In an effort to expand member relationships and grow theircredit unions' bottom line, a group of financial advisers recentlygraduated from a year-long program to make it happen.

Those are the goals behind CUNA Brokerage Services Inc.'s HonorsAcademy. The program has face-to-face sessions, numerous webinars,self-paced online courses, homework assignments, accountabilitycheck-ins and a capstone-thesis project at the end of thetraining.

Twenty-six advisers recently graduated from CBSI's inauguralHonors Academy class.

“The training is multi-faceted” said Hendrix Niemann, managing director of practice and wealthmanagement for CBSI, the broker/dealer arm of CUNA Mutual Group.“Our advisors are held accountable for demonstrating they are usingtheir new skills and knowledge on a day-to-day basis. That is howto bring fundamental change to their practices.”

The $533 million Freedom Credit Union in Warminster, Penn., hasexperienced a more than 25% increase in gross dealer concessionsthanks to Brian Arrow, the adviser at the cooperative, said AnthonySilvi, vice president of financial services. Arrow is one of theacademy's newest graduates.

“The training has really crystallized his focus on efficiencyand how his time is utilized,” Silvi said. “Brian has definitelybecome more effective in uncovering additional assets, buildingstronger relationships and turning prospects into clients.”

There are currently two additional classes of advisers goingthrough the training and CBSI plans to have up to three concurrent groupsparticipating in the academy each year.