In an interview on Thursday in New York, Bill Dwyer of LPL argued that the coming boom in demand for advice from boomers can best be met by advisors aligning with a firm like his, whose scale will allow its affiliated reps and RIAs to meet "the biggest bull market in advice ever."
Dwyer, president of national sales and marketing for LPL Financial, recalled that before the financial crisis of 2008-2009 there was much concern in the industry over the aging of the independent advisor force. However, during the crisis the experience, stability and maturity of advisors allowed them to authoritatively guide their jittery clients during those tough times. "The real heroes" during the crisis, he said, were those advisors.
In the years ahead, however, a slower-growth economy and market, and the increased demand and complexity of retiree and near-retiree clients, will put more margin pressure on those advisors, who will need to "handle two or three times the number of clients they now have," Dwyer (left) said.
They will also have to manage client assets more efficiently. To accomplish those tasks, those advisors will need to outsource much of what they do to be successful. That is where LPL stands ready to help, he says, citing the growth success of its advisors who take advantage of LPL's business consulting group and turnkey asset management programs.
"Autonomy won't be rewarded as much in the next two decades as it was in the last two," said Dwyer, who has spent 19 years at LPL. "The cost of rugged independent is going up," leading advisors to explore how effectively they leverage the resources available to them from their broker-dealer of custodian.
Asked if there has been any cultural change at LPL since it went public last November, Dwyer pointed out that LPL has been reporting its financial results since "Todd [Robinson] left the company and gave equity to 900 advisors," triggering the necessity of "being SOX-compliant [Sarbanes-Oxley] since 2007." Saying going public has been a
