LPL Financial's East Coast headquarters in Fort Mill, South Carolina (Photo: LPL Financial)
Less than a year after LPL Financial CEO & President Dan Arnold said the firm would roll out a new affiliation model — aimed at attracting wirehouse and other employee advisors — the firm announced it's done just that.
"The first team to move to this solution did so April 1," said Rich Steinmeier, LPL's managing director of Business Development.
"We did that [transition] 100% remotely and used Amazon Echo Show tablets. We also did the physical installation of furniture, technology and other resources, then did a deep clean, and they moved in," Steinmeier explained.
While there are about 53,000 wirehouse advisors, the number that want to make a move right now — given the coronavirus pandemic and market volatility — could be less than in "normal conditions.
"We couldn't have predicted this," the executive admits, adding that COVID-19 has made "the initial outreach a bit more muted [than expected], broadly speaking."
Still, some advisors are expressing interest in the model during today's "new normal," according to Steinmeier. "It's an opportunity for advisors to reevaluate their practices and partnerships, and more are seeing things from this perspective."
