REAL Progress & Pathways to Prosperity (RP3)

The Latest from RP3

Latest News: Coursework is now available for participants registered to start the session that began in January. The PowerPoint slides for the Jan. 13 webinar can be found here.

For more information or questions, contact Jill Weber at (800) 242-0833, Ext. 6042.

Your credit union is invited to take part in advancing a REAL Solution® that offers your credit union thousands of dollars worth of free staff and volunteer education but also aims to create a model by which more individuals can be motivated to proactively invest for their futures. Along with this Wisconsin credit unions will have access to over $450,000 worth of investor education for free.

Who and what will be involved?

As many as 4,000 credit union staff and volunteers in Wisconsin – including tellers, member service representatives, loan officers, management and others – will participate in an 18-month program offering 30,000 hours of online investment education. As part of that process, credit unions will help identify the right mix of online education, coaching and follow-up information to encourage proactive investment behavior.

Credit unions like Desert Schools, Mountain America, Summit and many others have already used this type of online financial education. Some results they’ve experienced are amazing!

• One credit union educated 1,200 employees and saw its sales exceed industry averages across product lines. Referrals during the first year yielded sales of $20 million. By year three, referrals had more than tripled and spurred $55 million in sales.

• Another credit union realized, over a three year period, a 275% growth in the number of IRA accounts, 282% growth in new IRA deposits, 321% growth in the number of New Term Deposit Accounts and 324% growth in New Term Deposits.

• Collectively, 11 credit unions have seen a 14.71% growth in assets over the past three years, a 105% increase over the industry average. Over that same period they’ve also seen ROA of .72%, a 22% increase over the industry average.

Beginning in late summer, each participating credit union staff and volunteers will complete up to 10 hours of online learning about investing and investment products as part of the Educated Investor® University (EIU), an online investment education program developed by the Madison-based Precision Information. Pre- and post-tests will measure participants’ investment knowledge, and behavior will be tracked quarterly during the following year to determine whether they have initiated investment activity.  

What is the scope?

The study will, in part, look at ways to maximize opportunities for investment education. For example, many credit unions involve staff in free tax preparation programs in which credit union employees and volunteers help prepare and file taxes, facilitate refunds via direct deposit and educate about available tax credits and wealth-building opportunities. So, in part, the project will determine a preferred approach for this coaching as well as determine what mix of educational information for different types of filers – based on age, income, education level, geographic location and other attributes – works best to encourage investment behavior.

What’s the benefit?

• For Wisconsin credit unions

Besides improving their own use of investments, participating employees will be better positioned to direct members to investment resources more effectively because they’ll better understand the importance of investing as a wealth-building opportunity – a goal of the REAL Solutions® initiative.

• For credit unions and other financial institutions nationwide

Another offshoot will be an educational model that will be of interest to other financial institutions seeking to improve their own staff’s financial well-being and use of employee benefits programs, which often include investment vehicles.

• For other employers and their staffs

If other types of employers across the country pick up the educational approach credit unions refine, much for the same reasons as credit unions, millions of average working people could gain a proven opportunity to become more informed, active investors. And that’s a critical prescription for improving our national economy.

What’s at stake?

Stimulating investment behavior is critical to economic recovery. Fear of job losses has pushed Americans to save more now than ever, but saving without regular investing still isn’t enough to accumulate the wealth an individual or family needs over a lifetime. Many individuals and families are under-prepared for retirement and commonly fail to use other investment vehicles, such as programs for health care and higher education. So the project will figure out what – absent today’s extraordinary economic circumstances – can motivate consistent investing over the long term.

Get Started

Credit unions interested in participating in the premiere project must:

• Complete the Memorandum of Understanding and fax it to The League at (262) 549-7722

• Choose their internal champion(s) who will serve as the contact person for the study

For more information, contact Jim Drogue, The League's Vice President of Credit Union Development, at (800) 242-0833, Ext. 6005, or Jill Weber, Director of Member Solutions, at (800) 242-0833, Ext. 6042.

The study is being coordinated by the  Wisconsin Credit Union League, Governor Doyle’s Council on Financial Literacy and the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions and the Puelicher Center for Banking Education at the Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

RP3 Resources
Access promotional pieces, as well as tools and informational pieces to help you throughout the entire project.

Participating credit unions
Find out which credit unions have signed on!