When I ask this of a financial institution, I usually receive balance sheets and risk reports. Most people immediately think ‘numbers’ when you mention planning. I challenge you to think differently, think communication. Tell me about your business.
Last week we covered the first half of the OCC letter requesting information from client banks on their interest rate risk (IRR) model. Along with the letter, you may have run across some forms to be filled in with results from your model. This post and the accompanying webinar are meant to clarify the letter and terminology. Separately, but related, we have produced a video and guide for completing the OCC EV IRR Data Form for Financial Compass Clients (to be released soon).
This past year, I sent my oldest off to college for the first time. Amid the tears (ours) and shouts of joy (hers) there was much hard work, paperwork and check writing involved to get her to this point. And while we want her to celebrate what she has already accomplished, we also want her to focus on the details needed to get her to the next milestone - College Graduation. Fortunately, she does have a mandatory Strategy 101 class that – among other things - requires her to map out her course schedule for the next four years. The focus is not to create a roadmap that she should not deviate from, but rather to get her thinking about how to build in nice-to-haves (study abroad), plan for some "what-ifs" (change of interests), and to regularly check back in to see if she is staying on course or needs to alter her path.