MEMBERS Capital Advisors Celebrates 25 Years of Service to Credit Unions

For more information:
Maripat Blankenheim 608/232-6539 maripat.blankenheim@cunamutual.com
Rick Uhlmann 608/231-8940 rick.uhlmann@cunamutual.com

Oct. 23, 2007

MEMBERS Capital Advisors Celebrates 25 Years of Service to Credit Unions

MADISON, Wis. – From five employees in 1982 to 75 employees and more than $15 billion in assets under management today, MEMBERS Capital Advisors is celebrating its 25th anniversary as the nation’s leading investment manager for credit unions and their members.

MCA was founded as Century Investment Management Co. in the wake of historically high inflation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. According to Mike Daubs, the investment company’s first president, the environment was ripe for a credit union investment management company.

“We had just finished a pretty tough decade of the 70s, where we actually had inflation of 10 percent,” said Daubs. “The economy was growing, but if you took the inflation out of it, it was flat. Prime rate was 21 percent and T-bills were 15, 16 and 17 percent during that same period. It was a whole new ball game.”

Daubs said he approached the CUNA Mutual Life Insurance Co. board about creating “a separate company focused only on investing the assets and managing those assets in ways that are totally consistent with the needs of our customers and policyholders as well as the needs of the company itself.”

With a strong focus on client success, CIMCO began with $725 million in assets in 1982. In 1984, CIMCO’s parent company, Century Life of America, pioneered the launch of Variable Universal Life Insurance with assets managed by CIMCO. Five years later, Century Life and CUNA Mutual announced a permanent affiliation, and CIMCO moved to Madison. During the 1990s, CIMCO added several new mutual funds and other investment options to its line-up, including the 1997 debut of MEMBERS Mutual Funds. In 2000, CIMCO changed its name to MEMBERS Capital Advisors.

When Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer David Marks joined CUNA Mutual Group in 2005, a new era began for MCA. While it retained much of the foundation laid by its predecessors, MCA grew and expanded its capabilities to include:

Development of a state-of-the-art trading room, which opened in April 2007, making the most of technology, outside resources and research
The addition of 30 new professionals to the staff, recruited from firms from Wall Street to San Francisco
A realigned portfolio management structure to place more focus on individual accountability while maintaining a strong team dynamic
The addition of more types of investments – not just stocks, bonds and related derivatives, but also commercial mortgage loans, private placement bonds, and alternative investments like private equity, mezzanine financings and hedge funds.

“We’ve made a lot of changes to the original model, but at least one thing has remained the same,” said Marks. “We still offer each of our clients the same attention to detail, whether they are credit unions using our institutional managed account services to manage some or all of the credit union’s pre-funding investments, members funding their personal financial needs using the MEMBERS Variable Annuity, MEMBERS Mutual Funds or Managed Accounts Program, or plan sponsors providing 401(k) and defined benefit plan options utilizing the MCA-managed Ultra Series Funds.”

Helping credit union employees and members to save for and live in retirement is the focal point for MCA. “This is critical,” said Marks. “There are 78 million baby boomers getting ready to retire, and many of them are credit union members and employees. Our focus is on developing innovative retirement savings and income products. As an insurance company with the asset management capabilities that CUNA Mutual has with MCA, we have a very strong competitive posture and a bright outlook for the next 25 years.”

MEMBERS Capital Advisors is the registered investment advisor affiliate of Madison, Wisconsin-based CUNA Mutual Group. With more than $15 billion of assets under management, MEMBERS Capital Advisors is the nation’s leading investment manager for credit unions and their members.

CUNA Mutual Group is the leading provider of financial products and services to credit unions and their members worldwide. More information on the company is available at www.cunamutual.com.