Fully one-half of all personal financial assets in the U.S. are held by credit union member households, and credit unions are by far the most trusted and preferred financial services providers to their members. But how well are credit unions penetrating this opportunity? And what can credit unions do to improve the performance of their investment services units and better serve their members?

The 2017-2018 Credit Union Investment Services Survey, conducted by Kehrer Bielan Research & Consulting, answers these questions by drilling down to the performance of individual credit unions.  For this year’s survey, Kehrer Bielan obtained detailed data for 76 credit unions on the revenue, expenses, asset accumulation, advisor performance, and management of their investment services businesses. Click here for a complete list of participants.

The study provides benchmarks for financial advisor coverage and productivity, product mix, asset accumulation, and referral penetration, as well as revenue and net income penetration of the credit union's members.

We Are Offering Two Views Into Our Findings:

The Credit Union Investment Services Dashboard provides a highly detailed overview of the investment services businesses in the 76 credit unions that participated in the survey. The dashboard describes the range of experience across 48 key metrics, and identifies best practices in penetration of the institution’s opportunity, profitability and efficiency ratios, advisor productivity, asset growth, asset and product composition, and key management and expense metrics. Click here for a complete list of the survey metrics.

The Credit Union Investment Services Study identifies the most important year-over-year trends in the data, including changes in business mix, production, and profitability; revenue penetration; advisor coverage; advisor productivity; and acquisition of new assets.

Survey Participants

Survey Metrics

Penetration Of The Opportunity

• Percent of Members with Accounts
• Share Revenue Penetration [annual gross investment services revenue per million of share deposits]
• Household Revenue Penetration [annual gross investment services revenue per Member household]
• Year-over-Year Investment Services Revenue Growth
• Net Income Contribution Margin [net income as a percent of gross revenue]
• Pre-tax Net Income Margin [after corporate G&A allocation]
• Pre-tax Net Income Growth [after corporate G&A allocation]
• Efficiency Ratio [expenses divided by net revenue]
• Efficiency Ratio Fully Loaded [after corporate G&A allocation]
• Share Profit Penetration [annual net investment services income per million of share deposits]
• Household Profit Penetration [annual net investment services revenue per Member household]

Advisor Productivity

• Gross Revenue per Advisor
• Gross Revenue per Advisor (not including Licensed MSR revenue)
• Advisor Productivity (Transactional + Advisory + Trails per Advisor)
• Member Services Representative Produced Revenue per Producing MSR
• Investment Assets per Advisor (thousands)
• New Investment Assets per Advisor (thousands)
• Transactional Revenue per Advisor
• Life Insurance Revenue per Advisor
• Advisory Revenue per Advisor
• Trail Commissions per Advisor
• Recurring Revenue per Advisor (Advisory plus Trails)
• Gross Revenue per FTE
• Investment Assets per FTE (thousands)
• Households with Investment Accounts per Advisor
• Investment Accounts per Advisor

Management Metrics

• Referrals from Credit Union Staff per Advisor per year
• Deposit Referral Penetration [annual referrals per million shares]
• Household Referral Penetration [annual referrals as a percent of Member households]
• Advisor Deposit Coverage [millions of shares per Advisor]
• Advisor Household Territory
• Advisors per Sales Assistant
• Percent of Advisors who are Jr Brokers
• New Assets as a percent of Total Assets
• Managed Assets as a percent of Total Assets
• Share of New Assets that are Managed Assets

Asset And Product Composition

• New Assets as a percent of Total Assets
• Managed Assets as a percent of Total Assets
• Share of New Assets that are Managed Assets
• Transaction Revenue as a percent of Total Revenue
• Life Insurance Revenue as a percent of Total Revenue
• Advisory Revenue as a percent of Total Revenue
• Trail Commissions as a percent of Total Revenue
• Recurring Revenue as a percent of Total Revenue

Expense Profile

• Effective Financial Advisor Payout Rate
• Average Financial Advisor Compensation
• Direct Expenses per Financial Advisor
• Allocated Expenses per Financial Advisor
• Total Expenses per Financial Advisor
• Sales Force Comp as a Percentage of Total Revenue