Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business
Overview
LPL serves the advisor-mediated marketplace as the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer, a leading investment advisory firm, and a top custodian. We serve more than 22,000 financial advisors, including advisors at approximately 1,100 enterprises and at approximately 570 registered investment advisor (“RIA”) firms nationwide, providing the front-, middle- and back-office support our advisors need. Through our comprehensive platform, we offer integrated technology solutions; brokerage and advisory platforms; clearing, compliance, business and planning and advice services; consultative practice management programs and training; and in-house research to help our advisors deliver advice to their clients and run successful businesses.
We are steadfast in our commitment to the advisor-mediated model and the belief that investors deserve access to personalized guidance from a financial advisor. We believe advisors should have the freedom to choose the business model, services and technology they need and to manage their client relationships. We believe investors achieve better outcomes when working with a financial advisor, and we strive to make it easy for advisors to do what is best for their clients.
We believe that we are the only company that offers the unique combination of an integrated technology platform, comprehensive self-clearing services and access to a wide range of curated non-proprietary products all delivered in an environment unencumbered by conflicts from product manufacturing, underwriting and market-making.
LPL Financial Holdings Inc., which is the parent company of our business, was incorporated in Delaware in 2005. The Company’s most significant wholly owned subsidiaries are described below:
• LPL Holdings, Inc. is a direct subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and is an intermediate holding company of our business.
• LPL Financial LLC (“LPL Financial”) is a clearing broker-dealer and an investment adviser that clears and settles customer transactions.
• LPL Insurance Associates, Inc. (“LPLIA”) operates as a brokerage general agency that offers life and disability insurance products and services.
• AW Subsidiary, Inc. is a holding company for AdvisoryWorld and Blaze Portfolio Systems LLC (“Blaze”). AdvisoryWorld offers technology products, including proposal generation, investment analytics and portfolio modeling, to both the Company’s advisors and external clients in the wealth management industry. Blaze provides an advisor-facing trading and portfolio rebalancing platform.
• The Private Trust Company, N.A. (“PTC”) provides trust administration, investment management oversight and, along with its affiliate Fiduciary Trust Company of New Hampshire, Individual Retirement Account (“IRA”) custodial services.
• LPL Employee Services, LLC and its subsidiary, Allen & Company of Florida, LLC (“Allen & Company”), along with their affiliate, Financial Resources Group Investment Services, LLC (“FRGIS”), provide primary support for the Company’s employee advisor affiliation model.
Our Strategy
At LPL, our mission is to take care of our advisors so they can take care of their clients. Our vision is to become the leader across the advisor-mediated marketplace by empowering advisors to deliver advice to their clients and operate thriving businesses. In order to achieve this vision, our strategy is to meet advisors and enterprises where they are in the evolution of their businesses, provide capabilities to help advisors differentiate and win investors, create an industry-leading service experience that delights advisors and enterprises and their clients, and help advisors and enterprises run the most successful businesses in the industry.
Our Business
Advisor Relationships
Our business is dedicated exclusively to our advisors; we are not a market-maker nor do we offer investment banking or underwriting services. We offer no proprietary products of our own, and, as a result, we enable the independent financial advisors and enterprises that we support to offer their clients lower-conflict advice.
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We work alongside advisors to navigate complex market and regulatory environments and strive to empower them to create the best outcomes for investors. In addition, we make meaningful investments in technology and services to support the growth, productivity and efficiency of advisors across a broad spectrum of business models as their practices evolve. Our advisors are a community of diverse financial services professionals who support approximately 8.3 million client accounts. They build long-term relationships with their clients in communities across the United States by guiding them through the complexities of investment decisions, retirement solutions, financial planning and wealth management. Our services are designed to support the evolution of our advisors’ businesses over time and to adapt as our advisors’ needs change.
The majority of our advisors are independent practitioners who are viewed as local providers of independent advice. Many of our advisors operate under their own business name, with LPL offering assistance with their branding, marketing and promotion and regulatory review. We believe we offer a compelling economic value proposition to independent advisors, which is a key factor in our ability to attract and retain advisors and their practices. The independent channels pay advisors a greater share of advisory fees and brokerage commissions than the captive channels — generally 80-100% compared to 30-50% for captive channels. Most of our independent financial advisors are business owners who, unlike their captive counterparts, also benefit from building equity value in their own businesses. We also support advisors through our independent employee advisor affiliation model, where they benefit from a full-service employee relationship with us while generally retaining ownership of their client relationships in exchange for a slightly lower payout than our traditional independent model. Furthermore, we believe that our technology and service platforms enable our advisors to operate their practices with a greater focus on serving investors at a lower cost than other independent advisors.
