NAFCU Services Blog

Every credit union is unique, and every CEO places a different emphasis on how they want their executive compensation and benefits package tailored, which makes an assessment of ‘market rates’ for executive benefits and compensation challenging. If you’re a board member you want to be both fair to your executives, provide a combination of compensation and benefits with the right mix of incentives to ensure alignment with your strategic goals, and also fulfill your fiduciary obligation to fellow credit union members.

As an executive, you want to make sure that your compensation and benefits are competitive and fit your personal needs, and are also flexible enough to adapt as those needs change throughout your career.

One great way to find out where your credit union stands relative to the market is with the NAFCU-Burns-Fazzi, Brock (BFB) Executive Compensation and Benefits Survey (free to survey participants).

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Guest post written by Tom Telford, Executive Vice President, Burns-Fazzi, Brock

A pending IRS rule has some credit unions worried about the fate of their deferred compensation plans.

For some eight years now, the IRS has been considering the tax status of nonqualified deferred compensation plans offered by federal credit unions (FCUs). At issue is whether FCUs are entities of the federal government. In its analysis, the IRS concluded that FCUs are not because they are not federal instrumentalities. The IRS also had the option of finding that FCUs are eligible to offer these compensation plans because they are tax exempt organizations.

These plans have historically been an additional option for retirement planning above and beyond traditional 401(k) plans. Read more

Guest post written by Jim Patterson, Attorney for Burns-Fazzi, Brock

After years of waiting, we are hearing rumblings that the proposed 457(f) regulations may be issued in 2012. The IRS “anticipates” changing the current 457(f) rules to recognize only cliff vesting and disallow elective deferrals. Plans using noncompete restrictions as the sole risks of forfeiture will no longer defer taxes. Fortunately, 457(b) plans would not be affected.

As nonqualified deferral plans for credit unions normally use cliff vesting to qualify for tax deferral under 457(f), and supplemental employer contributions rather than elective deferrals, the new rules should require few if any changes to credit union plans. (Nice for a change!) Read more