Is LPL Financial looking to limit how advisors use a certain Morningstar tool for client reports?
Only in a limited number of cases, says LPL Financial, in response to a blog post Friday by attorney Max Schatzow, who told ThinkAdvisor he had spoken with a compliance professional with a hybrid LPL-affiliated advisor about the matter.
“We are NOT discontinuing use or prohibiting advisors at LPL from using Morningstar,” LPL said in a statement, adding that “only 25 LPL offices are impacted by this issue.”
“The blog post may be referring to an issue related to Morningstar Office, and the use of certain reporting functions,” according to the independent broker-dealer. “We recently communicated to our advisors about this issue.”
The IBD explained that “the way Morningstar’s systems work limits LPL from having the visibility we need, and requires a change in how our advisors use Morningstar Office moving forward.”
The issue, according to LPL, is specific “to Morningstar Office reporting functions “and does not affect other Morningstar applications.
“We continue to work with Morningstar in many other ways, and we continue to work with them to help resolve this issue,” it explained.
In an email sent to ThinkAdvisor on Friday afternoon after LPL clarified the situation, Schatzow said: “It makes sense that it [seems to] only appl[y] to hybrid advisors, because a truly independent investment advisor that only maintains accounts at LPL should be free to use any software or product that they want.”