Our more than 22,000 advisors average over 20 years in the industry, which generally allows us to focus on supporting and enhancing our advisors’ businesses without needing to provide basic training or subsidizing advisors who are new to the industry. Our flexible business platform allows our advisors to choose the most appropriate business model to support their clients whether they conduct brokerage business, offer brokerage and/or fee-based services on our corporate RIA platform, or provide fee-based services through their own RIA.
Advisors licensed with LPL Financial as investment advisory representatives conduct fee-based business on our corporate RIA platform, and advisors licensed with LPL Financial as registered representatives conduct commission-based business on our brokerage platform. In order to be licensed with LPL Financial, advisors must be approved through our assessment process, which includes a review of each advisor’s education, experience and compliance history, among other factors. Approved advisors become registered with LPL Financial and enter into a representative agreement that establishes the duties and responsibilities of each party. Pursuant to the representative agreement, each advisor makes a series of representations, including that the advisor will disclose to all clients and prospective clients that the advisor is acting as LPL Financial’s investment advisory representative or registered representative, that all orders for securities will be placed through LPL Financial, that the advisor will sell only products that LPL Financial has approved and that the advisor will comply with LPL Financial policies and procedures as well as securities rules and regulations. These advisors also agree not to engage in any outside business activity without prior approval from us and not to act in competition with us.
LPL Financial also supports approximately 570 independent RIA firms that conduct their business through separate registered investment advisor firms (“Independent RIAs”) with approximately 6,300 advisors who conduct their advisory business through these separate entities. Independent RIAs operate pursuant to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (the “Advisers Act”), or their respective states’ investment advisory licensing rules. These Independent RIAs engage us for technology, clearing and custody services, as well as access to our investment platforms and business services. Advisors associated with Independent RIAs retain 100% of their advisory fees, and in return, we charge separate fees for custody, trading, administrative and support services. In addition, some financial advisors associated with Independent RIAs are registered representatives of LPL Financial and access our fully-integrated brokerage platform under standard terms.
We believe we are the market leader in the enterprise channel, providing support to over 3,600 financial advisors at approximately 1,100 enterprises nationwide. The core capabilities of these enterprises may not include investment and financial planning services, or they may find the technology, infrastructure and regulatory requirements of supporting such services to be cost-prohibitive. For these enterprises, we provide their financial advisors with the infrastructure and services they need to be successful, allowing the enterprises to focus more attention and capital on their core businesses.
Finally, we provide support to approximately 3,800 additional financial advisors who are affiliated and licensed with insurance companies. These arrangements allow us to provide outsourced customized clearing, advisory platforms and technology solutions that enable the financial advisors at these insurance companies to offer a breadth of services to their client base in an efficient manner.
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Our Value Proposition
We are dedicated to making it easy for advisors to do what is best for their clients. Our scale and self-clearing platform enable us to provide advisors with the capabilities they need, and the service they expect, at a compelling price. We are dedicated to continuously improving the processes, systems and resources we leverage to meet these needs.
We support our advisors by providing front-, middle- and back-office solutions through our distinct value proposition: integrated technology solutions, comprehensive clearing services, compliance services, consultative practice management programs and training, business services and planning and advice services, along with in-house research. The comprehensive and increasingly automated nature of our offering enables our advisors to focus on their clients while successfully and efficiently managing the complexities of running their own practice.
Integrated Technology Solutions
We provide our technology and service to advisors through an integrated technology platform that is cloud-based and web-accessible. Our technology offerings are designed to permit our advisors to effectively manage all critical aspects of their businesses in an efficient manner while remaining responsive to their clients’ needs. We continue to automate time-consuming processes, such as account opening and management, document imaging, transaction execution, and account rebalancing, in an effort to improve our advisors’ efficiency and accuracy.
Comprehensive Clearing Services
We provide custody and clearing services for the majority of our advisors’ transactions and seek to offer a simplified and streamlined advisor experience with expedited processing capabilities. Our self-clearing platform enables us to control client data, more efficiently process and report trades, facilitate platform development, reduce costs and ultimately enhance the service experience for our advisors and their clients.
Compliance Services
We continue to make substantial investments in our compliance function to provide our advisors with a strong framework through which to understand and operate within regulatory guidelines, as well as guidelines that we establish. Protecting the best interests of investors and our advisors is imperative to us. As the financial industry and regulatory environment evolve and become more complex, we have made a long-term commitment to enhancing our risk management and compliance structure, as well as our technology-based compliance and risk management tools, in order to further enhance the overall effectiveness and scalability of our control environment.
Our team of risk and compliance employees assists our advisors through:
• training and advising advisors on new products, new regulatory guidelines, compliance and risk management tools, security policies and procedures and best practices;
• advising on sales practice activities and facilitating the supervision of activities by branch managers;
• conducting technology-enabled surveillance of trading activities and sales practices;
• monitoring of registered investment advisory activities for advisors on our corporate RIA platform; and
• inspecting branch offices and advising on how to strengthen compliance procedures.
