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For use with financial professionals only. Cetera Financial Institutions 1

Part 3: Impact on the Firm

The New Importance ofFINANCIAL PLANNING


Financial planning has the potential to dramatically reshape the way that financial services are delivered in banks and credit unions. But they will need to change the way they manage their financial advisors—and manage the expectations of their parent institution—in order to reap the full benefits.

This study analyzes the impact of financial planning in banks and credit unions: the difference made by level of adoption, its effect on financial advisor productivity in terms of both revenue and acquisition of new assets, and the firm’s penetration of its opportunity. We also explore whether firms will need to adjust their target advisor headcount as advisors incorporate financial planning into their practices. Finally, we identify strategies that firms committed to focusing on financial planning will need to embrace in order to be successful.

This is the third white paper in a series on the new importance of financial planning. Part one utilized consumer data to describe households that have a written financial plan in terms of their demographics, assets, channel and product usage, and their attitudes towards investing. Part two drilled deeper into that data, controlling for where the household obtained a financial plan to explore the impact of financial planning on client loyalty and where they keep their assets.

The analysis that follows draws on firm performance and financial plan data from 60 financial institutions (31 banks and 29 credit unions). A list of the participating firms can be found in the Appendix. The data was collected in 2015 in the fall. This study builds on Kehrer Bielan’s 2014 white paper The Value of Adding Financial Planning Within Your Bank or Credit Union, which is part of Cetera® Financial Institutions’ Guide to Growth series.

Introduction


For the purposes of the study and to normalize the data, a financial plan was defined as the process of completing and delivering to the client recommendations based on the data input into the firm-provided financial planning software.

The average firm in the survey has financial advisors who prepare 16.8 financial plans for clients per year, or 1.4 plans per month. The median number of financial plans completed is lower—10.9 plans per year or 0.9 plans per month—a reflection of the fact that the sample includes a handful of firms that do significantly more planning.

Only one firm in the survey reported that its financial advisors complete no financial plans. Another 28 percent of the firms have advisors that prepare fewer than one plan per month on average, 23 percent prepare roughly one plan per month, and the remaining 47 percent prepare an average of two or more plans per month. We will use these categories as the basis for our analysis.

THE TYPICAL ADVISOR IN A BANK OR CREDIT UNION PRODUCES ONE PLAN PER MONTH

Levels of Financial Planning Activity


How do the advisors in firms that do more planning differ from those that do less in terms of their annual production and mix of business? Compared to firms with financial advisors who complete less than one plan per month, firms whose advisors complete roughly one plan per month have average annual gross revenue per advisor that is 18 percent higher—an additional $63,500 in annual revenue.

But average productivity in firms with advisors that do even more planning, preparing two or more plans per month on average, is slightly lower than in firms that complete less than one plan per month, and 16 percent below average advisor productivity in firms that complete around one plan per month.

It appears that financial planning can cut both ways when it comes to advisor productivity. On the one hand, engaging with a client to prepare a financial plan can uncover previously unseen opportunities to offer additional products and services, increasing production. On the other hand, time spent preparing plans can squeeze out time spent selling products that generate commissions, putting a drag on advisor productivity.

Financial Advisor Productivity

$408,621

FIGURE 1: IMPACT OF PLANNING ACTIVITY ON ADVISOR PRODUCTIVITY

$345,127

Less than One Plan per Month

One Plan per Month

Two or More Plans per Month

$341,463

Average Number of Plans Completed per Advisor

Ave

rage

Ann

ual G

ross

Re

venu

e pe

r Adv

isor


A similar pattern emerges when we consider the impact of financial planning on the acquisition of new assets. Financial advisors in firms that average around one plan per month per advisor added 49 percent more new assets compared to advisors in firms that do less planning.

Increasing the level of planning activity to two plans per month per financial advisor, however, results in a sharp decrease in the accumulation of assets. Firms that average at least two plans per month have average new assets per advisor that is 9 percent lower than firms that average less than one plan per month per financial advisor, and 39 percent lower than firms that average about one plan per month.

If increasing average financial advisor productivity and acquisition of new assets are the firm’s top priorities, it would appear that one plan per month per advisor may be the optimal level of financial planning activity for that firm to aim to achieve.

