At the same time, the share of credit unions providing investment services increased to 13.8%, up from 12.3% in 2012.

The typical financial adviser in a credit union brought $7.7 million of new investment assets to the institution during the year, and produced $246,325 in investment services revenue, which is shared between the credit union and the broker dealer, said Kenneth Kehrer, a principal of KBR&C.

“While these metrics lagged far behind the productivity of advisers in the large banks, the credit unions actually achieved better penetration of their opportunity,” he explained. “The credit unions in the survey produced $360 in net income per million of share deposits, 21% better penetration than the banks.”

Tim Kehrer said referrals of members to the credit union's financial advisers remain an important ingredient in the recipe for success. Credit unions in the top quartile in terms of FA productivity provided 55% more referrals relative to their size than those credit unions with less productive advisers.

The typical credit union referred 1.7% of its member households to the institution's advisers during 2013, about the same referral penetration as the previous year, according to Kenneth Kehrer.

“But as credit unions increase the number of advisers they deploy, referrals per adviser are thinning out,” Kenneth Kehrer said. “Last year the advisers in the credit unions surveyed had one-third fewer referrals to work with; the same number of referrals were spread among a larger number of advisers.”