Almost daily we at Plansmith are asked "what are your other community bank and credit union clients doing about this and that?" or "how do most of your community bank and credit union clients do blah, blah, blah?" (I’m surprised spell and grammar checker didn’t scold me about that technical term). Frankly, we do hear a lot from our clients, and capture some of it, but with over 30 of us at Plansmith talking to you on a regular basis, it’s hard to coordinate, store and apply all of that useful information.

Thus this blog. We asked ourselves: Selves? Yes? What do you suggest we do with all this relevant, useful gossip, um, research buzzing between our ears? Well, there’s this thing called blogging. You can become bloggists! The fact is we DO hear a lot from our client base and feel we should share what we learn – become a conduit by which information around banking, planning and risk analysis can be disseminated.

We intend to put out some articles community bankers will find useful each month. This will allow you to comment back, give suggestions for future topics and, most importantly, share current views impacting the community bank and broader financial institution market. Since planning season is just around the corner, look for the initial releases to include our views on the subjects of community bank budgeting and forecasting. Of particular interest to us is the value in a long-term, high-level financial forecast and its ability to add clarity without a lot of detail.

So buckle up! We’re ready to roll and hope you are ready too!