WITH TODAY’S BUSINESS METRICS, ONE PLAN PER MONTH APPEARS TO BE OPTIMAL FOR ADVISORS

New Assets

$9,170

FIGURE 2: IMPACT OF PLANNING ACTIVITY ON ADVISOR ACQUISITION OF NEW ASSETS

$6,136


One Plan per Month


$5,567


Ave

rage

Ann

ual N

ew A

sset

s A

cqui

red

per A

dvis

or (T

hous

ands

)


Another objective of many firms that encourage their financial advisors to adopt financial planning is to transition those advisors from primarily transactions-for-commissions business to an advisory practice that generates fees on assets. Does increasing the number of plans advisors prepare result in greater revenue from advisory fees?

Moving from less than one plan per month per advisor to one plan per month appears to have no impact on the amount of advisory revenue the advisor generates. However, financial advisors in firms that average two or more plans per month per advisor generate 2.3 times as much advisory revenue compared to advisors in firms that do less planning.

So it appears that financial planning can help to grow advisory revenue, but that firms may experience no real boost in terms of advisory revenue until they achieve a high level of financial planning activity.

On the other hand, financial planning appears to be one of the few activities that can move the needle on life insurance sales. Financial advisors in firms that average one plan per month (per advisor) generate 20 percent more revenue from life insurance sales compared to advisors in firms that do less planning.

Average annual life insurance revenue per financial advisor in firms whose advisors prepare at least two plans per month, while still high, is slightly lower than in firms that average one plan per month per financial advisor, but that is because overall average productivity is lower in those firms that do the most planning. Firms whose advisors average two or more plans per month have the highest share of revenue derived from life insurance sales.

MORE PLANNING ENCOURAGES ADVISORY AND LIFE INSURANCE BUSINESS

Business Mix

$37,888

Less than One Plan per

Month

$86,103

Two or More Plans per

Month

One Plan per Month

$36,645

FIGURE 3: IMPACT OF PLANNING ACTIVITY ON ADVISOR’S ADVISORY BUSINESS


Ave

rage

Ann

ual A

dvis

ory

Reve

nue

per A

dvis

or

$10,942

Less than One Plan per

Month

$12,754

Two or More Plans per

Month

One Plan per Month

$13,088

FIGURE 4: IMPACT OF PLANNING ACTIVITY ON ADVISOR’S LIFE INSURANCE PRODUCTION


Ave

rage

Ann

ual L

ife In

sura

nce

Reve

nue

per A

dvis

or


Of course, investment services firms are not just interested in shaping the behavior of their financial advisors; they are also focused on improving firm performance. So how should investment services in financial institutions be assessed? Many firms are judged primarily on the percentage of revenue they bring to the bottom line—profit margins. We believe that is a misguided approach.

The primary objective of investment services in banks and credit unions should be to capture the investment advice business of the host institution’s client base, so firm performance should be assessed relative to that opportunity. The host institution’s consumer deposits are commonly used to gauge the size of the opportunity for investment services in that institution. So how does financial planning affect penetration of the firm’s opportunity, as measured by investment services revenue per million of the institution’s consumer deposits?

Firms with financial advisors who prepare roughly one plan per month have revenue penetration of deposits that is 75 percent higher than firms that do less planning. Deposit revenue penetration in those firms that average one plan per month per advisor is also 54 percent higher than in firms where advisors complete at least two plans per month.

Penetration of the Opportunity

$2,683

FIGURE 5: IMPACT OF PLANNING ACTIVITY ON DEPOSIT REVENUE PENETRATION

$1,532


One Plan per Month


$1,743


Ann

ual I

nves

tmen

t Ser

vice

s Re

venu

e pe

r Mill

ion

of In

stitu

tion’

s Co

nsum

er D

epos

its


Similarly, firms that average one plan per month per financial advisor appear to generate more profit relative to their opportunity than the other firms in the survey—194 percent higher than firms whose advisors prepare less than one plan per month, and 163 percent higher than firms whose advisors prepare two or more plans per month.

