Abstract: Start a subsidiary? Use a packaged program? Community banks offering mutual funds, annuities, and other nontraditional investments have found several formats that work Today 27% of the average consumer's assets are in bank-type investments. In the next 10 to 15 years, that's estimated to drop to 13%. That's half of banks' core business. We have to replace traditional deposits with other funds. These are not the words of a marketing guru trying to shock a sleepy banker convention audience. This is a comment made by Ron Isaccson, president of $117 million-assets Mid-Wisconsin Bank of Medford. and some other community bankers have embraced nontraditional investments, including mutual funds, annuities, unit investment trusts, and individual stocks and bonds, as a means of retaining customers and getting fee To Isaacson, the need to provide alternatives to certificates of deposit is urgent. It's pretty easy to make money with the interest rate environment now, but this is kind of a blip, he says. We'll see the spread narrow, and we need to get more fee income. The community banks that have chosen to sell these investments could still be considered pioneers. The two most common products are mutual funds and annuities. Consultant Kenneth Kehrer, based in Princeton, N.J., estimates that 15% of community banks sell mutual funds (although altogether a third make them available, half through passive programs such as discount brokerage and mutual-fundonly programs) and 14% sell annuities. The scale and format of a full-service brokerage program depend on the bank's market, goals, experience, and legal limitations. Dual employees. A common and often necessary arrangement is to have dual employees sell the investments. These are people who work for the bank and either a broker or a thirdparty marketing firm. They are paid by the bank and work for it in the eyes of bank regulators, but are employees of the broker or third party in the eyes of securities regulators. The broker or third party holds the securities license. A Series 6 licensed representative is limited to selling mutual funds and variable annuities. Platform programs, in which branch employees sell investments, tend to have Series 6 reps. A Series 7 is a full-blown securities license that enables a representative to provide a wide range of investments, including municipal bond funds and individual stocks and bonds. Dedicated programs, in which employees do nothing but provide investments, generally have Series 7 licensed reps. An example of a bank that has a dual employee arrangement with a third-party marketer is Palmetto Bank, Laurens, S.C., $260 million in assets. Ten years ago, Palmetto leased space in its lobby to a discount broker. He worked for himself, he didn't understand bankers or banks, he was a traditional provider from a brokerage house, says L. Leon Patterson, chairman and CEO. He didn't have an appreciation for the customer service reps and the hard work they do to open accounts. have to make sure the person you jump into bed with has your interest at heart, he cautions. You have to bring the program into the bank and make it part of the holding company and the planning process. Then employees can accept it. A few years ago, Palmetto began seeing the low-interest-rate environment deaden its customers' interest in CDs, especially among older customers who depend on interest income to sustain them through retirement. Those customers' funds were moving to Edward D. Jones, A.G. Edwards, and other such firms. We're not going to get caught not fighting back, Patterson says, and the bank looked for a provider of full-service brokerage. It found Wall Street Investor Services, New York, which is one of about 300 third-party marketers that offer investment services to banks. The company was recently endorsed by ABA (see page 87). …
Publication Year: 1993
Publication Date: 1993-02-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot