Kehrer Group Highlighter

The Kehrer Group Highlighter packages 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.

The Latest Highlighters

Financial Institutions Reward Investment Services Directors for Scope of Responsibilities, Not Performance

Findings from the Kehrer Group Survey of Compensation of Directors of Bank-Based Advisors The incentive structure for compensation of directors of investment services in financial institutions appears to reward revenue growth – two-thirds of the 55 compensation...

Banks and Credit Unions Appear to Be Devaluing Director Role

Findings from the Kehrer Group Survey of Compensation of Directors of Bank-Based Advisors Many investment services directors in financial institutions experience frequent changes to their compensation plans. Almost half of the directors participating in the...

Top Directors Focus on Advisor Recruitment and Retention

Q3 Influencers Poll Points to Recruitment Gains in Banks and Credit Unions We devoted the second day of the 2024 Top Directors Awards Conference to the dual themes of financial advisor recruitment and advisor retention. Why? Because the difficulty in growing...

Bank-Based Advisors Are Doing More Planning, But More Progress Is Needed

That was a central theme of the eighth annual Kehrer study group on developing holistic advisors. The first afternoon the group dissected the conflicting data on whether banks and credit unions are making progress on increasing advisor planning productivity and plan...

Financial Institutions Added Advisors in 2023, but Did They Keep Pace with the Growth if the Banking Business?

Kehrer Group research has demonstrated repeatedly that financial institutions tend to be under repped—they have too few financial advisors given their opportunity. Not only is adding advisors the most direct way to grow the retail wealth management business, adding...

Which of Your Clients Are You at Risk of Losing?

Jul 20, 2022 | Banks, Best Practices, Credit Unions, Research

Most consumer-facing companies ask about the customer satisfaction of every transaction. According to Larry Cohen, director of the Consumer Financial Decisions’ (CFD) MacroMonitor Survey, apparently, there is a constant need to make sure the company is receiving good...

The Cautionary Tale of the Bank-Owned Broker Dealer

Jun 17, 2022 | Bank BDs, Industry Trends, Research, Third Party BDs

According to this year’s Annual Industry Checkup, banks and credit unions that work with third-party broker dealers once again outperformed their counterparts with affiliate BDs. Gross investment services revenue in institutions affiliated with third-party BDs...

“The Scary One”

May 19, 2022 | Advisors, Industry Trends, Research

Why the Findings of the Annual Industry Checkup Are Downright Frightening The financial institution investment services and insurance community enjoyed its best year in recent memory in 2021, as the nation shook off many of the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic....

Who Should Manage Your Advisors?

Apr 27, 2022 | Advisors, Bank BDs, Banks, Compensation, Credit Unions, Third Party BDs

Comparing the Performance of Advisors Employed by the Institution or Its BD Partner Financial institutions working with third party broker dealers face a choice of employing and managing their financial advisors or outsourcing the employment and management of the...

Moving the Goal Posts

Apr 13, 2022 | Industry Trends, Investments, Research, Study Groups

Last year was a fabulous time to be providing financial advice in a bank or credit union. According to the 2021/2022 Kehrer Bielan Annual Industry Checkup, revenue was up almost 17%. The problem with that success, of course, is that financial institution management...

Does the Size of the Investment Practice Matter?

Jan 6, 2022 | Advisors, Financial Planning, Research

Findings from the 2021 Kehrer Bielan Top Directors Awards Parsing the performance data from the investment services practices in 406 banks and credit unions to identify the 71 best performers provides a window into what makes an investment services firm great.1 One...

Are You Adding Financial Advisors?

Nov 18, 2021 | Advisors, Study Groups

At the fall meeting of the Kehrer Bielan Leadership Study Group in Chapel Hill, Tim Kehrer reiterated the case for increasing financial advisor headcount. “Again and again we find that adding financial advisors is the most promising runway to increasing investment...

Referrals Down Again—Alternatives for Reaching Clients Where They Are

Oct 12, 2021 | Best Practices, Industry Trends, Study Groups

This is the headline for today, and it will likely be the same one in 2025. According to this year’s Kehrer Bielan benchmarking surveys, branch referrals fell 27% to 29% last year. And participants in the fall meeting of the Kehrer Bielan Leadership Study Group in...

Referrals Continue to Free Fall as Branches Adapt to Lobby Restrictions during Crisis

Apr 28, 2020 | Advisors, Research

Referrals from branch staff have been a defining aspect of investment services in banks and credit unions. The availability of qualified referrals has helped attract advisors to financial institutions and helped banks and credit unions pay out 5 to 6 percentage points...

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