At first blush it might look like the firms in the survey whose financial advisors prepare about one plan per month have achieved significantly greater penetration of their opportunity than the other firms in the survey, both those that prepare fewer plans and those that prepare more. But financial planning is not the only factor that shapes firm performance. By controlling for the number of advisors the firm deploys relative to its size, and for the average productivity of those advisors, we are able to isolate the impact of the level of financial planning activity on firm performance.

Relative to the other firms in the survey, those firms whose financial advisors prepare about one plan per month have 60 percent more advisors relative to their consumer deposits, and 19 percent higher advisor productivity. Advisor coverage and productivity account for 58 percent of the variation in deposit revenue penetration for all the firms in this study. Controlling or normalizing for their respective advisor coverage and productivity, the number of plans per advisor has no impact on deposit revenue penetration.

This finding poses a challenge for firms looking to make the shift to a financial planning focus. Advisor coverage and advisor productivity drive penetration of the institution’s opportunity. Financial planning drives more advisory and life insurance business, but curtails advisor productivity if the advisor prepares more than one plan per month. Pressure from institution management can skew towards identifying ways the firm and advisor earn greater revenue and net income sooner. Increasing the number of financial plans the firm’s advisors prepare, without making other adjustments to the way the business is managed, is not likely to accomplish that.

INCREASING THE NUMBER OF PLANS PER ADVISOR DOES NOT INCREASE REVENUE OR PROFIT

$927

FIGURE 6: IMPACT OF PLANNING ACTIVITY ON DEPOSIT REVENUE PENETRATION

$315


One Plan per Month


$352


Ann

ual N

et In

com

e fr

om

Inve

stm

ent S

ervi

ces

per M

illio

n of

In

stitu

tion’

s Co

nsum

er D

epos

its


Indeed, Kehrer Bielan’s long-running research of investment services in banks and credit unions has consistently demonstrated that the number of financial advisors a firm deploys relative to its size is the single most important factor in determining firm performance. The experience of the 60 banks and credit unions we examined here once again confirmed that finding.

For the firms in this study, advisor deposit coverage—consumer deposits per advisor—accounts for 31 percent of the variation in deposit revenue penetration. On average, improving advisor coverage from $302 million per advisor (the average) to $167 million per advisor (the top quartile) increases revenue penetration of deposits by 27 percent.

If advisor deposit coverage is such a powerful strategy to increase penetration of a bank or credit union’s opportunity, why does the typical firm deploy only one advisor for every $302 million in consumer deposits? Firms face a challenging recruiting environment, with a growing shortage of qualified advisors. And some firms face resistance to hiring advisors from the top of the house, which imposes headcount freezes or vetoes recruiting bonuses that would squeeze short-term profit margins even though additional advisors are accretive to profits. But many firms have not optimized their advisor headcount because they, and the advisors themselves, fear that adding advisors will hurt advisor productivity, and hence advisor compensation.

ADVISOR COVERAGE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT DRIVER OF REVENUE AND PROFIT CONTRIBUTION

Adjusting the Optimum Advisor Coverage Ratio

FIGURE 7: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REVENUE PENETRATION OF DEPOSITS AND ADVISOR DEPOSIT COVERAGE

Advisor Deposit Coverage (Millions of Deposits per Advisor)

Reve

nue

Pene

trat

ion

of D

epos

its

(Rev

enue

per

Mill

ion

of C

onsu

mer

Dep

osits

)

$0

$1,000

$2,000

$3,000

$4,000

$5,000

$6,000

$7,000

$8,000

$0 $100 $200 $300 $400 $500 $600 $700 $800 $900 $1,000


But Kehrer Bielan research has demonstrated repeatedly that, for most firms, adding advisors does not reduce gross revenue per advisor. In an earlier Guide to Growth study—Optimizing the Advisor-to-Client Ratio—we found that banks and credit unions could increase their advisor headcount to $170 million in deposit coverage per advisor without undermining productivity. And a few firms had advisor coverage as thick as $100 million per advisor, with only a modest negative impact on advisor productivity.

Our new survey data indicates that some firms have been able to increase advisor coverage to less than $125 million per advisor without hurting average advisor production.

How do they accomplish this? By moving advisors with a healthy client base out of the branch and diverting referrals to new advisors, hiring associate advisors to be mentored by more seasoned advisors, and improving productivity by hiring sales assistants and enhancing client-facing and processing technology.

