Robert Moore, president of LPL Financial, doesn't hold back in describing his company as the only one in the marketplace that provides a full range of services to just about every kind of independent advisory business model that there is.

"We think of ourselves as a leader in terms of having the most credible and authentic claim to the future of advice in this country, and that's no small statement, of course. That's a big statement. But for our purposes, it's the right statement in terms of the mission that we are on," said Moore during an interview at Focus 13, LPL's annual conference.

With 13,400 affiliated advisors, LPL is the largest independent broker-dealer in the country, although it doesn't set goals on the number of new firms that it wants to attract, Moore said. "There's nobody else who has shown the capability to effectively service and support and help grow this wide a range of advisors and institutions. Not even close."

The hybrid RIA model has been LPL's fastest-growing segment, he adds. "But when you peel back the onion and see what's really going on there, it's a very diverse set of advisors who are choosing to be RIAs," Moore said. "They have different types of practices. Some are planning based, some are investment-process based, some are centers-of-influence based, and yet they are all saying this hybrid RIA is a very compelling opportunity to take ourselves to the next level."

Hybrid advisors charge both commissions and fees, depending on the service offered to clients. At LPL, about 65 percent of its payouts to advisors are from commissions and 35 percent are from asset-based fees, Moore said.

Although advisors over the last decade have been increasing their fee business, Moore believes commissions are here to stay. "There are circumstances where paying a one-time fee for an investment solution -- given your investment objectives, risk profile and suitability -- works," Moore said.

For example, clients with small IRAs should be able to pay for advice through commissions, he said. The federal Department of Labor had proposed rules that would have prohibited advisors who charge commissions from advising clients with IRAs. The DOL maintained the rule would prevent conflicts of interest that might result when advisors get paid commissions based on the products they sell, but it was withdrawn after the Financial Services Institute, members of Congress and the public objected. DOL is expected to propose a new rule in September.

The DOL rule would have resulted in individuals who need advice the most being denied it because small IRAs would not generate enough of an asset-based fee, Moore said. "No advisor would want to serve them because they can't get paid for it."

There's no question that Investors should understand the difference between getting charged a fee or a commission. But they don't need to know the difference between a Series 7 registered representative and a registered investment advisor, Moore maintained.

"I've never had anyone sit me down and explain to me why an individual investor should understand that difference. The only thing that's causing that to have to be understood is an archaic structure of delineation in the marketplace," he said. "No one talks about brokers anymore. Everyone is an advisor. Why is that? Because I don't want to talk to my broker. I want to talk to my advisor. When I talk to my advisor, I want to talk to the person who understands me, has my trust and is working with me on a plan. And if that plan involves some level of commission activity and some level of fee-based activity, that's perfectly fine."