Michael Dean Aufmuth
Agency Principal, Elite FI Partners. Leadership, experience, and the role behind the credit union focused extension.
Experience behind the work.
Michael began his automotive career in 1997 in his family’s Tucson dealerships. His experience spans sales, sales management, finance, general management, dealership technology, product programs, and adaptive training. He and Emilia co-founded Elite FI Partners in 2019.
View the verified Elite FI Partners profile ↗Applying Elite FI experience to credit unions.
Michael shapes the product, training, workflow, and implementation perspective behind CU Finance Products. His role is to help translate decades of dealership and agency experience into a credit union model centered on member education, voluntary choice, practical execution, and ongoing development.
Experience built across operations, people, products, and process.
- 011997
Entered the automotive industry
Began in his family’s dealerships in Tucson and worked across sales, management, finance, and store leadership.
- 02Dealership years
Built operational and technology experience
Focused heavily on finance department operations and used his computer science background to develop a custom system for deal structuring and dealership workflow.
- 032013
Moved to the agency side
Became a general agent with Emilia and helped deliver product knowledge and finance process training, including programs supporting Mazda and Volvo.
- 042019
Co-founded Elite FI Partners
Built a national agency around F&I products, adaptive training, dynamic coaching, operational support, and continuous development.
How Michael approaches the work.
Michael’s approach rejects rigid scripts in favor of process, mindset, daily effort, and coaching that adapts to the person and situation. For credit unions, that means helping employees understand the product, listen to the member, explain approved options naturally, and remain useful after the loan closes.
- Experience across the complete dealership operating environment
- Hands on finance process and technology development
- Product, administrator, workflow, and implementation perspective
- Author, trainer, coach, and voice behind F&I Nation
Editorial and program perspective
- F&I product strategy
- Adaptive training and dynamic coaching
- Dealership and lending workflows
- Program implementation
- Technology and process design
Product and training perspective
Explore selected resources connected to this editorial role. Each article identifies its author, operational reviewer, sources, and review boundaries.
How to Train Credit Union Teams to Present Protection Products
Use dynamics-based learning to help credit union teams educate members accurately, adapt to real conversations, and respect voluntary choice.
Read the guide →Program designHow Credit Unions Can Customize a GAP Program
Design a GAP program around the credit union’s member profile, loan channels, eligible assets, contract structure, total-loss support, cancellations, and oversight.
Read the guide →Member educationBuilding a Member-Education Process Instead of a Sales Process
Create a credit union process that starts with member circumstances, explains voluntary protection clearly, respects informed choice, and measures service quality.
Read the guide →Apply the member-first framework to your credit union.
Start with a practical review of member needs, lending channels, workflows, employee readiness, and program priorities.