LPL Rolls Out M&A Services

LPL Financial said Thursday that it has launched M&A Solutions to help affiliated financial advisors grow through acquisitions or to sell their practices.

The news comes a week after LPL released its fourth-quarter earnings and said it was piloting a program to offer its suite of Business Solutions, which now includes six offerings, to non-affiliated advisors.

Last Thursday, CEO and President Dan Arnold cited M&A as a program which the firm “could easily take … and point … to [for] an advisor [who] doesn’t necessarily sit on our platform today, and help create growth opportunities associated with the practice by providing or plugging in to that type of solution.”

For LPL-affiliated advisors looking to make a purchase, for instance, the new M&A program gives them information and support so they can “differentiate themselves in the marketplace,” the firm said in a statement. They can also work with M&A professionals for “an exclusive first-look at practices for sale, discounted financing and more.”

Sellers are assisted “through each stage of the M&A process, helping position the practice for maximum value and fit, as well as facilitating the sale,” it explained.

“LPL’s mission to simplify advisor M&A led us to create one of the industry’s only services that provides resources, support and execution facilitated by an in-house team of professionals,” according to Jeremy Holly, LPL senior vice president and head of Advisor Financial Solutions.

More Business Solutions Details

Arnold says that since Business Solutions are subscription-based services, they give the firm “flexibility as to how an advisor can plug in and leverage the LPL platform — so that’s the premise where you have a bit more flexibility in this concept about being able to serve advisors outside of the LPL family.”