The firms in the survey that do the most financial planning have too few advisors as compared to firms that do more transactional business, when they should have relatively more advisors given the time demands of providing holistic financial advice. By failing to deploy an adequate number of advisors, those firms rob themselves of some of the potential benefits that a financial planning focus can offer.

THE TYPICAL FIRM COULD INCREASE ITS ADVISOR HEADCOUNT BY 140 PERCENT WITHOUT HURTING AVERAGE ADVISOR PRODUCTIVITY

FIRMS THAT DO THE MOST PLANNING HAVE FEWER ADVISORS WHEN THEY SHOULD HAVE MORE

FIGURE 8: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ADVISOR PRODUCTIVITY AND DEPOSIT COVERAGE

Advisor Deposit Coverage (Millions of Deposits per Advisor)

Reve

nue

Pene

trat

ion

of D

epos

its

(Rev

enue

per

Mill

ion

of C

onsu

mer

Dep

osits

)

$0

$100,000

$200,000

$300,000

$400,000

$500,000

$600,000

$700,000

$800,000

$0 $100 $200 $300 $400 $500 $600 $700 $800 $900 $1,000


What will need to change for firms to be successful in transitioning to a greater financial planning focus? A lot.

In many ways this shift is similar to what many firms undertook when transitioning to more advisory business. But this time the stakes are higher and there is greater urgency. In the past a firm could get by without incorporating advisory business because it could still book transaction business. But regulatory developments are curtailing transaction business, and competition from low-cost providers is undermining fees for asset management. The shift to planning will impact business as we know it much more quickly, requiring a more urgent and dramatic change in order to retain the client relationships and revenue currently in place.

Unlike the shift to advisory business, the shift to financial planning is a cultural one rather than a product one. Advisory business was in many ways viewed by the advisor as an alternative product choice. Financial planning isn’t a product; it’s a service, overarching all products. This shift will require a change in how we value our business, how advisors perform their role and what clients come to expect from us.

Some of the positioning decisions and changes to the business that need to occur when shifting to a financial planning focus are:

Hire differently Advisors that will thrive in a more planning-based environment will need superior listening skills, patience, organizational skills, a broader product background and a longer time horizon for financial rewards than many of today’s advisors. Those traits are not always synonymous with the highest-producing advisors today.

Train differently Advisors will need to know how to engage clients on the planning subject, and how to sell the benefits and close business when a client may initially not be thinking about a financial plan. The advisor will need to understand what the plan provides, its true value and when to offer it. And depending on the planning delivery method, advisors will have varying new responsibilities, including technology skills, which they will need to be able to perform seamlessly.

Compensate differently When making the transition to advisory business, many firms made the mistake of paying their advisors on the same monthly commission schedules and measured performance solely on production. This resulted in little additional advisory business. With the switch to financial planning, advisors need to be rewarded in a way that supports the shift to a planning role. This can include: paying more for business when a financial plan is completed; paying at a higher grid on all business if an advisor performs a number of financial plans; paying a greater portion of overall compensation in salary for completion of financial plans; providing other business development resources like additional sales assistants, a marketing budget, and external training/coaching to those advisors that support the planning initiative. Regardless of the method used, there needs to be a financial reward that aligns advisors’ efforts in planning with their overall compensation.

Refer differently With a shift to financial planning, branch client sourcing should evolve. Branch staff will need to be more skilled in identifying a referral candidate. The pitch used in the retail environment should be revamped to better outline the benefits of working with an advisor, and presented in a manner to appeal to the ideal target market. Branch staff will need to identify not only clients to whom a planning resource can be a real benefit, but those willing to engage in the process.

THE SHIFT TO FINANCIAL PLANNING IS A CULTURAL SHIFT, NOT A PRODUCT SHIFT

What Firms Need to Do Now


Planning tools A financial planning focus will require an evaluation of the planning tools in place today to ensure they are right for the job—both modular and comprehensive. Important considerations include ease of use, the ability to integrate data with other client applications, the ability for clients to see a version of their plan online so they can make adjustments and run scenarios, and a cost/benefit evaluation of the tools.

