LPL Financial has added to its suite of business solutions with new services focused on helping the firm’s nearly 23,500 advisors with technology, talent and investments.
The independent broker/dealer recently introduced a new technology consulting service, which will eventually encompass several services. Currently, it’s focused on diagnosing advisors’ tech stacks and helping them get the most value from them. That might include processing client service needs or getting clients invested more efficiently, said Aneri Jambusaria, managing director of LPL Business and Wealth Solutions.
The firm is also piloting a CRM workflow service in which LPL staff will help advisors set up workflows in a way that makes sense for them.
Jambusaria said the firm is also looking into ways to support firms in diagnosing and improving business operations and processing new business within their offices.
“Sometimes when we feel like technology is not quite working the right way, it’s because we need to evolve the way that the business processing works,” she said.
LPL also recently launched new services related to talent, including Payroll Solutions, which will help advisors set up payroll, conduct full-service processing and access a dedicated payroll expert. New HR Solutions will help firms create HR policies, resources, handbooks and ongoing guidance.
“A lot of our independent advisors are running small businesses,” she said. “They have teams of individuals. And the process of hiring those people and making them successful from an HR perspective can oftentimes be time-consuming and challenging.”
LPL is also exploring ways it can help with talent acquisition, where it would act almost like a full-service talent agency, identifying and sourcing staff for advisors.
On the investment side, the firm is currently piloting a new Chief Investment Officer service, which provides advisors with a dedicated CIO to develop custom model portfolios and who can sit on investment committees and sit in on client consultations. This is powered by the LPL Research team.
In the past, LPL has helped advisors scale their investment management through technology, including its ClientWorks rebalancer and model wealth portfolios platform. But this would take it a step further, where LPL would operate as an advisor’s CIO.
“At the end of the day, the investment decisions—think about the investment philosophy and approach, the actual construction of client portfolios—those are all generally still carried out by the advisor,” Jambusaria said. “Over time, the activities of a successful advisor are changing. Many of them want to spend more time engaging with their clients, working on financial planning-related activities and relationship building, and less time on selecting managers, constructing portfolios, and working on things like market commentary, for example.”
The firm’s business solutions portfolio, launched about six years ago, is a suite of services that advisors can outsource to LPL experts for a monthly subscription fee, including consulting on business growth and strategy. At the end of the second quarter, LPL had about 6,000 monthly subscriptions.
LPL currently offers 14 services to the market within the solutions portfolio, with plans to expand that to 20 by year-end.
