TD Banknorth's investment program has ballooned in size over the past decade, grabbing up the parent company's acquisitions at a steady pace to grow from three people in 1996 to 85 registered advisers and 100 platform reps.
Leading this expansion has been Anne Dunne, who won a prize for the best program in her peer group at the Bank Insurance and Securities Association's annual conference in March.
The investment program at TD Banknorth started small in 1989. The Portland, Maine, bank kicked off its aggressive acquisition strategy in the early 1990s and hired Ms. Dunne for her experience working on the independent side at LPL as well as at Royal Alliance.
Though banking was new to her, she was able to adapt her sales and management experience to the new channel. "I could balance sales and compliance, providing sales growth with supervision," she says. "I took my experience and applied it to a situation where lead generation is very strong."
Today, TD Banknorth's investment subsidiary, Bancnorth Investment Group, manages $3.4 billion of assets, and its 85 advisers cover 400 branches in six states - Maine, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
The recent purchase of Hudson United Bank in Mahwah, N.J. (which officially changed its name to TD Banknorth last month), brought along 23 reps, 200 branches, and entry into New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Each acquired bank has assumed Bancnorth Investment Group's system of governance in sales compliance and interdepartmental relationships.
The Hudson United deal was the first integration for Jeffrey Locke, a senior vice president and the investment manager for TD Bancnorth in Bedford, N.H., where he oversees the operations in New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York - and added New Jersey and Pennsylvania through the Hudson deal.
In integrations, " … we use a template that we follow very closely and that involves many people," Mr. Locke says. "We have a pretty good structure to integrate growth - each sales manager works with 10 to 13 financial consultants - and we'll continue to use that model."
Reps report to sales managers in Mr. Locke's three states, and the managers report to him. But he still interacts directly with advisers in the field. "We meet with reps once a year to review their performance and talk about the coming year," he says. "I also participate in branch audits, monthly sales meetings, and anything that comes up in between via phone and e-mail."
He generally leaves hiring up to the sales managers but works closely with them on recruitment goals and other responsibilities. "We meet once a week, and I speak with each of them once or twice per day," he says.
In 2003, Ms. Dunne started moving her top-producing reps out of the branch network so they could concentrate on generating business from the clients they already had. Since this puts them in a more advisory role, all senior reps must hold a Series 65 designation. And now, since the adoption of the so-called Merrill Rule, which aims to qualify the difference between full-blown advisers and just plain brokers, all reps are pursuing Series 65s, and the license is mandatory for new hires.
The program has 15 senior reps spread throughout its footprint.
Wendy Wallis was the program's first senior adviser. Based in Portland, Maine, she started at the bank 14 years ago, when the fledgling program only had three reps. "I covered something like 24 branches!" she says. But her territory shrank to a more manageable four a few years ago, as the program found its footing.
By the time Ms. Dunne approached her about the senior rep position, she had built up "a large book of existing clients." At first, Ms. Wallis says, the limitation to one branch was unnerving.
"I was nervous that working my existing clients wouldn't be so lucrative," she says. "But I'm 57, I wanted to work a little bit less; branch meetings take up a lot of time; and I don't have to do that anymore."
Ms. Wallis' initial fears proved common among reps offered promotion to one-branch senior adviser, says Mr. Locke, who now manages five senior reps across his three states.
"One of their primary concerns is whether they'll have enough people to see," he says. "But once they become senior reps, they realize they have more time because there's less travel. … And asking clients for personal referrals provides the necessary numbers."
To help senior reps adjust, program managers offer support such as helping to develop business plans and supplying them a regional sales assistant. The pay is also better. "It's considered a promotion," says Ms. Dunne. "They're out of the grid into a flat payout of 45%." The grid for reps in the branches is tiered up to 42%.
Senior reps are expected to pitch in and help with their branch's activities, says Ms. Dunne. Ms. Wallis still must help her branch meet its goals, and she still gets referrals from bank employees.
Like most TD Banknorth clients, Ms. Wallis' customers are very conservative and unreceptive to fee-based accounts. "I mention it to clients, but I generally don't deal with very sophisticated cases," she says. Ms. Wallis' average client is 60 years old and risk-averse.
Part of the fixed-income share of her sales comes from corporate accounts, which use Treasury securities, government agency bonds, and brokerage CDs to park money from accounts above the FDIC-insured level. "Brokerage CDs only pay a small commission, but it's still repeat business," she says. CDs bumped up the $12 million in sales she did last year.
At the traditional branch level, Kevin McKinnon, a registered rep and assistant vice president at Bancnorth Investment Group, covers six branches in Nashua and one in Hudson, N.H.
Financial consultants like Mr. McKinnon usually cover only five branches. "We often find fewer is better because they spend more time working inside with their retail partners," Mr. Locke says. Mr. McKinnon must rely much more than Ms. Wallis on referrals from the branch bankers, though he reckons that 30% of what he sells is repeat business.
He does "very little" fee business and sells a lot of mutual funds, fixed annuities, and life insurance.
"We do some life insurance," Ms. Dunne says. "We take a holistic approach; we don't lead with product but instead profile clients in order to build a recommendation."
True to its community bank roots, the program does not impose a minimum on investment accounts. It has a trust department for clients with $1 million or more of assets, and upper-mass-affluent clients with smaller accounts also work with trust if an adviser thinks they would be better served by a discretionary account.
TD Banknorth is keen to develop strong bonds between its investment and retail divisions and encourages cross-referrals. "It's part of the compensation - we have very popular referral programs, a chairman's award, an annual trip - so there's a lot of recognition for the sales functions," Ms. Dunne says. "We also have an automated referral system so we can track them."
Banknorth employees emphasize teamwork as crucial. Even the trust department, which at most banks has traditionally seen itself as a breed apart, works in concert with the branch reps.
"I have a fantastic relationship with our trust department - I refer business upward, but more often than not they'll bump business my way," Mr. McKinnon says.
Mr. Stock is the managing editor of Bank Investment Consultant, a SourceMedia publication where this article appeared in longer form.