Planning delivery Planning can be delivered through dedicated planners with assigned territories as a resource to the advisors, through advisors who perform the financial planning work themselves, a centralized support unit to provide the planning, or a combination of the three methods. The combination of methods can allow a firm to scale the delivery to meet a client’s needs while matching cost with the potential revenue. This could mean a comprehensive planning process delivered by a dedicated planner to clients with substantial investable assets where a tailored plan can make a real difference, and a centralized planning resource that provides model plans to clients with less investable assets and a need for more basic planning concepts. The costs, employee resources, training, tools and level of planning the client receives will differ based on the delivery method.

Planning pricing Whether the firm provides planning for a fee or as a complimentary value-add service will shape how clients perceive the benefit of planning. If a firm charges a fee for planning, it will need parameters around how that fee can be earned out or waived. The revenue received and value of a client paying for planning by having a vested interest in the process will need to be weighed against the sales obstacle a fee provides and the costs the firm will need to absorb if it does not charge.

Client benefits As with many technological advances, consumers are the ultimate winners. With a shift to more planning, clients will receive a more holistic view of their financial situation and get recommendations that are more targeted to life goals than investment returns, likely resulting in broader product sales and a stronger relationship.

Cultural change The greatest change that needs to occur is a cultural shift within the firm. The usual business practices are built upon identifying ways the firm and advisor earn greater revenue and net income sooner. As we explored in our discussion of deposit penetration, implementing planning successfully will likely not do that. Building out the required platform, developing advisors’ skill set and supporting the new business will all take resources that will be difficult to afford. That is one of the reasons planning has not proliferated yet.

Advisors will make far greater time investments in clients before seeing revenue—but eventually they will see greater revenue over a longer period of time.

Firms will have to deploy resources before plans are delivered and wait longer for the revenue to pay for the investments—but without this investment the number of clients utilizing the firm’s services will continue to shrink and clients with greater financial means will move elsewhere.

Clients will need to adapt to a different advisor interaction and participate more in their financial future.

And the cultural shift is as much about managing expectations as anything else. Business performance should not be compared to the current model. Instead, it should be compared to what the business will look like absent a shift to planning, with commission-based business and asset management fees shrinking. This is where the commitment by advisors, the investment services firm and parent financial institution will separate firms: those that are committed to a shift to planning will pull ahead of those that view it as a product and hope that planning will increase while the factors required to make the change remain constant. As a greater level of planning becomes more prevalent in the marketplace, the firms that believe in the future by investing in their advisors, clients and financial planning offering will win the day as the provider of choice in the new age of financial advice.

CONSUMERS ARE THE ULTIMATE WINNERS

THE GREATEST CHANGE NEEDED IS A CULTURAL SHIFT WITHIN THE FIRM


The New Importance of Financial Planning: Summary

Part one of our research demonstrated that households that embrace financial planning are extremely valuable clients, but few turn to banks and credit unions for holistic financial advice. Part two showed that when a bank or credit union provides the financial plan, the household keeps more of its investible assets with the institution, looks to the institution as its primary source of financial advice, and will maintain its relationship with the institution longer than other households. That means that their banking relationship is also more profitable. Together, parts one and two provide a strong argument for why banks and credit unions should embrace a financial planning methodology.

In part three we reviewed the current state of financial planning in banks and credit unions, and the impact of planning on advisors and the firm. We found that the typical advisor in a financial institution produces about one plan per month, and using the metrics currently used to evaluate advisors, that would be the optimal level of planning. Advisors that do one plan a month have much higher revenue production and acquire more new assets than advisors who produce fewer or more plans per month.

But advisors who do two or more plans per month produce more advisory and life insurance business, demonstrating the value of holistic planning. For many firms, this is the future they seek.

The firms whose advisors average one plan per month produce more revenue and profit relative to their opportunity than other firms, but that is because they have much thicker advisor coverage of their opportunity. Firms whose advisors average two or more plans per month have too few advisors compared to firms that do more transactional business, when the time demands of holistic planning indicate that they should have more advisors. The optimum combination is the financial advisor coverage that is seen in firms producing one plan per month combined with the greater financial plans performed in firms producing two or more plans per month.

