WEALTH MANAGEMENT 2015 Performance Dashboard. Sample Bank

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1 WEALTH MANAGEMENT 2015 Performance Dashboard

2 INTRODUCTION Towards a Common Performance Framework Evaluating Wealth Management Performance Identifying the Right Questions For a business that is so vitally important after health and family, few things matter more to clients than their financial security wealth management is curiously lacking in standard performance metrics. Important client service outcomes are difficult to quantify (reduced risk, for example) or are measured over years and across generations, as in the case of wealth accumulation, preservation, and transfer. Encompassing a dizzying breadth of services and an array of service models, the complex business of wealth management is also difficult to evaluate. With your guidance and a dash of temerity, our 2015 performance reports set out to introduce a framework for evaluating the unruly business of wealth management. Our framework builds on standard valuation metrics and is expressed as a set of questions that we have integrated into the chapter structure of your reports: Are you getting operating leverage? (Page 10) Are you investing in resources that will grow your business? (Page 13) How effective is your firm at turning assets into revenues? (Page 16) Is your firm growing fast enough? (Page 21) Are clients voting for your business? (Page 32) Are you getting the best out of your people? (Page 48) Although none of these questions will likely cause controversy, each makes the list for considered reason. For starters, they incorporate standard wealth management valuation metrics, including various growth and profitability measures. They are also rooted in our past research about top performers, some of which we published in a short white paper entitled Learning From the Best: An Early Look at Top Performance in Wealth Management (February 2015). Our main finding from that effort was that there is a high degree of congruency between data and intuition: top performers get the best out of their people and the most from their client relationships. Our questions represent a deeper examination of that basic premise: Are you getting operating leverage? As we ve discussed for years (and more recently observed in data), it is exceedingly hard for wealth managers to grow the topline on a sustained basis without also increasing expenses at a similar rate. In fact, for many firms, there s a nearly 1:1 ratio of revenue to expense growth rate over time as if firms must choose between growth or profitability. Our starter question, therefore, seeks to identify evidence of scale economics and operating leverage in firms businesses. Continued on next page WISE Gateway All Rights Reserved. Wealth Management Performance Dashboard 5

3 INTRODUCTION Are you investing in resources that will grow your business? Traditional valuation metrics emphasize margin; we also seek to understand whether firms are investing in resources (advisors or technology, for example) that will provide future service, sales, or productivity returns. As we documented in our past research, there are many paths to profitability, and evidence that some firms are managing margins by capping their expenses. In terms of shortterm profitability this is an effective strategy, although it is unlikely to be sustainable over time. How effective is your firm at turning assets into revenues? We use return on assets as a proxy to understand pricing, which piques our interest as a potential lever for efficient growth. Many firms have historically struggled to realize full value for their services, yet most enjoy extremely high client and asset retention rates. Wealth managers that engage in major repricing initiatives almost universally report positive results. We look at a variety of return on asset metrics to understand whether similar opportunities exist in your firm s business. Is your firm growing fast enough? As with profitability, growth rates and organic growth in particular dominate standard valuation methodologies. In your report, we explore growth from a variety of perspectives: Is there evidence of strong sales results? How are the component pieces of your business contributing to overall changes in your firm s topline? Is your growth balanced? What is the likely impact of attrition? Towards a Common Performance Framework (Continued) Are clients voting for your business? As with pricing, we are interested in exploring avenues for growth that may be more cost effective than others. Many of our member firms have suggested there are untapped opportunities in extending the depth and breadth of existing client relationships. In your sales, retention, and referral metrics, is there evidence that clients are voting for your business by deepening their relationship with your firm? Are you getting the best out of your people? The importance of staff productivity is self-evident, but our past research underscores the benefits of finding productivity gains: more than any other set of metrics, staff productivity measures are the most highly correlated with overall firm profitability. In your reports we examine profitability from multiple dimensions (all employees, as well as the senior client-facing advisor) and in the context of hiring trends and staff composition. We ve arranged much of the data in your report around each of these questions. To be sure, in most cases a definitive answer is elusive. Our hope, however, is to present you with a compelling circumstantial case that, combined with your intimate knowledge of your business and your team, will give you greater confidence about where you excel and where you may wish to focus your time, energy and resources. WISE Gateway All Rights Reserved. Wealth Management Performance Dashboard 6

