For many years bank investment and insurance services businesses have been challenged to demonstrate their relevance to the overall banking enterprise. The profit contribution of investment services typically accounts accounts for just a few percentage points of the bank's overall bottom line. Because the net income contribution may be marginal, the investment and insurance services are often marginalized, with the result that banks under invest in this business, constraining its growth.

The Kimco Realty Corporation (NYSE:KIM) statistical fact sheet provides operating and financial highlights that reflect our strength, stability and diversification. Kimco, a real estate investment trust (REIT) headquartered in New Hyde Park, N.Y., owns and operates North America’s largest portfolio of neighborhood and community shopping centers. As of December 31, 2012, the company owned interests in 896 shopping centers comprising 131 million square feet of leasable space across 44 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and South America. Publicly traded on the NYSE since 1991, and included in the S&P 500 Index, the company has specialized in shopping center acquisition, development and management for more than 50 years. Kimco also offers a dividend reinvestment (DRIP) and direct stock purchase program (DSPP) for all investors to acquire Kimco common stock. For further information, please visit investors.kimcorealty.com, the company’s blog at blog.kimcorealty.com, or follow Kimco on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kimcorealty.

With the investment and insurance business recently exhibiting stronger financial performance, many banks and credit unions are again considering the choice between partnering with a thirdparty broker-dealer (TPM) or establishing, or maintaining, their own introducing broker-dealer. This discussion typically comes up for financial institutions with retail deposits between $5 billion and $10 billion. But we are continually seeing firms on either side of that range, and in both models initiating or revisiting this important discussion.

It’s no coincidence that among the most successful investment and insurance businesses in financial institutions, the ability to achieve more referrals is a critical factor in setting them apart from other providers of financial services. In fact, in 2010, the banks and credit unions in the top quartile of net income contribution from investment and insurance referred 36 percent more of their customer or member households to their financial advisors than their less successful counterparts. This paper* will discuss the advantages—and challenges—of referral generation among these “best practices” institutions.

Take your business to the next level by understanding the drivers of program growth leveraging a combination of new industry research with proven best practices.