“Platform Reps”— Licensing Branch Bankers to Provide Investment Advice?
To celebrate over 40 years of thought leadership, Kehrer Group is revisiting some of its landmark studies and insights, and we’re asking some members of the financial advice community to provide their take on the impact of the work.
This from Marc Vosen, past president of the Bank Insurance and Securities Association, and formerly president of Key Investment Services and FirstMerit Securities:
The Financial Institution Industry engaging in the sales of Investments and Insurance services is quickly approaching 50 years. The breakup of the Glass-Steagall Act and the adoption of the Interagency Statement opened the door for these activities to begin.
This did not happen without a lot of growing pain. Financial Institutions were about to engage in a business they did not fully understand. Two major issues were accepting disintermediation in exchange for fee income and the concept of a sales culture entering a centuries old service culture industry.
Who to hire, what to sell, who to manage, where to report, needed to be figured out. Thanks to statistical data, research, and the sharing of best practices the industry learning curve was shortened quite a bit.
One major issue was how to best utilize the current employees working in the branch system. Should they refer customers, should they be licensed to sell, how will they be trained and how would they be compensated.
Attached are reprints of articles that describe research on these issues 25 years ago by Kehrer Associates, the leading and award winning firm for research and statistical data for the financial institutions investment industry.
In the end, financial institutions came to understand that the more investment revenue that was created, the faster deposits grew, and customers who owned investment service were their most profitable.
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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.
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