Member Investment Programs
- Benefits to Your Credit Union
- Products and Services
- Program Options
- Full-service Program
- Platform Program
- Self Directed Investments
- Program Support
- Product Partners
- Want to Know More?
Credit Union Ownership of Member No protocol agreement means you stay in control of member relationships and protect them through our investment services agreements–your credit union always owns the book of business. That‘s not necessarily the case with other broker-dealers.
Private Labeling of the Program Strengthen your credit union brand awareness with our private label marketing name for investments and insurance.
Member Retention Broaden products and services offered to increase cross-selling opportunities and garner a greater share of member relationships.
Non-Interest Income: Equitable revenue sharing on the income generated from your program will help your bottom line.
Customized Pricing: The discount brokerage program affords you the ability to customize the commissions charged your members, internet and phone, to best meet your objectives for the program. (i.e. Asset Retention vs. Greater Fee Income)
Data Supervision Tools Keep your reputation safe with our thorough and prompt review and monitoring tools. We understand NCUA regulations, and unlike other firms, we don‘t just "review paperwork"–we examine and approve data.
Risk Management Rely on comprehensive compliance oversight from us. Part of our value added to your credit union is our extensive experience working with credit union regulators, as well as FINRA and the SEC.
Daily Member Account Feeds Bring the information from these feeds into your member information system to strengthen knowledge about members to build stronger relationships.
Assets Under Management Reports Know exactly how member assets are invested down to the branch and financial professional level. Our reporting hierarchy is flexible and can be designed around your unique reporting structure.
Customized Business Plans We work with you to develop a detailed business and marketing plan tailored to your credit union’s needs and aligned with our resources–your goals become our goals.
Dedicated Conversion Support Receive a comprehensive communication and implementation plan to transition the program while minimizing risk and loss of production.
In order to meet the diverse needs of members in credit unions around the country, BestVest offers investment products and services for every stage of life and all financial circumstances. As an independent broker/dealer, BestVest has no ownership interest from vendors of investment products or other potentially conflicting relationships. Whether it’s brokerage, insurance, retirement, wealth management, or CEO compensation solutions you seek, BestVest has a product, program, or service to help your credit union or member needs, grow your business, and increase non-interest revenue.
BestVest works with you to develop a financial services program that fits your members’ needs. Customized commission pricing and product offerings are available.
BestVest supports your credit union’s comprehensive financial services program through the following key distribution channels. Credit Unions may elect to participate in one program option only or in any combination of the three.
Dedicated Representative
The BestVest full-service program places a full-time licensed financial professional on the financial credit union’s premises. Representatives may be employees of the credit union registered through BestVest (dual employees) or employees of BestVest alone (managed employees). The primary function of the financial professional is to provide investment and financial planning advice based on the specific goals of each member.
While the existing member base of the credit union provides a logical list of prospects for the representative, much of our partners’ programs’ revenue is typically derived from outside sources, opening up new relationships and opportunities for the financial credit union. All licensing, training, and compliance issues regarding the financial professional are co-managed by the credit union and BestVest.
Licensed Branch Employee
BestVest understands that leading a licensed branch employee sales force is different from leading a dedicated financial professional sales force, and we have specialized expertise in this area. We also have a deep belief in working with you to structure a solution that fits your credit union’s culture. Our dedicated platform sales team works closely with credit union to create a sales strategy that optimizes branches and increases sales from branch staff, driving incremental revenue. Through education and sales-skill training, we create a consistent awareness that helps identify opportunities in daily member interactions and fosters the ability to offer timely solutions.
Internet Discount Brokerage | Phone-based Discount Brokerage
Regardless of market conditions, there is a certain percentage of the investing public that may never seek the advice of a financial services professional. These individuals need a solution that is both efficient and economical for their self directed investments. Offering discount brokerage enables credit unions to service these needs and broaden member relationships without utilizing their own resources.
To assist the credit union in delivering this service, BestVest offers both internet and phone-based discount brokerage. Whether the service is stand-alone or complementary to a full-service or platform program, the member can realize savings when trades are placed through BestVest.
Internet Discount Brokerage
BestVest provides credit unions with the ability to effectively utilize the internet to direct their investment strategies. Members can facilitate their discount transactions via a co-branded Web site linked to the credit union’s Web site. Meanwhile, BestVest provides integration between your home site and the investment site, including full compliance and regulatory clearance.
- The member pays a deeply discounted commission rate.
- Members can establish an automatic debit/credit between the discount brokerage account and their share draft account.
- Members have account access to view real time account information including account balances, portfolio positions, executed trades, open trade orders, transaction history from the opening of their account.
- Members have online access to all of their account statements, confirmations and tax documents.
