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
Needed: Better Tracking and Reporting
By now you are neck-deep in planning and budgeting for 2023. What metrics are you managing to as you look to the year ahead? Revenue growth? Assets? Profit margin? From our perspective, the core objective of the investment services unit inside a bank or credit union...
Can We Really Tell if Financial Planning Boosts an Advisor’s Production?
You’ve all met this guy, at an industry conference or at the bar afterwards. Perpetual sceptic. “I don’t see that doing more planning helps an advisor sell more. I know lots of top producers who do no planning, and advisors who do lots of planning but are middling...
Which of Your Clients Are You at Risk of Losing?
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
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”
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?
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
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?
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?
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
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...