LPL Pledges $1B to Put Advisors on Growth ‘Superhighway’

LPL Financial President & CEO Dan Arnold.

LPL Financial CEO Dan Arnold says the firm plans to spend $1 billion a year to help advisors compete during the pandemic and beyond, as client expectations rise in response to how today’s technology giants do business.

At the firm’s first virtual Focus conference Wednesday, Arnold spoke to some 10,000 advisors and staff about how that spending will be used to “transform” the independent broker-dealer, so its advice business can function more like Amazon, Netflix and eBay in terms of client service.   

(Last year, the IBD had operating expenses of $4.8 billion, revenues of $5.6 billion and net income of roughly $600 million — up 27% from 2018.) 

The industry “has hit a competitive crossroad,” he said. “The first road is for firms providing advice through an institutionalized solution that’s more one-size-fits-all, built around a tech experience and access to a customer service desk.”  

Arnold gave Charles Schwab and Vanguard as examples, along with Merrill Lynch’s Edge offering. 

“The second road … is built around a financial professional who offers a unique ability to take care of clients in a highly personalized and emotionally relevant way,” the CEO said. “Think of firms like Morgan Stanley, Edward Jones and, of course, all of us at LPL.”

Cerulli puts the size of the advisor-centered model in 2030 at about $25 trillion — up from $22 trillion today — vs. $10 trillion for the institutional model. “The demand for human advice will only increase in the future,” he added.

“If the industry is at a fork in the road, then at LPL, we want to turn this advisor-center[ed] road into a superhighway, that allows you to be more agile, execute more quickly and use technology as an accelerator for your business,” Arnold said. 

3 Growth Paths 

COVID-19 has further raised client expectations, according to the executive, which both its advisors and its own staff have to meet.  

“The first one is convenience, which may become more important than anything,” Arnold said. “Amazon certainly has proven that the new standard [is] ‘always accessible and always on.’” 

Clients want “a personalized experience whenever they want it and wherever they are,” he added. 

As a result, LPL is working to offer “human and digital experiences that make it simpler and easier for your clients to connect with you,” Arnold said.

The second shift, he said, “is the desire for a more modernized experience. Think how Netflix knows just what you want to watch when you want to watch it.” 

In other words, the CEO explained, the firm and its advisors must use data and analytics as “a powerful tool to provide more personalized content and solutions.”