LPL Makes Moves to Woo RIAs

"We have [RIAs] that are already affiliated with us, but what you'll see from us is that we are at our core … a broker-dealer chassis," Steinmeier said.

So, LPL went on a listening tour to hear from the couple hundred advisors already in that space as well as advisors that are considering dropping their licenses. The goal: To find out what LPL needs to look like for RIAs to work ideally.

"We need to make sure that you feel this is an uncompromised platform for RIAs, where you don't have things like required fingerprints being part of our paperwork, where you don't have client paperwork that refers to FINRA," Steinmeier explained.

LPL is now taking a look at the product offerings on the platform, as well as its core workstation to see how they need to work differently for a pure RIA model. The firm is also reviewing some of its policies and procedures that still may have an anchoring to the brokerage model.

"So we're talking to all those advisors and understanding what does it need to look like. What does our support system need to look like so that you feel that we run the best platform and support for RIAs?" Steinmeier said.

While LPL does currently recruit RIAs, Steinmeier believes the firm will be "much more successful in the not-too-distant future" in part because of the changes the firm is making to better support RIAs.

"Right now more RIAs more often are considering the direct affiliation with the custodians," Steinmeier told ThinkAdvisor. "That's where the center of gravity is at this point."

But Steinmeier says the firm is making changes to become "more front-footed" in the RIA space.

— Related on ThinkAdvisor:

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