As I am doing refinancing with EverBank, I spent some more time at the EverBank web site to learn its business. EverBank seems to be a very versatile business and its website offers a wealth of information.

One thing interests me is EverBank offers a reward program for financial advisors to refer their customers to use EverBank products. What is more, the web site also publishes the table detailing how much a financial advisor will get paid. This table, which can be accessed publicly without any registration work, offers a unique chance to know how much a financial advisor will earn from even the basic work like recommending a checking or saving account.

Here is a recap of the rewarding schedule for common products:

Checking and Money Market: 0.25% annually on average balance
CD: 0.15% annually on average balance
Visa Card: 7.5% of actual finance charges
Business Checking and Business Interest Account: 0.25% annually on average balance
First Mortgage: Up to 0.40% of closed loan amount
HELOC: $200 to $600, depending on loan amount
Second Mortgage: 0.40% of closed loan amount, up to $600

I think this information is helpful to understand some of the economics in the relationship between financial advisors and financial institutions. Make no mistake, EverBank is consistently offering top-tier interest rate and low mortgage rates, and an end-customer should receive the same rate no matter he/she is referred by a commission-based financial advisor or not.

By the way, EverBank has a separate referral program for web sites, which offers commission of $40 per unique customer and $8 per unique application. The reward structure is different in both programs, apparently because EverBank expects to reward financial advisor's behavior to keep customers with EverBank.