"CUSOs are evolving, they're going from being single-owned or owned by one or two credit unions, to being owned by dozens. New partners are often brought in on different levels or terms with limited investment and management rights. Bringing on new partners allows a CUSO to gain more capital base, get more scale for better efficiencies and get greater credit union penetration," he said. To implement any ownership expansion plan–whether it be going from a wholly-owned to multi-owned arrangement or multi-owned to more partners–Messick advised CUSOs should go through six steps: o Define the business objective for the CUSO ownership expansion; o Develop a business plan with subscription amounts and period; o Find the right CUSO CEO; o Find the right partners; o Align the credit union management to the new CUSO; and o Prepare and send the subscription documents.

Credit unions should invest in finding the right leadership talent for their CUSO, said Messick, and not be hesitant to use specialists to locate the CEO talent if necessary.

"Often the CEO of a wholly-owned CUSO is on loan from the credit union on a part-time basis. That doesn't work because running a CUSO requires different talents than running a credit union," said Messick.

"You need to find someone who's totally committed to the CUSO and is very familiar with the service area the CUSO is in. That person also has to be able to create a collaboration between the CUSO and credit union staff," he added.

Messick emphasized that, "Any resistance to implementing a new product or service creates a lack of success. It's not enough for the credit union to say at the senior level that this is a good program. They have to do the proper work at the credit union to make sure everyone's on board, and make sure the credit unions are aligned strategically with whatever service is being offered."

Messick said he heard a lot of very vocal complaints from attendees at the CEO Collaborative about a lack of support they often feel from the staff of their credit union partners on product and service initiatives.

Whatever services are being offered, the NACUSO general counsel said he often finds situations where the boards of the credit union partners fully support a new product or service, but either because the credit unions haven't properly educated their staff or the employees at the credit union don't like the change, the implementation of the new service is difficult at the middle management level.

"You need accountability and alignment at the credit union so the credit union staff has the same knowledge and commitment," said Messick.

"At the end of the year, when the credit union does its financial evaluation, the success of the CUSO has to be in the mix just as much as any other credit union product," he said. –[email protected]