Displaying items by tag: LPL

Last month, LPL Financial announced that it was acquiring Financial Resources Group Investment Services, an LPL branch office that supports financial institutions and advisors. The firm comprises approximately 800 advisors and serves approximately $40 billion of advisory and brokerage assets. Now that deal is paying off as LPL is adding another large team to Financial Resources. The firm was able to lure advisors David Rimkus, Donald Sharko, and Thomas Phelan to LPL and Financial Resources from LaSalle St. Securities. The three-advisor team rebranded its Orland Park, Illinois-based practice as Harbor Lighthouse Wealth Management. Harbor Lighthouse managed about $285 million in client assets at its previous firm and plans to use LPL as its brokerage, registered investment advisor, and custodian, and align with Financial Resources. Rimkus said in an interview that “The choice of Financial Resources enables Harbor Lighthouse to remain part of a firm more closely resembling the size of their prior midsize brokerage even as they became three out of the more than 21,000 advisors with LPL.” He also stated that “The need for technology enabling growth among new and existing clients and succession planning played a role in the move as well.”

Finsum:LPL's recent acquisition of Financial Resources Group is starting to pay dividends as another team of advisors that manages a combined $285 million in assets aligns with the branch.

LPL Financial recently announced that Financial House has joined its broker-dealer, RIA, and custodial platforms. LPL was able to lure Financial House from Lincoln Financial, where the team managed around $650 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement assets. The Financial House team, which was based in Centreville, Delaware, includes partner advisors Joseph Biloon, Robert Griesemer, and Emily Woodson as well as advisors Joseph Blair, Leo Strine, and Gary Ulrich. According to Griesemer, the team left Lincoln because its business had model changed. He said the following in a statement, “Financial House was founded primarily as an insurance and planning firm, but that’s changed over the years. We now offer more comprehensive, complex investment strategies and planning, so working with an insurance-based partner no longer suited our business model.” He added, “At the end of the day, we recognized LPL would provide us with more independence and flexibility to grow our practice as we see fit.” According to Biloon, “Financial House expects LPL to provide it with opportunities to add advisors and potentially acquire other practices because of LPL’s access to retiring advisors who want to sell part or all of their business.”

Finsum:A $650 million team left Lincoln Financial for LPL due to its changing business model that no longer fit with Lincoln’s insurance-based model.

It was only eight months ago that LPL was beginning a pilot program where they would test separately managed accounts, but now they are jumping in full force by allowing investors SMA strats in their Model Wealth Portfolios platform. This platform has grown to $83 billion in assets in recent years. These models will range in variety and flavor as well with some being developed by LPL while others will be from third-party managers. This strategy helps LPL give institutional-type options to everyday investors with lower fees.

Finsum: Models are moving from a buzzword to an important option for advisors.

(Chicago)

Earlier this year LPL launch its new Strategic Wealth Services program. It is a special program designed to help advisors with all aspects of setting up their own business, including everything from finding an office to setting up a tech stack to executing payroll. Best of all, LPL promises to do this with “zero out-of-pocket costs for the advisors”. Despite the pandemic, the program seems to be doing well. Once advisors from a Wells Fargo team that recently departed for LPL commented on the program that “LPL’s new affiliation model really appealed to me. It allows me to be an independent advisor but solves for the business operational needs”.

FINSUM: This is a smart program. It appears specifically designed to address the multitude of anxieties advisors feel when moving to an IBD.

(New York)

LPL has been a true leader on the recruiting front in 2020. One should expect no less from the largest independent broker-dealer. As one of their new initiatives, they have just launched a program—called the “independent employee” model—to try to attract new advisors who want some of the benefits of being independent, but also want to be a W-2 employee. Such models have been around for a long time, and are most prevalent at Raymond James and Ameriprise, but LPL thinks there is an opportunity to scale it up. The program is designed to appeal to wirehouse advisors who like being W-2s but want to earn higher payouts. Payouts for the program range from 50-70%.

FINSUM: If an IBD is a halfway house between being a wirehouse advisor and being an independent RIA, then this is a one-quarter-way house. It does seem like this might be a smart move—W-2 benefits with higher payouts.