry Meier
I have a potpourri of newsworthy tidbits to start your credit union day.
Viva Las Vegas – I would have gladly wagered money yesterday that NCUA Chairwoman Debbie Matz could get nothing more than polite applause out of the attendees of NAFCU’s annual convention, but that was before I knew that the Chairwoman would be using her appearance to outline some regulatory relief proposals that NCUA plans to propose at its July meeting. According to the Chairwoman, NCUA will propose “effectively eliminating” the fixed asset rule. Currently, NCUA regulation caps at 5% of a credit union’s shares and returned earnings the amount that can be spent on fixed assets absent a waiver from NCUA. As CUNA pointed out in a comment letter last year advocating for scrapping the cap “The rule restricts investments not only in real property, but also in technology and systems that are increasingly central to the success of all financial institutions. Overly restricting investments in these items—or subjecting the relevant decisions to a slow and unpredictable process — does not facilitate credit unions’ use of online and mobile banking technologies even though the utilization of such technologies is more important now than ever.”
Two other mandate relief proposals will deal with member business lending and updating appraisal provisions. The proposals aren’t out yet and the devil is in the details; but it’s nice to be able to compliment NCUA again. It wasn’t all that long ago that it was aggressively pushing mandate relief reforms such as the streamlining of low-income credit union designations. Maybe the Chairman should spend more time in Sin City.
Having “The Talk” – What’s the single most uncomfortable talk that parents have with their kids? It’s not about the Birds and the Bees, it’s about money. Great article in MarketWatch reporting that a recent survey indicates that “[p]arents in their 50s and 60s think they’ve done a bang-up job talking with their adult kids about their estate and retirement plans. Their kids think just the opposite. It’s the new Generation Gap. Specifically, nearly two-thirds of parents and adult kids (64%) disagree on the best time to start talking about things like wills, estate planning, eldercare and covering retirement expenses. Many credit unions do a great job providing financial education to their members and this might be one more area to highlight. Making sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to maximizing retirement assets can save a lot of heart ache down the road and is a great way of stretching those retirement savings. Besides, like the World’s Most Interesting Man, you really can give your father The Talk.
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