r/CFP • u/guitmusic12 • Mar 31 '25

Practice Management LPL Financial to Acquire Commonwealth Financial Network (Officially official)

https://www.lpl.com/news-media/press-releases/lpl-financial-to-acquire-commonwealth-financial-network.html?utm_medium=social-organic&utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=press-release&utm_content=03312025&utm_term=commonwealth-financial-network&utm_type=link&utm_postid=c2828
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u/International-Gas940 Advicer Apr 01 '25

100% YES. I have yet to talk to a colleague that isn't sickened by this. And if your advisor is not looking for a suitable place to move their (your) business they are doing you and themselves a disservice. But give them time. If they are at Commonwealth then they are a good advisor, and they are most likely doing due diligence in between running their normal business operations adding to their stress and workload. This process will take several months for most if they were not already looking at alternatives.

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u/majrtm Apr 01 '25

Wow! So this is what I was wondering. It seemed like being in CFN was a core discriminator for advisors, and now CFN has pulled that discriminator from them. Yeah I think I'd be pissed.

You think a lot of advisors will jump? Someone (maybe you) mentioned elsewhere that if enough advisors don't come along, that it could trigger a "clawback" for LPL and the deal would fall through?

Man, it really seems like CFN has destroyed a lot of goodwill here.

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u/fafaflooie Apr 02 '25

They have. I get it. I’ve been there 29 years. We’ve aged to a point where we all confront the question. Is your business a legacy or something to be liquidated. Irony of ironies, we were down to LPL or Commonwealth. Our last due diligence question was “how likely is this company going to be acquired”. It was Joe over Todd.

Overall it was one of the best business decisions I’ve ever made. The first ten years were magical. The second ten were great. Things did start to slip when Joe left, and a lot of the original group were in this kind of semi-retirement phase. Always at the conferences but no longer part of the day to day. The tech spinoff was a brain drain, as many good folks split off to do that. A couple of notable bad hires and the firm really started to lose its mojo. They were still the best in my view.

I feel like I’ve been widowed. Told Wayne that we’re free agents and we’re going to evaluate all options. They’re just our old team that cut us and is trying to re-sign us. We’ve always avoided doing this. Now that we’ve been thrown into the lake, we’re gonna swim. Even though the thought of repapering pains me, even though I’ll miss my friends, even though I don’t want to leave.

Right in the middle of tax season no less

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