Recruiting has also stalled. Advisor count at year-end was 14,054, down a net 19 advisors from the third quarter. LPL gained just 18 advisors in all of 2015, compared with 363 in 2014 and 321 advisors in 2013.
“We’re getting a flushing out of lower-end producers,” Casady said on an analyst call Thursday. “We’re in very good shape in terms of movement of assets into LPL,” he said. “We see a good pipeline [of recruits], probably better than we’ve seen in a couple of years.”
Total assets were $476 billion at year-end, up three percent from the third quarter and flat compared to a year ago.
LPL executives also addressed questions about the quality of the company’s reporting. The firm has started reporting GAAP results along with adjusted earnings, officials said Thursday, and next week will begin to report monthly metrics.
In addition to a challenging operating and regulatory environment, the company has been under pressure from activist investor Marcato Capital Management LP, which last fall took a six percent stake in LPL.