Kehrer Group Investment Services Benchmarking Surveys
Since 1991 Kehrer Group and its predecessor incarnations have been conducting annual surveys of the performance of financial-institution-based investment services firms. In 2012, we had the opportunity to assimilate the Snyder annual credit union survey and began publishing a separate Credit Union Investment Services Study. Then in 2014, in recognition of the unique circumstances of bank-owned broker dealers, we began publishing a separate annual Bank Broker Study. To complete the circle, we started publishing the data separately for the regional and community banks that partner with third party BDs [aka TPMs] in 2016.
The underlying survey for all three annual studies is the same, just with some differences in terminology.
As more and more banks have outsourced the broker dealer function, it is time to reassess how we report our benchmarking survey findings. What is the most useful way to reflect the different structures of the 3,000 financial-institution-based firms providing investment advice?
For banks, we think that scale may be the most important differentiating characteristic because scale spreads the overhead cost of management and technology over a broader base of producing advisors and creates the option of owning the broker dealer.
Credit unions, regardless of size, face a different imperative than banks. For credit unions, serving all the members is an imperative, regardless of its impact on profitability.
Starting in 2024 we will be reporting our benchmarking findings in three publications:
- Large Bank Investment Services Firms – those with more than 25 advisors
- Regional & Community Bank Investment Services Firms – with 25 advisors or less
- Credit Unions
Introducing Kehrer Key:
Your Gateway to Modern Benchmarking
Beginning in 2024, participating firms will access all Kehrer Group’s surveys via a secure profile–a Kehrer Key.
We believe that this structure will help us deliver the analysis that will be most useful to each of these segments.
Large Banks
We will examine the difference in performance between firms with 25-50 advisors [which may have one director stretched thin, or co-managers] with the larger firms where the director is clearly a manager of managers. This structure will also enable us to analyze the difference in performance between large firms that own their own BD and those that partner with a TPM.
Regional & Community Banks
In addition to establishing separate performance benchmarks of these firm, we will highlight the difference between firms with 7 to 25 advisors [which generally have a single director] and firms with less than 7 advisors, which are too small to support a full-time director, who is often also a producer.
Credit Unions
Continuing to publish a separate study of the credit union segment will enable us to emphasize metrics of member service in addition to the penetration, productivity, and profitability measures we explore in the two bank studies.
Benchmarking Performance Dashboards
Like the former benchmarking studies, each study will provide an accompanying performance dashboard where firms can compare their performance to other firms in their segment across five dozen metrics and obtain proprietary dashboards that compare their performance to a curated list of peers.