BISA Magazine - Quarter 1, 2017 - 29

because of the growing importance
of financial planning in the post-DOL
world. The participation rate in these
boot camps has been high. Recently, a
number of CFI's bank clients notched
record-breaking months in terms of life
insurance sales, she reports.
We asked Rummel about the continued
convergence of the trust and brokerage
functions within financial institutions.
One silver lining of the new DOL rule
is that more banks are now "looking for
ways to uniformly approach clients," or
taking more of a team approach with
both advisors and trust officers potentially serving on teams, she answered.
More brokerage teams are being formed
within institutions-and this goes
beyond the more typical junior/senior
advisor pairing. Looking ahead, two
senior advisors could be seen working
together-one with a financial planning
background, the other with commission-

based experience, perhaps. One advisor
might handle things like annuity sales,
the other life insurance or estate planning, Rummel says. She states it's a
way to train each other, i.e., working
together on teams. Presumably, they
would have the wherewithal to work
with a range of client segments, including wealth management customers.
Meanwhile, on the mass retail front, CFI,
like others, is looking to expand its digital offerings. The TPM has a new digital
advice platform that should be up and
running soon. Digital is seen as an effective way to engage with smaller clients
and younger clients, such as millennials,
many of whom may want to engage digitally, but then execute with a live advisor.
Diversity remains "a very important
topic" in the bank brokerage industry,
Rummel notes. As a woman heading a
bank brokerage TPM, she is in a distinct minority, as is her boss, Catherine

Bonneau. Rummel serves on BISA's
Board of Directors, and diversity "is a
focus of the board"-not only gender
diversity, but ethnic diversity and age
diversity, she notes. "If you look at the
demographics, we need to recruit more
people to the industry." BISA has started a number of mentoring initiatives, as
well as created events like a women's
networking breakfast, which have been
well attended, she notes.
Rummel joined PrimeVest Financial Services, which became Cetera Financial
Institutions in 1992. She is a veteran
senior executive with over 30 years of
financial services industry experience.
In addition to her role as CFI president,
Rummel is part of the TPM's Executive Committee and acts as president
of its insurance agencies. In 2014, she
was inducted into the BISA's Circle of
Excellence, which honors outstanding
professionals for their commitment to
the insurance and securities industry. ▲

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BISA Magazine - Quarter 1, 2017
