Eighty-five percent of assets leave the credit union when a member passes away. That’s $80 trillion in wealth moving from boomers to millennials and Gen Z, who often have little connection to their parents’ credit union.
Jennifer Good, SVP at HomeThrive, joined Sarah Snell Cooke in The Credit Union Connection studio to discuss how family caregiving support could help credit unions build relationships with the next generation before that wealth transfer happens.
The Caregiving Crisis
Three-quarters of employees are caregivers and that same percentage applies to credit union members. Yet most financial institutions don’t have a clear picture of how widespread this issue is or its financial impact.
The numbers are significant: The average family caregiver spends $7,200 out of pocket annually, approximately 26% of their annual income. Daycare averages $2,000 a month. A private room in a nursing home costs $128,000 a year.
“I don’t think anyone realizes the scale of this,” Good said during the conversation. “It’s one of the leading causes of financial stress.”
Caregiving is also the second-leading reason people leave the workforce; second only to retirement.
Building Next-Generation Relationships
The discussion explored how caregiving benefits can create connection points with younger family members. When members add family to their care circles for eldercare, childcare, or end-of-life planning, those family members interact with the credit union during significant life moments.
“The way we can help is by having the existing members loop in anyone who cares,” Good explained. “Friends, family, neighbors, the adult children, to get access to these services for the things they care about most.”
The conversation covered utilization rates, measurable outcomes like reduced falls and extended time in homes, and why caregiving support aligns with credit union missions around community impact and member wellbeing.
Watch the full episode for the complete discussion on caregiving trends, financial stress, and strategic approaches to the wealth transfer challenge.
NOTE: This transcript may contain minor imperfections courtesy of our AI overlords-in-training. We’re not complaining. We’re definitely not complaining.
Sarah Snell Cooke: Hello. Welcome, everyone. I am Sarah Snell Cooke, your host here at the Credit Union Connection. I’m joined today by Jennifer Good. Welcome.
Jennifer Good: Thanks, Sarah. Nice to be here.
Sarah Snell Cooke: Great to have you, Jennifer. And so Jennifer is the senior vice president of commercial enablement and strategic rela- partnership, excuse me, at Home Thrive.
Jennifer Good: So, I was the CEO and founder of a company called Peacefully that was a CUSO that helped people plan for end of life and shut things down when a loved one passes away. I started that based on personal experience when my family went through it and just saw what a mess it was.
And then we were acquired by Home Thrive, and so it’s really broadened the offering. So now we say we help family caregivers from the high chair to rocking chair and beyond. So we support with care for children, neurodivergence, older adults, and after some- planning for end of life, terminal conditions, and when someone passes away.
And then the members who are caring for those people, which could be caring for people, multiple people in that sandwich generation. so the way it works is we have both a digital offering that helps people get the support they need anytime, and then real human social workers to lead with empathy, be a listening ear, help people get things done, really that people helping people approach.
Sarah Snell Cooke: Awesome. Perfect fit. Glad your story is a CUSO too. That’s awesome. So many more CUSOs coming into the world these days, which is I think is a great thing. One of the things that credit unions have kind of had an ear to the ground on but maybe not sure they’re capturing it the way they could, boomers, currently control about 61% of the national wealth, which has increased tremendously since just 2020 even. And, $80 trillion in assets is about what will be inherited by primarily millennials and Gen Z, which is a relationship the credit unions really want and need. So you’re offering of home health care assistance, as a member benefit, how does that offering actually help the credit unions be able to better capture that wealth transfer relationship?
Jennifer Good: So you said it exactly right. I think the great wealth transfer is sort of an existential threat for credit unions, but the average credit union member, we’re at 53, 57, more than half are older than that. And that $80 trillion in assets, members with the most deposits, the most important credit union relationships, transferring that wealth to their younger family who are less likely to maintain relationships with that credit union.
I’ve heard anywhere from 85% on average of assets leave the credit union after a member passes. And I think part of that is that younger generations might not have that deep relationship. They don’t understand what a credit union can do. They don’t necessarily have that emotional long-term tie.
