NEW YORK–A new survey of credit union members with adult children has found nearly 40% “shockingly” do not want those children to have an account at the same CU at which they belong.
The same survey further found nearly half have no idea with which institution their adult children do their banking, and more than half say the reason those same adult children aren’t members of the parents’ credit union is they moved.
The survey is the second involving related findings and was conducted and released by Access Softek, Inc., a digital banking platform provider. As CUToday.info reported here in June, the company released an earlier survey that found a majority of children of credit union members had not joined their parents’ credit union.
Access Softek reported that when survey respondents were asked if they would like their children to have an account at the same credit union as them, nearly 90% said they were either neutral or to some degree actively wanted separation from their children’s financial institution.
“Shockingly, 38.2% of respondents stated that they do not want their kids to have an account at the same credit union as them,” the company said, adding it will be a challenge on the part of credit unions to turn the tide on this neutrality, especially those that lean toward the negative side.
The new survey, conducted by Google Surveys between July 9, 2020, and July 13, 2020, also found 42% of respondents had no idea where their adult children chose to bank. When asked why a majority of adult children chose not to bank at their parents’ credit union, most respondents – 55% – cited moving away as the reason why they chose to bank at a different institution. Additionally, nearly 28% cited there was no reason for their children to bank at the same institution as them, Access Softek said.
‘A Unique Opportunity’
“This highlights a unique opportunity to improve digital offerings in order to better serve remote members,” the company said in its analysis. “If location is the biggest issue, making the credit union’s services – everything from account opening, to lending, to investing – available digitally is key to keep serving families across generations.”
"The fact that 90% of parents do not care or do not want their children to have accounts at their credit union shows a lack of familial affinity toward the FI,” said Chris Doner, founder and CEO of Access Softek. “There needs to be a more open dialogue about finance in the family, even when children have grown up. Credit unions must have a "friends and family" set of features in their digital offering to maintain the family connections throughout their membership. Credit unions must begin treating the family as one financial unit and looking at family wallet share. Currently, there are little-to-no programs or incentives for families that bank together. This is a huge opportunity that many institutions are missing out on."
The Key
According to Doner, digital will be key in changing the attitudes of current and future credit union families. In addition to having a more open dialogue about finances in the family, credit unions must incentivize credit union loyalty among the family. What the incentives are will depend on the credit union’s unique membership and what is important to them. Regardless, the credit union must be involved in these conversations with education, incentives, or products tailored specifically to children and college students in the family, he said.