LPL Drops Cost of Retirement Plan Platform

Two new recordkeepers will be added by the end of 2018 and several more next year.

LPL Financial is lowering the costs of advisors using its retirement-plans platform, while adding recordkeepers to it.

The platform fee for Small Market Solution (SMS), which outsources plan investment management to LPL, is dropping from 20 basis points to 10 basis points in January 2019.

As for recordkeeping, two new providers will be added by the end of 2018 and several more next year. The current providers are Nationwide, Paychex and Ascensus.

“Our singular focus is to provide advisors with the services and tools that help them create and grow highly profitable businesses,” according to Matt Enyedi, executive vice president, National Sales and Consulting. 

LPL introduced the SMS platform in 2016. In July, the firm said it was revising the business requirements for its Retirement Partners Consulting Program (RPCP) in order to expand advisor access to work that includes advisory-based plans.

The independent broker-dealer also says that will host six regional workshops on business growth for specialist advisors in 2019, up from three this year. Recently, it added four new regional consultants so more advisors can work with its retirement-plan resources.

“Advisors increasingly need to address investors’ holistic financial needs, and we want to ensure all 16,000 LPL advisors have access to tools and resources that will help them grow their businesses,” Enyedi explained in a statement.

— Check out How Dan Arnold Is Driving Change at LPL on ThinkAdvisor.