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

What Will Drive Progress in 2025? Industry Influencers Focused on Recruitment, Client Experience, and Wealth Integration

Following a blockbuster year of growth, financial institutions are asking their wealth management units to do it again in 2025. According to the latest run of our quarterly Influencers Poll, the mean investment services revenue growth target for 2025 is 9% in banks...

The Mirage of Life Insurance Sales:

Life Insurance Ownership Down 24% in Past 20 Years Ever since financial institutions started selling investments in the 1980s and 1990s, they have expected sales of life insurance to become a significant part of the business. But few firms derive as much as 5%...

Career Advice: Insights from the Kehrer Group Survey of Director Compensation

For bank-based advisors thinking about a future as a director at their institution or another bank or credit union, or for existing directors assessing their current situation, the Kehrer Group Survey of Director Compensation offers some insights: The larger the firm,...

Compensation Incentives Reward Revenue Growth, Not the Activities that Drive Growth

Findings from the Kehrer Group Survey of Compensation of Directors of Bank-Based Advisors The landmark BISA study Smart Investment found that increasing the number of bank or credit union customer/member households with an investment relationship by 1%...

Gender Gap in Director Compensation

Findings from the Kehrer Group Survey of Compensation of Directors of Bank-Based Advisors Women Directors earn substantially less than male Directors of investment services in financial institutions with similar experience, qualifications, and...

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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