LPL Financial launched its employee advisor channel on Wednesday. The news comes about 15 months after CEO & President Dan Arnold described plans for the independent broker-dealer’s affiliation model during an investor presentation.
It also takes place “a year and four days after we closed the Allen & Company acquisition, which helped facilitate this move,” said Rich Steinmeier, head of business development, in an interview.
LPL says that it offers advisors looking to work as employees payouts of 50% to 70% of their revenues and charges no platform, transaction or administrative fees.
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While some broker-dealers pay little to nothing for “small households,” meaning those with asset levels under $250,000, LPL will give employee advisors payouts for these accounts, according to the executive.
In some cases, Steinmeier says, these smaller households can make up 10% to 20% of an advisor’s production and about 20% to 35% of their client base.
Also, the firm plans to give employee advisors access to a network of some 1,500 offices across the country, where they can work on an “as needed” basis. Currently, LPL has employee offices in Florida and Boston.
As for the book of business, employee advisors will “own it and get to sell it,” he explained. Plus, sales of their practices can be treated as capital gains and not ordinary income under LPL’s structure for the model.