That’s what the editor of Financial Planning concludes from their 2026 analysis of pay grids.
Every year Financial Planning obtains compensation plans from the national and regional brokerage firms and computes base compensation by applying a consistent product mix to each plan. This approximates what the “grid level” is at each production level across firms. (Standard year-end bonuses are noted as deferred payments.) They note that firms are continuing to squeeze the payouts of the bottom producers so that can increase payouts to top producers.
Compensation of the $400,000 Producer
Kehrer Group sees a similar trend in banks and credit unions, where the grid payout for $400,000 producers is below half the firms in Financial Planning’s survey, but higher than the overall average in their survey. But as Tim Kehrer demonstrated in his presentation at this year’s BISA Conference, the $400,000 producer can play a large role in a financial institution-based firm’s self-funded growth strategy. Many firms are growing their advisor forces by promoting advisors to “second story” environments outside the branch network, making room for new advisors in the branches. But the second story advisors tend to earn payouts above the firm’s overall effective payout rate of 40–41%, and new hires generally receive temporary higher payouts while they are ramping up their practices. So, the $400,000 producer helps the firm keep the overall firm’s effective payout at the target level, enabling the firm to self fund growth.
We’ll be previewing the next iteration of the self-funding staffing model at the spring meeting of the Kehrer Leadership Study Group May 20-21 in Durham, NC. Click here for more information.
About Kehrer Group Highlighters
The Kehrer Group Highlighters package some of our most important findings, insights, and commentary into bite-size, digestible articles. We make the Highlighters available for free to the entire financial advice community—a small gesture of appreciation for a community that has done so much to support our work.
About Kehrer Group
Kehrer Group is the bank and credit union financial advice community’s trusted partner for original thought leadership, insight based on data, and strategies that drive success. Kehrer Group’s legacy of research and analysis has advanced the delivery of investment services in banks and credit unions and shaped the industry into what it is today. Kehrer Group’s principals meld the wisdom gained from its long history in the industry with cutting-edge analytics, data that is robust and diverse, and a deep understanding of the key drivers of performance.
Learn more about what we do.