How do banks and credit unions add the advisors they need and become providers of holistic financial advice? They have to hire differently, train differently, compensate differently, and refer differently. They have to adopt the planning tools, plan delivery system, and pricing that fits their business model. They need to hire more advisors to fulfill the advice needs of their clients. And there needs to be a cultural shift in the institution that embraces new metrics for success.

The ultimate winner will be the client, who benefits from better financial advice.


Build Your Program with a Trusted Partner

Cetera® Financial Institutions understands the importance of embracing a true, holistic financial planning approach. That’s why our training opportunities and educational events deliver the specific tools, research, marketing, and best practices financial professionals need to refine their wealth management skills, better engage with clients and dramatically grow their financial institution’s program.

Wealth Management University (WMU), created in partnership with leading wealth management training and consulting company Cannon Financial Institute, offers unparalleled opportunities for advisors to develop their wealth management skill set through intensive, multi-day classes with top industry educators.

The Certified Wealth Strategist® (CWS®) Program helps advisors understand and integrate critical financial concepts into everyday work and client interactions, teaching them the skills they need to confidently apply that knowledge throughout the life of the client relationship.

The Certified Retirement Counselor® (CRC®) Program teaches them how to address the challenges facing retirees and overcome retirement planning and income management issues.

The Accredited Investment Fiduciary® (AIF®) Designation Program trains advisors to become an investment fiduciary so they can establish, articulate and document a thorough fiduciary standard for retirement plans or advisory accounts.

Our interactive ACE Program helps investment adviser representatives (IARs) advise, consult and engage their clients on a suite of financial planning services. With scripts that cover a variety of situations and client responses, client-facing documents, communications and more, ACE helps current IARs be more effective while ensuring those new to fee-based services hit the ground running.

At the core of the ACE Program and many of our wealth management technology solutions are the robust capabilities of MoneyGuide Suite, which all Cetera Financial Institutions advisors can access. Through MoneyGuide’s financial planning tools, advisors can build modular or comprehensive needs analysis and plans for prospects and existing clients, covering topics such as risk management (life, disability, and long-term care), goal planning for retirement, college funding, major purchases, asset allocation and estate needs. MoneyGuide allows for “what if” planning as well as a unique “super solve” optimizer to assist the advisor in building a plan that meets the client’s ideal and acceptable goals.

In addition to live, monthly training on the MoneyGuide suite of tools, we provide one-on-one support over the phone with our wealth management technology trainers.

To learn more about how Cetera Financial Institutions can help you develop a financial planning course of action, contact Sean Casey by phone at 800.245.0467, ext. 65014; by email at [email protected]; or visit us at ceterafinancialinstitutions.com.

[email protected]

http://www.ceterafinancialinstitutions.com


About the Authors

TIM KEHRERTim is a senior research analyst who contributes his extensive experience in the interpretation of survey data to KBR&C’s robust research program. He was formerly a political operative who served on three winning campaigns for the U.S. Senate, most recently managing the largest research department of any Senate campaign in the country. Prior to that he worked for the independent expenditure arm of a national political party committee where he studied public opinion surveys and focus-group research from across the country as part of the production and deployment of television and radio advertisements.

At KBR&C, he directs the annual benchmarking surveys of investment services in credit unions and bank broker-dealers, and the annual TPM Survey. He is co-author of The Opportunity for Credit Unions in Investment and Life Insurance Services.

KENNETH KEHRER, PH.D.Dr. Kehrer, a principal of Kehrer Bielan Research & Consulting, has been studying the transformation of banks and credit unions to financial services stores since the early 1980s. His research has influenced the metrics that a generation of industry practitioners now uses to assess their businesses and assimilate best industry practices.

Dr. Kehrer has also consulted for scores of banks and credit unions and over 100 product and service providers—insurers, investment companies, securities firms, technology providers, management consultants, and marketing organizations—on the development of strategies for distribution through financial institutions. In 2004 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bank Insurance and Securities Association for his contribution to the industry. He earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University.

PETER BIELANPeter has been an active participant in the financial institution investment services industry since 1985. His roles have encompassed advisor, sales manager and president of the retail broker-dealer for two of the 15 largest U.S. banks. As a principal of Kehrer Bielan Research & Consulting, Bielan’s focus is on growing the investment, wealth management and insurance business within banks and credit unions. He manages the firm’s financial institution compensation consulting practice and conducts complete business reviews, as well as consulting on recruiting, technology and operations, and the transformation to an advice model.