4 PROFITABILITY Operating Margin, 2013 and 2014 Is getting operating leverage? Our assessment of 's performance begins with profitability and two central questions: How do your firm's margins compare to others? Are you getting operating leverage? Through year-end 2014 and, in fact, for the past three years, industry margins have been increasing (see 'Trends' on page 15). In keeping with the industry, 's margins have gone up. 's yearend 2014 operating margin of 24.8% puts it in the 20th to 30th percentile of firms in its peer group, and the 20th to 30th percentile of all firms in the sample. Operating Margin, 2013 and % 34.5% 32.2% 34.1% 23.1% 24.8% 's peer group ranking (2014): 20th to 30th percentile Notes: Your peer group includes firms with assets under management of $15 billion or more. WISE Gateway All Rights Reserved. Wealth Management Performance Dashboard 10

5 PROFITABILITY Key Profitability Metrics, 2014 "The Best From Our Teams" When it comes to profitability, our data closely match intuition: high performers get the best from their teams and the most from their client relationships. More specifically, margin is strongly correlated with the three metrics below * : Net Income per Full-time Employee ($000s) $88.5 $202.7 $194.7 Compensation as a Percentage of Revenue 32.3% 26.2% 26.6% The best from our teams (top) Net income per full-time employee (FTE) Compensation as a percentage of revenue The most from our clients (bottom) Net income per client relationship Firms that perform relatively well on our "Big 3" metrics are likely to be among the most profitable firms in our sample and, indeed, in the industry. However, there are many paths to profitability, and these metrics must be considered in relation to other measures, especially your firm's expense trends and other staff productivity measures. "The Most From Our Clients" Net Income per Client Relationship ($000s) $8.8 $8.0 $2.5 Notes: Your peer group includes firms with assets under management of $15 billion or more. * The results of this analysis were published in February 2015, in a white paper entitled "Learning From the Best: An Early Look at Top Performance in Wealth Management". WISE Gateway All Rights Reserved. Wealth Management Performance Dashboard 11

6 PROFITABILITY Change in Key Expenses, Expense management strategies can significantly boost short-term margins, but can also adversely impact growth prospects and even service quality. On this page we consider increases in good expenses (more client-facing advisors, for example), versus the more ambiguous increases in allocations and other expenses. Is investing in resources that will grow its business? Full-time Employees 1.2% 1.2% Change in Key Expenses, % Client-facing Employees 1.6% 2.0% Sample Bank Peer Group Our view is that well-positioned firms are those who have mid-range or better margins and in addition are investing in future growth and productivity gains. -0.8% Total Direct Expenses Technology Expenses 8.5% 8.2% In contrast, we feel more cautious about firms that have high margins and low year-on-year expense growth, characteristics that may not be sustainable over time. -1.0% -0.6% -0.5% -12.8% Notes: Client-facing Employees: trust officers, private bankers, portfolio managers, relationships managers, and business development officers that have significant client-facing responsibilities. Your peer group includes firms with assets under management of $15 billion or more. WISE Gateway All Rights Reserved. Wealth Management Performance Dashboard 13

7 PROFITABILITY Change in Key Expenses, For at least the past three years, managers have been concerned about the rapid rise in the costs of overhead and support resources. Many of these costs represent new regulatory and compliance needs, rather than investments in resources (e.g., technology) that might have a more meaningful impact on performance. Allocated cost patterns suggest that recent trends in overhead and support costs are not abating. On the contrary, allocated costs are increasing much more rapidly than direct expenses. Allocated Expenses as a Percent of Total Expenses 40.5% 44.0% 43.9% Most Common Allocated Expenses: Overhead Operations/Support (General) Technology Marketing Human Resources Legal/Compliance Finance/Accounting -10.3% Change in Total Allocated Expenses Ratio of Change in Allocated to Change in Direct Expenses Your Firm Peer Group Universe 4.4% 4.7% Neg.* Neg.* Neg.* Notes: Your peer group includes firms with assets under management of $15 billion or more. *No value is displayed for the ratio if either rate of change is negative. WISE Gateway All Rights Reserved. Wealth Management Performance Dashboard 14