And so the way we can help with that is by having the existing members loop in anyone who cares. So it could be friends, family, neighbors, like in the case that we’re talking about, the adult children, to get access to these really valuable services for the things that they care about the most: care for aging relatives, their children, support with end of life, and so that they develop that emotional tie with the credit union.
They understand what makes credit unions special, and they have that relationship both when someone ultimately passes and earlier, and help create accounts. So we see, on average, each Home Thrive member, we call them, so each person who creates an account with Home Thrive adds an average of 1.5 extra people who then can access all of the benefits that Home Thrive provides, so that unlimited human support, the digital resources to get things done. And so the credit union can start developing that relationship, market to them, and be there through that emotionally- intense time, and when, someone passes.
Sarah Snell Cooke: It’ s great that credit unions can be there at, like, a very poignant moment in, or moments in, in anybody’s life, either your parents needing a caregiver or you becoming a caregiver to your parents. There’s a whole lot of baggage there, I imagine. So the average family also, I was reading, the caregiver spends about $7,200 out of pocket every year, which can be very expensive to do but, you feel like you have to do it, or you do have to do it. But, so, how many credit union members are in this situation, and does the credit union even know most of the time?
Jennifer Good: I do think credit unions know more than other financial institutions. That’s what makes them special, is they really get those relationships and lead with empathy. That being said, I don’t think anyone realizes the scale of this. It’s around three-quarters of people of employment age, or so, of people that are employed are caregivers now. If you look older than that, it’s actually higher. So about, three-fourths of members are caregivers. And to your point, the average family caregiver, if you do the math on that, is spending 26% of their annual income on caregiving. So it’s a highly relevant topic. It’s, one of the leading causes of financial stress, and it’s something that’s really stressful. Even people earning over $100,000, more than half of them are financially stressed about caregiving and worried about caregiving and retirement. So, I think it’s definitely on the minds of members, particularly those caring for children. I think daycare costs on average $2,000 a month right now, and then a private room in a nursing home is 128,000 a year. So if you’re dealing with both of these things, just an incredible source of financial stress, that I think if you don’t know about it as a credit union, it’s a great way to support people with what’s really on their mind in terms of their budget.
Sarah Snell Cooke: Well, I mean, heck, you said $128,000 a year. In two years, you’ve bought a average home in America. That’s insane. 88% of seniors, plus as you were kind of mentioning, younger persons with disabilities or, or need of caregiving, they want to stay in their homes. So this sounds exactly like, meeting people where they are, which is what credit unions do.
Jennifer Good: That’s exactly right. Yeah, almost 90% of people prefer to age at home and it’s hard to do, right? Like, there’s all of these things that you might not think about, so in terms of home safety and how you can modify your home, finding home care, supporting the family caregivers to do more without burning out, and those are all things we help with a lot. So we worked with a health plan, and we reduced the number of falls by 24% across the entire population by helping people understand how to make their home safe and then we did some work with a long-term care insurance company and kept people at home who were already, on claim, so already experiencing difficulties with daily life, by an average of, three extra months 9r 69 days. So it’s two and a half. But, yeah- Yeah. Well- So it’s, that’s, those are the things that matter to people, is not only- better for them. They’re having care that’s more in accordance with their needs, but it’s also saving them a lot of money, so it’s sort of like a double, a double-sided win. That’s not an expression.
Sarah Snell Cooke: No, but I get you. I think everybody’ll get you. That’s not an expression. No, but I get you. I think everybody’ll get you. The aging and care access and, and, funding home healthcare, it- obviously, that becomes deeply embedded in that person’s life, in their family’s lives. And being part of that really builds that trust, which credit unions already have, but really deepens it in that specific relationship and it’s a huge differentiator for credit unions.
Jennifer Good: I think so. I think that being there in those difficult moments I think so. I think that being there in those difficult moments, is not only just the right thing to do, but it is a good way for credit unions to deepen those relationships and become the primary financial institution when they aren’t already and with the other generation, like, I think Filene did some research that, people around financial satisfaction, that people who feel like, members who feel like finances control their lives report an average financial satisfaction score of 3.6 compared to 6.1 for those who feel in control. And so by helping people feel in control, being there, you can really deepen those relationships.