Throughout his career he has strategically focused on profitably growing sales, developing the infrastructure needed for expansion, and leveraging the partnership between investment services and other businesses within the financial institution.


About Kehrer Bielan Research & Consulting

KBR&C provides the financial advice industry with insights based on a melding of research and experience in managing the delivery of investment, insurance, and wealth management services. The firm provides performance assessment and benchmarking, human resource management and development, due diligence, consumer insights, and interpretation of industry trends through its original research, unbiased consulting, and peer study groups.

Please visit us at www.KehrerBielan.com or email [email protected] for more information.

The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable; however, neither KBR&C nor Cetera Investment Services guarantee accuracy or completeness.

The information presented herein is not intended to provide tax, legal, accounting, financial, or professional advice. Neither KBR&C nor Cetera Investment Services shall have any liability or responsibility to any individual or entity with respect to losses or damages caused or alleged to be caused, directly or indirectly, by the information contained in this document.

Neither Cetera Financial Group nor any of its firms are affiliated with the authors of this paper.

http://www.KehrerBielan.com

mailto:info%40kehrerbielan.com?subject=


Affinity Investment Services

Allegacy Federal Credit Union

Alliant Credit Union

American Airlines Federal Credit Union

American National Bank of Texas

Anchor Investment Services

Arvest Asset Management

Associated Investment Services, Inc.

Bank of Oklahoma

Bank of the West

BBVA Compass

Bethpage Investment Strategies

BMO Harris Financial Advisors

Cadence Bank DBA Cadence Investment Services

CAP COM Federal Credit Union

Capital One Financial Advisors

Citizens Equity First Credit Union

Citizens Bank of Rhode Island

Clearview Federal Credit Union

Columbia Credit Union

Comerica Securities

CommunityAmerica Credit Union

Country Club Financial Services, Inc.

Elements Federal Credit Union

Elevations Credit Union

Eli Lilly Federal Credit Union

Enrichment Federal Credit Union

ESL Investment Services, LLC

First Brokerage America, LLC

First Citizens Bank

First Niagara Bank

First Southeast Investor Services, Inc.

FirstMerit Bank

Golden 1 Credit Union

Hancock Investment Services, Inc.

Key Investment Services

Kirtland Federal Credit Union

Lake Trust Credit Union

Langley Investment Services

Logix Federal Credit Union

M&T Bank

MEMBERS Financial Services located at Cornerstone Credit Union

Navy Federal Financial Group

Partners Federal Credit Union

Patelco Credit Union

People’s Securities Inc.

PNC Investments

Popular Investments

Premier America Credit Union

Santander Securities (formerly Sovereign Bank)

SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union

South State Bank

Synovus Securities, Inc.

TD Private Client Wealth

Teachers Federal Credit Union

Trustmark

U.S. Bancorp

Webster

Wells Fargo

Wescom Credit Union

Appendix: List of Participating Firms

For more information, please contact:

Cetera Financial Institutions 400 First Street South, Suite 300 St. Cloud, MN 56301 800.245.0467 ceterafinancialinstitutions.com

About Cetera® Financial Institutions Cetera Financial Institutions is a marketing name of Cetera Investment Services LLC, a self-clearing registered broker-dealer who delivers customized investment and insurance solutions to more than 400 financial institutions nationwide. Cetera Financial Institutions helps institutions expand their financial offerings, which allows clients to pursue their financial goals through a holistic approach while delivering sound and strong financial solutions. Through Cetera Investment Advisers LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser firm, financial advisors receive a wide array of solutions and back-office support, so that they can focus on their clients.

Cetera Investment Services and Cetera Investment Advisers are part of Cetera Financial Group,® a leading network of independent retail broker-dealers. Cetera Investment Services is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). For more information, see ceterafinancialinstitutions.com.

Cetera Financial Institutions is a marketing name of Cetera Investment Services LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.

For use with financial professionals only.

© 2016 Cetera® Financial Institutions 16-0228 05/16



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