adminKehrer Bielan Research & Consulting found that the average financial advisor working in a credit union produced $444,873 in investment services revenue in 2014, compared to $440,073 for the average advisor in a large bank broker-dealer.
The 2014-2015 Kehrer Bielan Credit Union Investment Services Benchmarking Study drew on data from 917 credit unions with investment services offerings and an in-depth survey of a sample of 46 credit unions about the workings of their investment services businesses. The study compared the performance of the sample of credit unions to the findings from the 2014-2015 Kehrer Bielan Bank Broker Dealer Survey of 17 large banks that own their own broker dealers, which was released in June.
Gross investment services revenue per credit union advisor rose by 16 percent from 2013 to 2014; for advisors at bank-owned broker dealers, that number was just six percent, the study also said.
Referrals of members to the credit union’s financial advisors were found to be an important driver of growth in advisor productivity in 2014, according to the study. Credit unions in the top quartile in terms of financial advisor productivity provided 19 percent more referrals relative to their size than those credit unions with less productive advisors.
The average credit union in the survey deployed one financial advisor for every 20,457 member households in 2014—nine percent more households per advisor than the average coverage in 2013.
Read more about the study’s findings.