- Available products include stocks, exchange traded funds and mutual funds. (Options and bonds are only available in the phone based service)
- A portfolio monitoring option tracks personal portfolios and retrieves data such as such as earnings/dividends per share, P/E ratios, and 52-week high/lows. It also allows monitoring of unlimited securities, including quotes, volumes, and news headlines.
- A charting service displays price, volume, and time using intraday or historical charting.
- BestVest provides orders for stocks, etf’s and mutual funds. All orders are placed in our trading system for execution at time of entry
Phone-based Discount Brokerage
Members have the ability to facilitate discount brokerage transactions via a toll-free number.
- BestVest offers a dedicated Member Support Desk to assist members in account opening, executing trades, and answering account inquiries.
- Products available include stocks, options, bonds, ETF’s and mutual funds.
- The member has access to accounts online
- All of the services of the internet discount brokerage product are available
Program Support
Training
From initial orientation and instruction on new technologies to ongoing guidance in prospecting, selling, and servicing, BestVest offers a broad range of programs and seminars designed to help financial professionals stay at the top of their games. From clearing services, product offerings, sales techniques and compliance, our senior management team is always available to our financial professionals and program managers.
Marketing Services
Through our marketing team and product partners, we offer numerous ways to maximize program awareness and sales, providing a wide variety of materials branded with your financial credit union’s logo and personalized with the financial professional’s name and contact information:
- Point-of-sale Materials
- Brochures
- Email Blasts
- Statement Inserts
- Newspaper Ads
- Prospecting Letters, Articles, and Seminars
- Business Cards and Stationery
Recruiting Consulting
Our recruiting consultants partner with program managers to deliver full-cycle recruiting support that places the best-matched financial professionals into the financial credit union investment program. From candidate sourcing and screening and formal evaluations of leading candidates to offer and negotiation consulting, our recruiting consultants continue to work hand-in-hand with program leadership throughout the on-boarding process to ensure the hiring experience is as smooth and efficient as possible.
Transition Services
Whether launching a new program or converting an existing one, we have a dedicated team in place to make your transition as smooth and quick as possible. Our transition services team is focused exclusively on the details involved in successfully bringing your program on-board with us.
We have the intellectual capital, the resources, and the experience to guide new programs through initial set-up, regulatory review, rep registration, and all of the other important steps that are crucial to getting your program up and running. In addition, our conversion team’s industry-proven expertise in manual, tape-to-tape, and block transfers takes the confusion and guesswork out of the transition from your current broker/dealer to BestVest and our clearing firm.
Technology
To help program managers and financial professionals stay informed and efficient, we deliver a real time, 24/7/365 reporting system that provides access to all portfolio positions, activity reports, customer statements and tax documents through Investor Connect.
Operations
Our primary focus is to deliver financial services to our partners in a way that minimizes both the human and financial resources required of the financial credit union. To that end, we provide superior back-office support for credit unions, financial professionals, and their members. We have the dedicated resources to provide account registration and maintenance, cashiering and systematic transfers, and other processing functions that re crucial to a credit union’s ability to offer investment services.
For day-to-day support, our broker support desk is available to our financial professionals during business hours to assist with transactions, account information, and more. In addition, our member support desk is available to assist your members with many of their needs in times when their financial professionals are unavailable. This team will take care of your members just as you would, strengthening your relationships by ensuring a positive experience with each interaction.
Compliance
Our compliance department prides itself on being a consultative resource to our partner financial credit unions. Whether we act as the office of supervisory jurisdiction ("OSJ") or the credit union chooses to act in that role, our compliance team will provide solutions, not just answers; guidance, not just rules.
Our focus is on "smart sales" - providing regulatory guidance in a pro-business environment that seeks to enable, not restrict, our financial professionals in their efforts to serve the best interests of the member. To this end, our services include:
- Account Review and Approval
- Trade Transaction Supervision and Review
- Anti-Money Laundering
- On-site Branch Audits
- Advertising Review
- Licensing and Registration
- Continuing Education
- Complaint Resolution
- OSJ Supervisory Solutions
Product Offerings
BestVest offers products from industry-leading mutual fund, annuity, REIT, and insurance providers. We routinely undertake a thorough review of the financial integrity and historical performance of each provider, while also considering the role each product plays in our commitment to offering a breadth and depth of product strategies to address to meet every reasonable member investment need. The following is just a sampling of the providers with whom we partner:
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Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of a variable annuity contract and sub accounts, mutual fund, and REIT investment. The prospectuses contain this and other information about the products. Investors can obtain a prospectus from their financial professional. They should read the prospectus carefully before investing.
Want to Know More?
At BestVest, your vision is our number one priority. If you want to learn more about what we can do for your credit union, please contact our President, Jim O’Connor, using the following information:
BestVest Investments, Ltd
600 North Jackson St., Suite 305
Media, PA 19063
United States
Phone Number: 1-800-434-1776
Fax Number: 1-610-565-8817
jim@bestvest.net