LPL Adds $36B Credit Union-Focused Client
CUNA Mutual Group's brokerage unit includes some 550 advisors advising 300 credit unions.
LPL Financial and CUNA Mutual Group’s brokerage unit, which includes some 550 advisors advising 300 credit unions and clients with $36 billion in assets, have formed a strategic partnership.
For the arrangement, CUNA Brokerage Services Inc.’s financial professionals will use LPL’s digital platform. LPL will provide the business with broker-dealer and registered investment advisor services.
“We extend a warm welcome to CUNA Mutual Group as they join LPL’s network of institutional clients,” said Rich Steinmeier, LPL’s head of Business Development, in a statement. “CUNA Mutual Group is a leader in its market … We look forward to supporting them in growing their capacity to serve a marketplace with an increasing demand for personalized advice.”
In the coming months, the credit union business is expected to work under a new brand, Cuna Mutual Group Financial Advisors. CBSI had 400 advisors in 2017.
It will continue to distribute annuity products, according to CUNA Mutual Group, which was founded in 1935. The brokerage unit was started 36 years ago.
“By combining CUNA Mutual Group’s expertise in client experience and data-driven strategic consultation for credit unions and advisors with LPL’s leading platform, we will deliver an advisor and customer experience unique to the credit union industry,” according to CBSI President Rob Comfort.
“We are excited to become one of LPL’s largest clients, and believe we’ll be able to instantly reach new heights with an enhanced value proposition for financial institutions, advisors and the members we serve,” Comfort added.
The LPL-CBSI alliance is subject to approval by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
As of March 31, LPL had a total of $958 billion of advisory and brokerage assets on its platform and 17,672 affiliated advisors.
A year ago, the firm said M&T Bank of Buffalo, New York, would move its $20 billion wealth business onto the LPL platform by mid-2021; the business includes about 170 advisors.
Also, in October, LPL Financial announced that BMO Harris Financial Advisors planned to bring some $14 billion in brokerage and advisory assets and 115 financial advisors onto its platform this year.