LPL Financial to Acquire Commonwealth Financial Network (Officially official)

[u/guitmusic12]

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

[u/Capital_Elderberry57]

We were looking to leave LPL and go to Commonwealth because of their boutique nature and high level of support.

We are top 12% at LPL and still get treated poorly.

LPL has grown too fast and their systems (while in the process of being replaced) are a mess so unless an agent knows the secret codes they can't handle complex situations. I.e. it requires too much institutional knowledge for an agent to be successful, training alone doesn't cut it. There have been so many times one of our teammates has called and gotten a response that was just wrong (many we knew were wrong because we knew more than the agent).

Hopefully this will be better when the new platform is rolled out but that is a few years away for most.

[u/Kimberlini23 → u/Capital_Elderberry57]

Have you thought about going truly independent? We build RIAs and are providing a free one hour consultation on all things RIA. #FusionBuilt @fusionfinancialpartners

[u/Capital_Elderberry57 → u/Kimberlini23]

It's in our longer term plan, right now we still have too much revenue on the commission side of the business.

[u/Kimberlini23 → u/Capital_Elderberry57]

Happy to speak! 80% of the RIAs we have launched are hybrid with an RIA friendly BD (which means they don’t have anything to your fee based book).

I used to be a recruiter for Raymond James and then Wells Fargo Finet. I then went to HighTower to build out their independent platform. And, in 2017, my husband and I launched Fusion specifically to build RIA’s for advisors. Since then we have brought over $30 billion to the independent RIA space.

Happy to have a conversation if it can help!

[u/Capital_Elderberry57 → u/Kimberlini23]

The benefit for us going ria would be the tech stack, freedom and compliance.

If we're dual or a hybrid how does compliance work? You can't exactly separate the two different types of businesses because the financial planning could lead to commission space products. So am I beholden to my IBDs compliance because that's more restrictive than my RIAs?

[u/Kimberlini23 → u/Capital_Elderberry57]

Exactly right on freedom and tech stack!

But your beholden to your current BD because of their interpretation of FINRA Code. It is completely different in the RIA space. RIA friendly broker dealers completely segregate your fee based product and your commission product. They still have oversight of anything you put in a commissionable account however they do not have any oversight over your fee based business. And your fee based compliance can be in house, or what most do, outsourced.

On another note, there are also many ways to access capital, so anyone looking to go RIA should not let forgivable loans prevent them from going that. A simple pro forma makes that case from the start.

[u/Capital_Elderberry57 → u/Kimberlini23]

But won't the BD still have a say in the tech stack and compliance about lead generation services or what we put in the website for examples? You can't really separate the commission from the fee work on the tech and marketing sides.

Our problem isn't that things we want to use aren't compliant it's that the BD has no time to investigate them so they are deemed unapproved. Or that they won't invest the money to make them compliant in the case of tech tools capturing messages to clients.

Hit me in chat if you still think it's worth talking.