This study reports upon and analyzes compensation trends in bank investment programs. Principally, these are branch programs that market fixed and variable annuities and mutual funds to retail customers, but the study also touches upon other investment products, such as life insurance and individual stocks and bonds, and fee-based products.

The report seeks to establish compensation trends among four principal groups:

• Program managers, or those individuals within the bank who have primary operating responsibility for the retail investments program.
• Financial consultants (FCs)—that is, those dedicated brokers who sell investment products such as annuities and mutual funds on a full-time basis.
• Sales managers—that is, those persons responsible for managing, training, and motivating sales representatives within the broker/dealer.
• Licensed branch employees (LBEs), or those branch bankers, such as customer service representatives (CSRs), who sell annuities and/or mutual funds in addition to traditional bank products like certificates of deposit (CDs).

Among the questions addressed:

• What are the compensation levels of program managers? Do they vary significantly based on the size of the institution, the breadth of manager's responsibilities, or the amount of program revenues generated?
• From where are financial consultants recruited? Wirehouses? Other bank brokerage programs? What is the typical sales specialist earning each year? How about top performers? What percentage of their production is from fee-based product sales?
• How many sales managers do institutions typically employ? What are they paid? What percentage of their compensation is commission?
• How much incentive compensation is paid to platform personnel who sell investment products?
• What order of profits does the typical bank rep earn for his or her bank?

The Participants

Forty-seven institutions participated in the 2008 study:

• Eight were 'very large' institutions (more than $15 billion in retail deposits).
• Fourteen were 'large' institutions ($5 billion to $15 billion in retail deposits).
• Sixteen were 'medium-size' institutions ($1.50 billion to $4.99 billion in retail deposits).
• Nine were 'small' institutions (less than $1.5 billion in retail deposits).