And then broadly, there is some research that people are three times more likely to recommend a brand they have that emotional connection with. So I feel like in addition to it being the right thing to do and something that’s really great for members, there is that powerful sense of gratitude and deepening relationship that can help the credit union with asset retention and deepened relationship
Sarah Snell Cooke: For sure. We touched on it earlier, adults with disabilities also. It’s becoming much more prevalent. Autism, for example, is one we hear about pretty frequently and it increased since 2000, 382%. And so- this is, it’s 1 in 31 children as of a year ago. Yeah it’s 1 in 31 children as of a year ago.
Jennifer Good: 30% are caring for a child with, neurodivergence or a disability. and so, and that also can actually have a huge financial impact. I saw some research that I think it’s mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder earn 55% less on average. And so it’s a huge financial impact. I do think it’s somewhere that is highly relevant to credit unions. And so what we do there, really across everything, the way we help is kind of similar. We have, real human expert support who can help with navigating a situation. And so for, neurodivergence, disabilities, goal is to help people with those conditions thrive, as well as help their, their loved ones, their caregivers thrive.
And so what we do is we help with, a needs assessment, and then we can do pre-diagnosis and post-diagnosis support, as well as advocating in the school system, in the community, help finding these community resources, other benefits offered, daycare, if that’s a behavior modification. Whatever is needed, for that individual, customized to them, leveraging community resources, leveraging other benefits that the credit union might provide as well as other, like, employer benefits that they have access to, as well as other, like, employer benefits that they have access to, and so that they can get all of the support that they need, which they might not even know what they need, and then definitely know- what’s available.
Sarah Snell Cooke: Well for sure, and obviously this is great for the community, it’s great for credit union to, to really, deepen relationships with their existing members. But also, nearly three-quarters of employees, you mentioned earlier, are care- have caregiving responsibilities, so it helps the community as well as the credit union itself because, they have employees who are members. And so, like, can you talk a little bit about, like, the benefits of, particularly for people who are of working age.
Jennifer Good: So caregiving’s actually the number two reason, second only to retirement, that people leave the workforce. And you talk about the financial reason, sometimes the math just doesn’t, you talk about the financial reason, sometimes the math just doesn’t, the math doesn’t math in terms of how much you’re making and how much paid caregiving can cost. Secondly, there’s the time. So people are spending hours and hours second-shift caregiving, and so it can just be exhausting. And then trying to make that happen during work days, a lot of times tasks, like particularly after a loss, you have to do everything Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 5:00. If you’re working, that’s really hard and so the way we can help from an employment standpoint is help people stay working and help them be more productive at work.
We save the average person we work with 16.4 hours, and so that’s time that they can back, get back to be productive at work. Or to take better care of themselves and so I think in terms of the community, help people maintain growth of wealth, stay productive at work, help businesses thrive. We actually also work with credit unions as an employee benefit.
So we work with a number of credit unions, and also, TruStage providing support for their employees to help them stay productive. So, I think it makes sense for employment, employer SEGs, as well as for credit union employees as well.
Sarah Snell Cooke: absolutely. So kind of covered the range of everything, from seniors to neurodivergence and disabilities and other ways that this can be a member benefit and as well as an employee benefit. Love to hear your final thoughts for our credit union audience.
Jennifer Good: I think one thing we didn’t talk about is utilization, and I think that’s one of the things that’s really special about us, is across our book of business, we have an average of 14% utilization. And I think that shows just how relevant this is for members, that people, it’s something people use, it’s something people need, for members, it’s something people use, it’s something people need, as well as really high satisfaction score. So that’s one of the things I’m the most proud about is working on something that people use and that they feel is really helping them. That’s what drives me personally, so and then I think the biggest thing is I just feel like caregiving is such a good fit with the mission of credit unions. I think it’s what differentiates credit unions from fintech and maybe mainstream, the mega banks, is that it’s really about that empathy, people helping people, that deep tie to the community. And I do think that helping people with these deeply emotional, the things that are most important to them, the other people they love, is really aligned with the credit union mission.
Sarah Snell Cooke: Absolutely. Appreciate your time today, your expertise, and all the information.
Jennifer Good: Thanks for having me, Sarah.