March 31, 2025
Louis Diamond Quoted
By Charles Paikert
LPL CEO Rich Steinmeier wasn’t kidding.
Speaking at a Goldman Sachs financial services conference in December, Steinmeier predicted that LPL Financial would become “the leading wealth management firm in the marketplace” in the next five years.” Earlier this month on executive recruiter Louis Diamond’s podcast, he said LPL, far from being content as the country’s top independent broker-dealer, “wants to go toe-to-toe with Morgan Stanley.”
By all indications, LPL, already the country’s leading independent broker-dealer with nearly $2 trillion in assets and over 28,000 advisors, is about to move one step closer to both goals with its acquisition of Commonwealth Financial Network, a top-shelf IBD with $344 billion in client assets and over 2,300 advisors.
Today, LPL announced it has entered into a “definitive purchase agreement to acquire Commonwealth Financial Network” in a $2.7 billion cash deal. Commonwealth Chief Executive Officer Wayne Bloom will join LPL’s Management Committee and report to Rich Steinmeier, LPL’s chief executive. He will also partner with the LPL leadership team to launch LPL’s Office of Advisor Advocacy, charged with further elevating the service experience for LPL’s growing network of advisors.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2025, and the conversion to the LPL platform is expected to be completed in mid-2026, subject to the receipt of regulatory approvals and other conditions, LPL said. LPL will acquire all the equity of the holding company of Commonwealth for about $2.7 billion. LPL anticipates financing this transaction through a combination of corporate cash, debt and equity, resulting in credit agreement leverage of roughly 2.25 times following the close of the transaction, with a near-term path to reduce leverage to the midpoint of its stated range of 1.5-2.5x, it said.
“Acquiring Commonwealth is a major coup for Rich Steinmeier,” industry analyst Alois Pirker, said. “It will move LPL to a league on its own.” The deal is a “huge statement for LPL,” according to Diamond. “Commonwealth is the crown jewel in the independent space.”