8 RETURN ON ASSETS Return on Average Assets, 2014 How effective is at turning assets into revenues? Our view is that pricing represents one of the most promising ways to improve performance. Not only do firms have a history of giving away service value, research suggests that fees are only of middling importance in purchase decisions. Revenue per Dollar of Assets Under Management (Basis Points) Here we examine your firm's return on assets (ROA); in other words, how effective is your firm at turning assets into revenue? To be sure, return on assets figures are different than those on fee schedules. In general, they will look lower than fees due to the aggregate impact of stated fee schedules (past and present), client size, principled discounts (e.g., relationship pricing), unprincipled discounts, and business mix. Peer Average 25th percentile Universe Median 75th percentile Universe Average Universe 's peer group ranking: less than 20th percentile In 2014, 's overall return on assets under management was 62.3 basis points. On the following pages we consider various factors impacting this ratio to help you evaluate pricing efficacy. WISE Gateway All Rights Reserved. Wealth Management Performance Dashboard 16

9 RETURN ON ASSETS Personal Trust and IM Agency, 2014 By looking at discrete services in isolation for example, only assets and revenues from personal trust we aim to make it easier for you to evaluate your ROA metrics by reducing the number of factors impacting your ratios. Smaller account sizes (on the left) should generally correspond with higher revenues per dollar of assets (on the right), and vice versa. Observations that don't fit this pattern especially small account/small ROA combinations may warrant further exploration. Ask Our Team: Our team is available to help members with additional return on asset analyses combining personal trust, investment management, IRAs, and employee benefit data, as well as a variety of client and acccount metrics. Personal Trust Assets per Personal Trust Account ($000s) $1,462 $1,331 $1,265 Peer group rank: 60th to 70th percentile IM Assets per IM Account ($000s) $1,691 $1,563 $1,017 Peer group rank: 20th to 30th percentile Personal Trust Revenue per Average Personal Trust Assets (BPs) Peer group rank: 40th to 50th percentile Investment Mgmt. Agency Revenue per Average IM Assets (BPs) Peer group rank: 40th to 50th percentile Notes: All ratios in this section are for average assets. Your peer group includes firms with assets under management of $15 billion or more. WISE Gateway All Rights Reserved. Wealth Management Performance Dashboard 19

10 MANAGER'S DASHBOARD Growth, Sales & Retention Is growing fast enough? Change in Total Revenue Change in Non-interest Revenue Change in Net Interest Revenue Growth and, especially, growth from organic sources, is one of the primary drivers of firm valuations, and sales are one of the performance levers over which managers exercise the greatest control. REVENUES -2.9% 4.4% 4.7% 4.0% 7.4% 7.4% -14.8% 0.2% 1.0% In this section, we evaluate growth and sales from three perspectives: How do your firm s growth rates compare to others, not just for your business overall, but also for its components? ASSETS Change in Assets Under Management 4.7% 4.9% 4.0% Change in Investment Management Agency Change in Personal Trust Assets Assets 1.8% 9.5% 1.4% 7.0% 6.5% 0.7% What is driving the growth of your business how do sales and retention contribute? Are clients 'voting' for your business (i.e., are your existing client relationships expanding over time?) SALES & RETENTION IMT Revenue from Sales (as a Percentage of Prior Year-end Total) 8.9% 10.6% 11.8% New Assets from Sales (as a Percentage of Prior Year-end Total) 8.9% 9.9% 10.3% Percentage of Prior Year-end Revenue Retained 89.0% 95.1% 95.3% Your Firm Peer Group Universe WISE Gateway All Rights Reserved. Wealth Management Performance Dashboard 21

11 Helping you make WISE decisions For more information: David Lincoln (202)