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Upstart IBD’s headcount is up 24%, production up 60% since launch

16:37 17 June in In the News by rafferty

June 15, 2021 By Tobias Salinger, Financial Planning The founders of an upstart firm that launched a broker-dealer two years ago say the company is growing again and saving advisors and clients millions of dollars. The week Independent Financial Partners officially changed from one of LPL Financial’s largest offices of supervisory jurisdiction to a midsize IBD competitor of the giant wealth manager, the Tampa, Florida-based firm faced its first SEC audit in 20 years, CEO Bill Hamm and his son, COO Chris Hamm, said in an interview. The pair admit that there are “probably a few more moving parts” to launching an IBD than they thought, as the younger Hamm puts it...

LPL Expands Custodial Service for Fee-Only Advisors

16:21 17 June in In the News by rafferty

June 16, 2021 By Jeff Berman, ThinkAdvisor Although LPL Financial has been in the RIA custody business since 2008, the company is now expanding that offering and will position it as a concierge, “white-glove”-type service, according to Marc Cohen, executive vice president of LPL’s advisor business. To help communicate what it is offering, “we’re going to be expanding our marketing efforts,” he told ThinkAdvisor in a phone interview on Tuesday. “It’s imminent. We’re in the midst of that launch right now” and will be “participating in more events [and] placing advertising” for the custodial offering as part of that push, he said. Earlier this year, LPL hired a dedicated custodial sales team, he said. Up until now, LPL’s custodial business has been mainly focused on supporting the hybrid advisory business of its registered representatives. However,...

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It’s All Hands on Deck as BDs Enter Rougher Waters

16:56 27 May in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

By Jon Henschen As featured in the June issue of Investment Advisor magazine Here’s why so much of our industry’s financial future is tied to compliance and what that means for today’s broker-dealers. The next few years will be all about regulation, as brokerdealers figure out the proper balance of Regulation Best Interest’s disclosure, tracking and recordkeeping. Advisors at some broker-dealers tell us the new disclosures required to satisfy regulators have become suffocatingly unacceptable, though not much has changed at other firms. The future balancing act for most broker-dealers, though, will be implementing enough disclosures and recordkeeping to avoid fines but not so much that their advisors find the paperwork and related requirements oppressively long and complex. Geneos Wealth Management President and Chief Compliance Officer Jodee Brubaker-Rager feels that by having its own technology firm, the...

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Regulation Turns Off Entrepreneurs From Pursuing The IBD Channel

15:16 06 May in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

May 5, 2021 By Jon Henschen, FA Financial Advisor An advisor that I’ve friended and conversed with since 2005 saw my article, “Regulation Throws Sand in the Gears of Business” and e-mailed me a letter explaining why my article was an understatement. The advisor wrote: “We spend more of our time doing more and more ridiculous compliance activities and reports that make no sense other than to protect the broker dealer from the regulators. There’s not enough time in the day to do it all. Many of the reps in our group find working in the current atmosphere to be in overkill mode and doing business has become drudgery. Applications are increasingly lengthy and take forever to complete; are highly scrutinized making advisors feel they have to be on the defensive all the...