Executive Summary

The following presentation, Financial Services Entities & Opportunities for the Entrepreneur, examines the different types of financial institutions, with emphasis on Credit Unions and the insurance industry. With regard to these two, we have examined what kinds of opportunities there are for the entrepreneur to begin a business in one of these industries.

For this project, we used Microsoft PowerPoint. By doing this, we were able to include useful links for the end reader; something that we thought added a little extra hindsight into our topic.

Methods of research for this report include the Internet, textbooks, academic journals, and Entrepreneur magazine. The use of the Internet to find articles and academic journals proved to be very helpful in our quest for research.

The major findings of this project were somewhat limited. We found that barriers to entry were actually quite low in the insurance industry and also for credit unions. One of the most talked about ideas in these industries for barriers to entry was a good marketing plan. Without a good plan, a small business will never be able to get their name out. Most large, successful financial institutions have a well known name. We also found that each individual state has different regulations for the insurance industry, so it is key for an entrepreneur to check with their local state insurance board before trying to begin an entity of this matter. Credit Unions and Insurance companies are both highly regulated by the government. When searching on the internet for Credit Union regulations, a plethora of results showed up, leaving us a little overwhelmed. We decided to provide a hyperlink on our slide show that takes the reader to a page listing the rules and regulations. For the Insurance Industry, we found that there are over fifty regulations, which at first seemed like a lot, but when dealing with these types of matters, one can never be too sure! As we stated earlier, Insurance Companies are qualified and regulated by each individual state. We also learned of some key risks that these institutions face on a day-to-day basis.

Table of Contents

Slide #

Introduction ………………………………………………………………… 1

Financial Institutions………………………………………………………… 2

Types of Financial Institutions ……………………………………………… 3

Deposit Type ……………………………………………… 4

Contractual Savings ……………………………………………… 5

Investment Funds ……………………………………………… 6

Risks Involved ………………………………………………………………. 7

Credit Risk …………………………………………….. 8

Interest rate Risks …………………………………………….. 9

Liquidity Risk ……………………………………………. 11

Foreign Exchange Risk ……………………………………………. 12

Political Risk .. .………………………………………….. 13

Credit Unions ( an In-Depth Look)…………………………………………… 14

Starting a Credit Union …………………………………………….. 15

Regulations ……………………………………………. 16

NFCUA ……………………………………………. 17

Risks ……………………………………………. 18

Life Insurance Companies……….……………………………………………. 19

Starting ……………………………………………. 20

Regulations ……………………………………………. 21

Specific Regulations……………………………………….. 22

Risks …………………………………………….

Some Useful Links…………………………………………………………….. 27

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….. 28

References……………………………………………………………………… 29

About the Authors……………………………………………………………… 30