Growth for North Carolina's State Employees' Credit Union'sinvestment services subsidiary has come at a slow and steady pace.And that's what the cooperative wants.

Formed in August 2007, Credit Union Investment Services marked amilestone in July when it surpassed the $100 million in assetsmark. The distinction here was the signpost was achieved in largepart through members who had as little as $1,000 to invest,according to the $23 billion credit union in Raleigh, N.C.

“Our target audience is the member who doesn't have a lot ofmoney. We like to say our services are for the 'not yet wealthy,'”said Bill Umphlett, senior vice president of financial advisoryservices at SECU. “We're talking about someone who doesn't have asavings plan or retirement plan or has saved for college–and theydon't trust anyone.”

With 240 non-commissioned, multi-licensed representativesstate-wide, CUIS has built a reputation on having trusted advisersto form relationships with members who may be skeptical aboutdiscussing their long-term financial plans, Umphlett said.

To reach even more members, CUIS recently lowered the initialinvestment amount to use the CUSO's services to $250. Umphlett saidthere have been ongoing discussions about dropping the thresholdthat low. Within those talks, two schools of thought emerged, herecalled.

“There is the resistant side that said if you have $250, youshouldn't even be in the market. The other side said just becausethey don't have a lot of money, doesn't mean they won't later. And,maybe the best time to get in is with a low dollar amount.”

After conducting an extensive search, CUIS went with a balancedfund that met the $250 minimum requirement, Umphlett said. It'sbeen in place for several months after members, quite frankly,wanted something along those lines, he added. So far, fund activityis going better than expected.

Meanwhile, to get to that $100 million mark, CUIS took a look atseveral different approaches in bringing the type of investmentservices to members who may be shunned by other firms. For one, itwas important to build trust. Umphlett said SECU's membership ismade up of everyday, working men and women. Many of them sit on thesidelines or if they have opened up mutual funds, they feel a voidbecause their adviser had not served them well.

“They are tentative and conservative and they have every rightto be,” Umphlett said.

With that in mind, since all representatives are salaried andreceive no commission, members are assured to receive fair,impartial advice, SECU said. CUIS representatives guide investors based on themember's objective, time horizon, risk tolerance and overallfinancial condition, ultimately providing education for the memberto make an informed investing decision, according to the creditunion.

CUIS also noticed the inundation of advertising targeted atinvestors with significant amounts of money to invest. Umphlettsaid where consumers get hurt is the notion of buying when high andgetting out of the market when fear creeps in. In the end, theinvestor ends up losing money in the long term, he explained.

“We're not trying to sell performance. We're very upfront withmembers–we talk them out of doing something before we talk theminto it,” Umphlett said.

CUIS is one piece of the puzzle that ties in to SECU's overallorganizational objective of helping members create a successfulfinancial path. The other pieces include an online member financialassessment tool, a basic estate planning essentials program, taxpreparation services, and partnerships with member groups, withSECU representatives providing financial education on topics frombudgeting to retirement planning.

SECU's investment services CUSO sprang from its client alliancewith XCU Capital Corp., a credit union-owned broker-dealer andinvestment advisory firm that was acquired by LPL Financial Corp inAugust 2007. The CUSO bought the broker-dealer's corporate shell inOctober 2007, bringing in 6,000 accounts totaling $30 million.

Umphlett said CUIS's growth has been slow but the route has beenthe best one to take.

“For us, the pride is in how we got there, not how fast.”