Bank Conversion as Retirement Plan for CU Directors

CRANFORD, N.J. – Three long-time directors of Synergy Financial, once known as Synergy FCU, have built up considerable retirement accounts from their service on the once-volunteer board. The three, Nancy Davis, Kenneth Kaspar and George Putvinski, earned $91,522, $91,891 and $90,634, respectively, last year for their service on the board of the ex-credit union, according to documents filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Each of the former volunteers, who helped convert the credit union to mutual savings bank, then to publicly owned bank, worked together at Schering Plough Corp. (Davis retired in 2002), the credit union’s former sponsor. Each has built up a million-dollar plus holding in the former credit union, with Davis owning 74,414 shares worth $1.2 million, Kaspar 80,999 shares worth $1.3 million, and Putvinski 73,215 shares worth $1.1 million. But those shares pale in value to the compensation earned by John Fiore, the president and CEO who led the exodus from credit union. Fiore earned $1.1 million in total compensation last year and has accumulated 392,115 Synergy shares worth more than $6 million since the ex-credit union went public just three years ago.