Products September 1, 2009

LPL Expands Services for FAs in Retirement Plan Space

LPL Financial Corporation today launched its Retirement Plus Program as part of its efforts to beef up support for retirement plan-focused independent financial advisers.

Reported by

The company said the new program, offered through the company’s recently formed Retirement Plan Consulting Group, offers an array of retirement plan products, as well as recordkeeping and plan administration services through CPI Qualified Plan Consultants, Guardian Retirement Services, ING, and The Principal Financial Group. 

LPL Financial said it chose those companies “following following extensive research, internal review, and requests for proposals from a broad spectrum of product sponsors.”

Furthermore, the Retirement Plan Consulting Group will provide advisers with additional tools, training, and technical support to help them in the retirement space, the company said.

“We are delighted to introduce our Retirement Plus Program, which represents a bold step forward in the expansion of our support and services for independent financial advisers involved in the retirement plan space,” said Bruce Harrington, senior vice president of Retirement Solutions at LPL Financial. “This is an area that we believe has significant growth potential for our advisers and our company, based on multiple demographic, industry, and regulatory trends. We are committed to providing our advisers with the tools and training they need to capitalize on these trends as experts and leaders in this space.”

LPL Financial said it has approximately $12 billion in group retirement plan assets. At the PLANADVISER National Conference last year, Kevin Keefe, SVP of Financial Planning at LPL Financial, acknowledged the firm’s intention to be a bigger player in the retirement plan space. Soon after, the company hired Harrington to lead its retirement efforts (see “Looking Ahead ” and “Harrington’s In For Retirement at LPL“).

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Deals & People September 1, 2009

Morgan Stanley’s Sullivan Group Goes Independent

Another advisory group braves the frontiers of being an independent firm.

Reported by

Managing Partners Sean Lehmann and Kurt Halverstadt today announced The Sullivan Group is now an independent investment advisory firm providing investment and retirement services in the Sacramento, California, region.

Lehmann and Halverstadt managed The Sullivan Group while it was most recently at Morgan Stanley and previously at Wachovia Securities. The team managed or advised combined assets of more than half a billion dollars. In 2007, The Sullivan Group bolted from Wachovia, according to news reports.

Now the team is leaving the wirehouse model behind, in an effort to distance themselves from Wall Street conglomerates amid the financial crisis, the firm said. “Our move to become independent is based on our desire to represent the best interests of our clients,” said Lehmann. “As independent advisers, we offer our clients transparency and objective advice, free from conflicts of interest often experienced by wirehouse stockbrokers.”   

Two junior associates will not be part of the new firm, the company said.

The firm will custody clients’ assets with Schwab Institutional and will sometimes offer investments through Albany, New York-based Pursche Kaplan Sterling Investments (PKS), utilizing the clearing services of National Financial Services.

Schwab has reported an uptick in advisory firms going independent this year (see “Schwab White Paper Outlines Case for Joining RIA”). While it represents a real trend, Cerulli Associates has noted that it still represents a minority of advisory firms (see “Wirehouses Feel Some Threat of Independents”).                                

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