LPL in Deal to Acquire Three Pacific Life Broker/Dealers

LPL Financial, the big independent broker/dealer, and Pacific Life Insurance Co. ended speculation about the future of Pacific Life’s B/Ds by announcing a deal under which LPL would acquire three of PacLife’s five B/Ds: Mutual Service Corp., based in West Palm Beach, Florida; Associated Financial Group of Los Angeles, and Waterstone Financial Group, based in Itasca, Illinois. An LPL spokesman confirmed that the transaction is expected to close by June of this year, though LPL is not disclosing the financial terms of the deal.

Assuming the transaction closes, the addition of the 2,200 representatives from the three firms–and $353 million in revenue–would give LPL about 9,900 reps in total. Mutual Service Corp. alone–whose president and CEO, John Poff, announced his retirement earlier this week–accounts for about 1,500 reps and $200 million in revenue.