People Trust Their Credit Unions Over Banks, by a LOT

We’re talking Rebel Alliance vs Evil Empire differences in trust (well, almost), according to the findings of a new study by Kehrer Saltzman & Associates. The study found that CU members trust their credit unions over banks by a wide margin: More than 61% said they viewed their CU with a great deal of trust, while only 27% felt that way about banks.

But in the area of connecting CU members to CU financial advisory services, CUs have some work to do. The survey certainly didn’t reveal a great well of CU member trust of traditional “Wall Street” firms. In fact only 4.7% of those surveyed said that had a great deal of trust in full-service stock brokerage firms. However, when asked to rank their most trusted sources of financial advice, only 18% gave the top spot to financial advisers from their credit union.

Does your CU offer financial advisory services? While more CUs are offering such services these days the word hasn’t necessarily reached every CU member. The airwaves are flooded with pitches from traditional firms offering investment services so it’s easy to overlook that CUs offer these services. But many do, so maybe your friendly local credit union should be on your list if you’re thinking about investing for retirement, education planning, etc. Your CU might just offer the same services as Wall Street firms do, only without the slick advertising or the same level of evil.

One thing is for sure: If you are thinking about investment options do a lot of research and be very, very careful before you take the plunge. There are a lot of sharks in the water.