In industries across the United States and around the globe, Q4 is well underway and the New Year is in sight. While many are busy planning for 2019, credit unions might need to widen their scope. If you are considering an upgrade to a new core platform, planning is key. Core conversions can be time consuming and stressful for any financial institution if not well thought out and prepared for. To ease the burden on your credit union, start planning more than a year in advance. That may sound like overkill but there are several reasons why this extended planning period will benefit your credit union in the end. Here is a timeline and items to consider if you are pondering a core conversion.

As Americans embark on the roads making their annual treks to the beach, mountain, lake or amusement park of choice, the tools to navigate around the traffic jams are as plenty as the orange barrels on the highways. Perhaps your car has a built-in GPS or you plug in with Apple CarPlay navigation. Do you swear by Google Maps, or have you jumped on crowdsourcing with Waze? Whatever navigation tool you use, the goal is to get you to your destination as efficiently as possible. When credit unions review their core system, the goal is to measure efficiencies and defects in the current solution and then go out into the core processing marketplace to see what other vendors can offer. Here are 10 ways to successfully navigate a core system review to get you where you need your credit union to be:

There have been alarming stats of late that indicate a significant uphill battle smaller credit unions face in today's market. The NCUA classifies small credit unions as those with less than $100 million in assets, and more than 4,000 of the 5684 credit unions in the United States fall into that category. While the overall credit union industry is improving, the data for small credit unions doesn't look good, with assets and member size shrinking. More than 215 credit unions classified as small closed their doors in 2017, with average membership rates declining 4-8%. If you find yourself in this category and are witnessing similar trends, here are 5 survival tips to consider:

It is said "Two's company; three's a crowd," when two people are in a relationship and would prefer to be alone. Your credit union's tech revolves around the primary relationship of credit union and core processor, and when it comes down to the efficiency of your CU, this might be the relationship that matters the most. However, you may have many third parties crowding your space and taking away from time that should be devoted to activities which more directly impact your members. Vendors, suppliers, agents, brokers, specialists, consultants, and more are constantly vying for your attention as a credit union leader, and managing these relationships can be a job in and of itself. Leveraging third parties can help your credit union gain significant efficiencies, but managing them can be burdensome.

There is a constant flow of outlandish stories pouring out of American universities. Kids who can't figure out how to cook an egg, sew a button, or "adult" in any way. Parents who are calling college professors defending their kid's sub-par mid-term efforts because the kid called them crying. These "helicopter parents" have tried so hard to protect their children from the big, bad modern world, that they've handicapped their growth and independent success to an embarrassing level. Are Credit Union leaders doing the same thing to their members?

Small credit unions have held their own in the marketplace for years, struggling at times to compete, but with extraordinary resourcefulness, have stayed viable.The latest report from the NCUA, however, provides some alarming data: Large credit unions are getting larger while smaller credit unions are, in fact, getting smaller. It's worth noting that while this is actually a long time industry trend, the strengthening economy has brought with it mounting challenges for smaller credit unions to stay competitive in the upcoming year.