Louis Diamond Quoted – By Janice Kirkel, RIABiz – Just months after LPL Financial got its walking papers from a $2.2-billion AUA hybrid, the Boston-based IBD has fired a $10-billion firm under circumstances shrouded in mystery. Louis Diamond, vice president of Diamond Consultants in Morristown, N.J., says LPL has recently stepped up its separations from associated firms and speculates that it may be part of a larger policy decision.
Howard Diamond Quoted – By Charles Paikert, Financial Planning – Can LPL Financial get the adviser recruits it needs to stay competitive as the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer? And while LPL touts its size and scale as a plus, the company’s heft can also work against it, maintains Howard Diamond, managing director for Diamond Consultants.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Ann Marsh, Financial Planning – LPL Financial is naming names. Historically mum on the specific details of its recruiting efforts, the country’s largest independent broker-dealer has begun publishing names of new advisor recruits for the first time.
Mindy Diamond Quoted, FundFire – A fast-growing independent brokerage practice of LPL Financial transformed itself this year to focus on registered investment advisor (RIA) compliance – but aims to keep the “fast-growing” part. By flicking the switch to send its brokerage compliance work to LPL and using its own advisor registration, Independent Financial Partners, which bills itself as the “largest RIA in Florida,” is keeping many elements of its old business model.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Lisa Shidler, RIABiz – Mindy Diamond of Diamond Consultants is skeptical about LPL’s explanation for its sluggish recruitment quarter and wonders if the reasons lie more with LPL than with a hot market. “Yes, it’s true advisors are focused on clients, but they’ll still move and go to another firm. Advisors are listening and hungrier than ever before to leave,” she says. “LPL has lost its luster and it’s not necessarily the best choice out there for advisors like it used to be years ago. I’m not at all surprised by LPL’s numbers.”