Though White and Arnold didn’t go into specifics, they indicated LPL is going to roll out “householding” this fall—a catch-all term that means the ability to manage all of a household’s accounts across multiple vendors. “Your clients expect an experience that transcends accounts and allows you to manage your clients as the families they are,” White said. “The first clients get access this quarter.”
Given the importance of client segmentation, Steinmeier said LPL is also building capabilities to serve unique client segments, high-net-worth clients, something he said was in demand among the company’s advisor ranks.
“You’ll see us build capabilities to serve your high-net-worth clients,” Steinmeier said, “including introducing investment banking referrals, enhanced product and lending capabilities and specialized advice support. One other area where we’re making material changes is the building of support for multi-custodial practices.” And he said the firm is building more support in its workflows to help with assets custodied both with LPL and away from it.
Edward Fandrey is the divisional president of advisor solutions at LPL, a new role he stepped into earlier this year after working at Microsoft. He and Dayton Semerjian, chief customer care officer, about the evolving tech experience at LPL.
“We have a recent release called Meeting Manager,” said Fandrey. “This tool allows meetings that normally took almost eight hours to prepare for—the prep can be down to as little as one hour.” The tool integrates into Client Works, the advisor business platform, he said. LPL is also rolling out another digital practice management tool a little later in the year called Practice Hub that gives advisors practice guidance in one user interface based on their vision and goals. “It’s a digital partner. It’s always there where you need it.” The team is also working to make Client Works work more with third-party software.
Recruiters and consultants say that the zero-commission era has forced broker-dealer reps to reframe their value, and companies like LPL have been at an advantage if they can plow money into tech spending.
LPL said last week that its earnings (before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) were $243 million for the second quarter, an increase of 18% year over year. Though a lot of its advisor head count increase has been helped by the acquisition of Waddell & Reed, which added 900 advisors, the company is also known for its aggressive recruiting packages, according to industry observers. The company’s total advisory and brokerage assets stood at $1.1 trillion. The company’s share price is $136.65 mid-Wednesday, an increase of more than 32% for the year.
LPL’s Focus 2021 conference is virtual and runs through Friday.