LPL Expands Private Client Platform
Boston-based LPL Financial LLC has expanded the availability of “Private Client,” a platform for financial planners serving high-net-worth clients, to all its affiliated advisors.

Private Client includes multidisciplinary consulting services, access to performance reporting technology, research tailored to the high-net-worth marketplace and practice management resources for advisors.

“Our advisors are increasingly working with wealthier households, and at the same time, supporting these high-net-worth clients is growing increasingly complex,” says Matt Enyedi, LPL’s executive vice president of RIA and high-net-worth solutions. “Through our Private Client offering, LPL is in a better position to equip our advisors with the right tools and resources to ensure they can confidently win and support these clients today and in the future.”
LPL piloted Private Client earlier this year before deciding to expand its availability.

The platform supports LPL-affiliated advisors with prospective client opportunities and existing client needs as well as those advisors who want to enter the high-net-worth market, defined by LPL as clients with $5 million or more of investable assets.

The expansion of Private Client is part of a push by LPL into services for advisors with high-net-worth clients.



Lincoln Introduces Single-Managed Funds
Charlotte, N.C.-based Lincoln Financial Group has expanded its Lincoln American Legacy suite of variable annuities with the addition of a new set of single-managed funds.

Lincoln designed the American Funds Insurance Series—Portfolio Series to help investors address retirement needs like building savings, planning for distributions and preserving long-term assets.

The funds can be used individually or together within an objective-based framework, depending on factors including time frame and risk tolerance.
The Portfolio Series, a collection of funds-of-funds, includes three managed-risk funds and two traditional funds.



Ivy Funds Launches Generational Planning Tool
The question daunts the aging cohort of financial advisors—how to attract millennials, the workforce’s youngest generation, as clients?

Overland Park, Kan.-based Ivy Funds has announced a technological solution: GenLink, an educational program for its advisors offering research into the personalities, financial outlooks, behavioral patterns and values of each generation.

Ivy Funds partnered with BridgeWorks, a Minneapolis-based generational research firm, to develop the program. GenLink combines academic research, demography, trend spotting and actionable takeaways that can be applied immediately.

The new program explores how generations interact and influence one another and offers insight into the influence points of each generation.


MassMutual Releases Retirement Accounts Mobile App
Springfield, Mass.-based MassMutual has released a free mobile application that allows consumers 24/7 access to their retirement savings account information.

Retirement savers can now tap into their MassMutual account information at any time by using the new MassMutual RetireSmart mobile app on their smartphones.

The free app is now available via the Apple Store and Google Play to participants in a defined contribution retirement plan who already access their account through MassMutual’s RetireSmart.com website. MassMutual will introduce additional apps during 2015 in subjects such as retirement education to motivate savers to become more retirement ready.



Acquire Streamlines Real Estate Crowdfunding Platform
New York-based Acquire Real Estate has created technology to reduce the time and effort advisors need to bring institutional-quality commercial real estate investments to their clients.

The new module, built into Acquire’s crowdfunding investing platform, expedites RIA access to high-end real estate investments. It offers accredited investors access to exclusive real estate opportunities through crowd investing, a variation of typical crowdfunding.

The module allows advisors to access and monitor all of their clients’ investments through a single portal with one log-in. Previously, advisors were required to sign in separately for each client to manage accounts, a cumbersome and time-consuming process. Advisors can access the platform at www.acquirerealestate.com.



Pershing Expands Bank Custody Services
Jersey City, N.J.-based Pershing will broaden the scope of its bank custody offering to all its clients in 2016.

In 2013, Pershing and BNY Mellon announced a single-service integrated bank and brokerage custody service—bringing business development, relationship management, client service and technology under a single framework—for its Pershing Advisor Solutions clients.  Pershing is now expanding the service to all its clients.

The platform allows wealth managers, investment advisors and family offices to serve the needs of ultra high-net-worth investors.