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In the News

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LPL’s Blockchain Portfolio: Forward Thinking or Foolish?

16:19 19 June in In the News by rafferty

June 18, 2018 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor The independent broker-dealer's move is being hotly debated by industry players and observers. LPL Financial moved Friday to be the first independent broker-dealer to offer a blockchain portfolio. But is such a step the right way to go? Blockchain is a digital ledger system that can be used to record transactions in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ether. The technology has other potential uses, like records management or smart contracts. Holdings in the portfolio include SAP, IBM, Microsoft, UPS and Aetna. LPL’s separately managed account offering is a “new strategy [that] can further help our advisors differentiate their practices in the marketplace,” said Chief Investment Officer Burt White, in a statement. The IBD’s announcement came one day after a top Securities and Exchange Commission official said that the cryptocurrency Ether...

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Cambridge ditches OSJ label amid fee-based shift, segmentation strategy

14:54 06 June in In the News by rafferty

June 5, 2018 By Tobias Salinger, Financial Planning The rise of fee-based business in the independent broker-dealer space has prompted one of the largest firms to drop the traditional “office of supervisory jurisdiction” label from its service model for advisors. The structure of Cambridge Investment Research’s affiliated practices remains the same in terms of compliance oversight, but the Fairfield, Iowa-based firm has become “really more of an RIA than a broker-dealer” because 87% of its advisors are now dually registered, says Chief Risk Officer Seth Miller. The No. 7 IBD’s advisors no longer associate with terms like “OSJ” and “branch,” according to Miller, who says Cambridge is also studying how best to tailor its approach based on the size of the practices. The firm announced a new approach at its conference for top producers...

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Bill Hamm taps Pershing, lays groundwork for new IBD after LPL exit

17:00 20 May in In the News by rafferty

May 17, 2018 By Tobias Salinger, Financial Planning Just one month after saying it would leave LPL Financial, Bill Hamm’s Independent Financial Partners has taken a major step in laying the groundwork for its new independent broker-dealer by selecting Pershing as its primary custodian. The hybrid RIA and office of supervisory jurisdiction will launch its new IBD in the first or second quarter of 2019, Hamm said in an interview. With 530 advisors and $10 billion in assets under management, the new IBD will offer expanded choices, lower prices and better technology, Hamm added. Hamm’s April announcement that IFP would split from the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer marked the largest exit from LPL since Ron Carson’s firm left for Cetera Financial Group in early 2017. It also represented the largest practice to leave LPL...