LPL Launches SMA Strategies on Model Portfolio Platform

By Janet Levaux

News March 31, 2022 at 02:04 PM

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LPL Financial said Thursday that all affiliated financial advisors can now access separately managed account strategies as an investment option within its Model Wealth Portfolios platform, which now has abou $83 billion in assets.

The firm says this development means advisors can build a unified managed account that combines SMA strategies with their own models or models from third-party money managers — bringing ETFs, mutual funds and SMA strategies into one client account.

The news comes about eight months after LPL explained at its Focus 2021 advisor conference that it was testing SMAs via a pilot program.

"Advisors gain access to SMA strategies with the efficiency of a UMA, offering greater choice and flexibility and the ability to design portfolios that are tailored to each individual client's need," according to Rob Pettman, LPL's head of Wealth Management Solutions.

SMAs give LPL advisors the ability to offer their clients "institutional investor strategies" with lower minimums, the firm says. In other words, having SMA strategies within MWP means advisors can work with "tailored investment strategies, investment styles, and asset classes or sectors, which [investors] can own as individual securities — rather than as a pooled fund" — resulting in "more transparency into account movements and more opportunities for tax management."

In Pettman's words: "With this latest enhancement to MWP, we continue to forge ahead in our journey to deliver the premier wealth management platform in the industry."

As of Dec. 31, 2021, LPL had 19,876 affiliated advisors and $1.21 trillion in advisory and brokerage assets.

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