Top Directors Awards

Recognizing Top Investment Services Directors in Financial Institutions

The Kehrer Group Top Directors Awards are the most prestigious recognition for executives that manage the investment services business inside a bank or credit union. The executives recognized as Top Directors represents the best of the best in the industry and have demonstrated the leadership it takes to achieve outstanding results.

The Kehrer Group Top Directors Awards are the only awards of their kind to focus exclusively on the delivery of investment services in financial institutions, and the executives behind their success, using a data-driven, transparent selection process. The Top Directors are assessed according to the performance of their practices across a specific set of metrics, collected annually and verified against Kehrer Group’s authoritative benchmarking database.

Rewarding Success

The Top Directors Awards is a nearly year-long process, designed to honor the best in the industry and reward for the characteristics that we understand to be the drivers of success.

Directors can self-nominate by completing the Annual Benchmarking Survey, which is released in January every year, be nominated by their broker-dealer partner, or be nominated during the open nomination period, which is held in July.

Finalists for the Top Directors Awards are announced in August, and the winners are announced during a live, in-person ceremony on November 7–8, 2024, at the Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary, NC. Attendance at the Top Directors Awards is reserved exclusively for finalists and our sponsor partners.

Nominees for the Top Directors Awards are considered for recognition in one or more categories. The 2024 Top Directors Awards will recognize executive services directors in banks and credit unions in seven categories: Small Firms (firms with fewer than 7 financial advisors), Mid-Size Firms (firms with between 7 and 24 advisors), Large Firms (firms with between 24 and 50 advisors), Mega Firms (firms with more than 50 advisors), Credit Unions, Emerging Firms, and Women-led firms.

All inquiries can be directed to awards@kehrergroup.com.

Measuring Excellence

Competition is a driver of motivation, accountability, performance, and innovation. The Top Directors Awards aim to inspire friendly competition amongst peers across the country and lift our entire community up in the process. But how you measure success matters. As thought leaders in the industry, Kehrer Group set out to create a data-driven process that awards the most successful executive services directors in bank and credit unions, using the knowledge gained by our research and insight into the key drivers of the business.

We adjust the metrics and methodology each year to account for the evolution of the business, and to ensure that the most successful directors and practices rise to the top. Click here for more information on the evaluation methodology used to determine the 2023 Top Directors Awards.