In the second quarter, LPL Financial reported that the number of affiliated advisors is 14,256, down nearly 100 from the prior quarter's 14,354 but up 63 from 14,193 a year ago.
The independent broker-dealer says it lost a large advisory group in the quarter, after having Ron Carson's wealth team depart in Q1. Still, it recruited 91 new advisors with at least $3.6 billion in the second period — 19 of whom moved to the IBD from Wells Fargo.
CEO and President Dan Arnold said on a conference call with equity analysts last week that that recruiting both Q1'17 and Q4'16 were down slightly due to uncertainty tied to regulatory issues such as the new Department of Labor fiduciary rule.
However, today there is "some reduction in that level of uncertainty, and that is better for the recruiting pipeline. We feel good about growing via recruiting in the long term," Arnold explained.
In the second quarter, the IBD's new recruits included 14 teams and advisors with $100 million or more in client assets, 22 groups or individual reps with $50 million to $99 million in assets, and 26 reps or teams with $30 million to $49 million in assets.
Asset Flows
Net new brokerage assets continued to experience outflows, which were $5.5 billion in the quarter, translating to a 7% annualized rate of losses.
