The survey encompassed 40% of financial advisers working at banks nationwide. The survey also provided a side by side comparison of more than 30 different compensation plans currently being used by more than 20 financial institutions. “If you're a firm and you're trying to attract and retain advisers, and you're paying compensation on a month to month basis, compensation will be more volatile,” said Steven Saltzman managing principal at KSA.

While there were no credit unions that participated in the survey, Saltzman said KSA is encouraging them to contribute for the research that will be released in 2014. In the meantime, credit unions still have a critical stake here.

“They, like any other institutions, need to compete and win good talent in the marketplace,” Saltzman said. “A core component of that is understanding what other compensation plans are available and predominant trends. It can also help them in terms of retention.”

The KSA survey showed that half of the firms had more than one plan in place, regardless of their asset size. The respondents tended to have reduced grid payouts, Saltzman said. With this type or arrangement, an adviser gets a percentage of the revenue, which can be high or low depending on how much revenue is coming.

Some advisers may choose not to get support from the bank and rely on referrals, which could potentially result in higher compensation. The caveat is advisers have to work harder in this regard to build their books, Saltzman pointed out. This latter option points to the fact that bank broker-dealers are competing more with wirehouses and other players.

Indeed, the 2008 financial crisis greatly impacted the U.S. wealth management industry, and ­advisers at wirehouse and registered investment advisory firms are now feeling the change, ­according to a report from Aite Group, “Wirehouse and ­Registered ­Investment Advisors: So Alike Yet So Different.”

While wirehouse and RIA ­segments at first glance differ significantly, the financial crisis turned the tables on these players, Aite found. The fragmented RIA segment has grown steadily in recent years, thanks to a flow of breakaway brokers from ­wirehouse firms, but the once-mighty wirehouses struggled to make it through the crisis intact.

Meanwhile, KSA said if the core objective of a credit union's retail investment services business is to capture the investment business of its members, then the yardstick to measure success should be how well it penetrates that opportunity.

Credit unions can look for opportunities within member deposits or shares but that may be problematic in the current and recent deposit environment, according to KSA. Collectively, credit union member households contain $13 trillion in assets.