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Dan Arnold and Dog Ketterer

Industry Spotlight > Mergers and Acquisitions

LPL to Buy Atria Wealth Solutions for $805M

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What You Need to Know

  • The move could add about 2,400 advisors and $100 billion of brokerage and advisory assets to the IBD.
  • LPL could receive a second payment of up to $230 million, based on retention rate.
  • The firm has done several major deals in the past few years.

LPL Financial says it is buying Atria Wealth Solutions, which has about 2,400 advisors and ties to roughly 150 banks and credit unions that manage some $100 billion of brokerage and advisory assets. 

The deal includes an initial payment to Atria of about $805 million and the potential for a second payment of up to $230 million, based on a retention rate of 80% to 100%, according to an investor presentation.

The deal was signed Monday and LPL expects to close the transaction in the second half of 2024, while the conversion of advisors and firms should be completed in mid-2025, subject to regulatory approval and other conditions.   

Atria says its network of broker-dealers will move their brokerage and advisory assets to the LPL platform as part of the deal.

The network includes CUSO Financial Services and Sorrento Pacific Financial, which work with banks and credit unions, and Cadaret Grant, NEXT Financial Group, SCF Securities, Western International Securities and Grove Point Financial, which support independent financial professionals.    

“Atria has built a great community of advisors and institutions, led by their client-centered culture,” LPL President and CEO Dan Arnold said in a statement. “We look forward to … helping them optimize their success by providing the capabilities, technology and services to differentiate and win in the marketplace and run thriving businesses.”   

As of Dec. 31, LPL Financial had 22,660 advisors in its network, and the firm’s total client assets were $1.35 trillion. In 2023, its total revenue grew 17% from the prior year to $10.05 billion, while its net income jumped 26% to $1.07 billion.

“I’m excited for the opportunity that our financial advisors and institutions will have to leverage LPL’s breadth of services, vast resources and unparalleled value proposition,” said Atria CEO Doug Ketterer in a statement. 

LPL estimates it could grow its asset level in the advisor channel by up to 6%, or to $1.085 trillion, and in the enterprise channel by up to 11%, or to $365 billion, through the transaction. 

The total costs of onboarding and integration of Atria advisors, institutions and assets ranges from $300 million to $350 million, according to LPL. When this process is complete, the deal could contribute $140 million to its yearly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (or EBITDA).  

A Dealmaking Streak

LPL has been on a growth tear in recent years. For instance, Prudential Financial signed a strategic deal in August to move to LPL about $50 billion in investment advisory and annuity assets custodied by Fidelity’s National Financial Services unit, other firms and Prudential.

For its part, LPL will expand its platform and services to some 2,600 financial professionals at Prudential Advisors.

The indie BD said recently that recruited assets for 2023 totaled $80 billion. It also added $100 billion of organic net new assets in 2023 — a sign of robust growth within advisors’ practices.

In December LPL Financial took a 20% ownership stake in Independent Advisor Alliance, which was the firm’s fourth such minority investment. IAA bills itself as a hybrid firm “focused on empowering financial advisors to succeed as independent business owners”; it has about $17 billion in assets under advisement across some 140 partner firms with 226 advisors.

As for past deals similar in size to that of the Atria acquisition, LPL announced in mid-2017 that it was buying National Planning Holdings’ four BDs, which had roughly 3,200 advisors and $120 billion of assets at the time: National Planning Corp., Invest Financial, Investment Centers of America and SII Investments.

In early 2018, the firm said that it had moved some 2,000 NHP reps with $75 billion of client assets onto its platform — for a total retention rate of about 70%.

Pictured: LPL CEO Dan Arnold, left; Atria CEO Doug Ketterer.


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