LPL Financial is slashing pricing across its corporate RIA platforms in an effort to attract smaller advisors.
The San Diego-based broker-dealer, the nation’s second largest, announced on Thursday that it will extend reduced pricing to more advisors on its corporate advisory platform, charging a flat, eight-basis-point administrative fee to advisors with between $25 million and $50 million on its strategic asset management platform.
LPL already offers the same fee to advisors with more than $50 million in assets on its platform.
The announcement follows news in 2017 that LPL would try to simplify its pricing structure on the strategic asset management platform. At the time, the average advisor on the platform paid an administrative fee of more than 10 basis points, applied to individual accounts, and often received reimbursements of more than two basis points from LPL. LPL announced in November that it would move to assess fees in aggregate and begin reducing fees in 2018.
The broker-dealer also announced on Thursday that it will add a no-transaction-fee mutual fund network to its strategic wealth management platform in July.
“We are excited to be able to leverage our scale to invest in our advisors’ business in ways we believe will add value across affiliation models,” said Andy Kalbaugh, LPL managing director and divisional president of national sales and consulting, in a released statement. “These investments to both our corporate and hybrid RIA platforms will help advisors further differentiate their practices by having more choice and flexibility to meet the needs of their clients and their businesses.”
On launch, the no-transaction-fee network will offer funds from AB Funds, Columbia Threadneedle, J.P. Morgan, Legg Mason, MFS, Natixis, John Hancock, Oppenheimer and Putnam. Additional sponsors will be added in waves, the company said.