Consultative Practice Management Programs and Training
Our practice management programs are designed to help leaders and financial advisors in independent practices and enterprises enhance and grow their businesses. Our experience gives us the ability to benchmark the best practices of successful advisors and develop customized recommendations to meet the specific needs of an advisor’s business and market, and our scale allows us to dedicate a team of experienced professionals to this effort. Our practice management and training services include:
• personalized business consulting that helps eligible advisors and program leadership enhance the value and operational efficiency of their businesses;
• advisory and brokerage consulting and financial planning to support advisors in growing their businesses through our broad range of products and fee-based offerings and wealth management services;
• marketing strategies, including campaign templates, to enable advisors to build awareness of their services and capitalize on opportunities in their local markets;
• our Liquidity & Succession solution to expand the options of advisors seeking to monetize their businesses or free themselves from entrepreneurial burdens through the sale of their practices;
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• an advisor loan program for advisors looking to buy another practice;
• transition services to help advisors establish independent practices and migrate client accounts to us; and
• in-person and virtual training and educational programs on topics including technology, use of advisory platforms and business development.
Business Services and Planning and Advice Services
We provide business services to advisors in areas critical to the operation of their practices, such as marketing, accounting and transaction support. Our business services portfolio includes professional services and business optimizer offerings. Professional services offerings, including CFO Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Admin Solutions, Advisor Institute, Bookkeeping, Partial Book Sales, and CFO Essentials are digital and employee-powered solutions that provide expertise to increase business-level growth and operational efficiency. Business optimizer offerings, including M&A Solutions, Digital Office, Resilience Plans and Assurance Plans, are digital solutions that provide risk mitigation and business continuity services to support practice operations and succession planning.
Our planning and advice services are digital and employee-powered solutions that help advisors and enterprises expand the breadth and depth of their advice in areas such as tax planning, paraplanning and private client support for high-net-worth relationships. The focus of planning and advice services is helping advisors increase marketplace differentiation while limiting additional complexity and risk. We are expanding our portfolio of services to address new advisor needs while also enhancing our existing solutions to deliver an industry-leading customer experience.
In-House Research
We provide our advisors with integrated access to comprehensive research on a broad range of investments. We share market analysis and commentary on macro-economic events, manager research, capital markets assumptions, strategic and tactical asset allocation advice and individual equity guidance. Our research team provides advice that is designed to empower our advisors to better serve their clients, including the creation of discretionary portfolios for which we serve as a portfolio manager, available through our turnkey advisory asset management platforms. We are able to provide objective and unbiased investment research to our advisors and their clients without the conflict of proprietary products or investment banking services.
Our Product and Solution Access
We do not manufacture any financial products. Instead, we provide our advisors with curated access to a broad range of commission, fee-based, cash and money market products and services. The sales and administration of these products are facilitated through our technology solutions, which allow our advisors to access client accounts, product information, asset allocation models, investment recommendations and economic insight, as well as to perform trade execution.
Fee-Based Platforms and Support
We have various fee-based platforms that provide centrally managed or customized solutions from which advisors can choose to meet the investment needs of their clients, including wrap-fee programs, mutual fund asset allocation programs, an advisor-enhanced digital advice program, advisory programs offered by third-party investment advisor firms, financial planning services and retirement plan consulting services. The fee structure of our platforms enables our advisors to provide their clients with higher levels of service while establishing a recurring revenue stream for the advisor and for us. Our fee-based platforms provide access to mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, stocks, bonds, certain options strategies, unit investment trusts, institutional money managers and no-load multi-manager variable annuities. As of December 31, 2023, the total advisory assets under custody in these platforms, through both our corporate RIA and Independent RIA advisory platforms, were $735.8 billion.
Commission-Based Products
Commission-based products include those for which we and our advisors receive an upfront commission and, for certain products, a trailing commission. Our brokerage offerings include variable and fixed annuities, mutual funds, equities, fixed income, alternative investments, retirement and 529 education savings plans and insurance. We regularly review the structure and fees of our commission-based products in the context of retail investor preferences and the changing regulatory environment, as well as the competitive landscape. As of December 31, 2023, the total brokerage assets in commission-based products were $618.2 billion.
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Client Cash Programs
Our client cash programs include two Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) insured bank sweep vehicles, a client cash account and a money market account, which enable our advisors to manage their clients’ cash balances. As of December 31, 2023, the total assets in our client cash programs, which are held within advisory and brokerage accounts, were $48.5 billion.
Other Services
We provide a number of additional tools and services that enable advisors to maintain and grow their practices. Through our subsidiary PTC, we provide custodial services to trusts for estates and families. Under our model, an advisor may provide a trust with investment management services, while administrative services for the trust are provided by PTC. We also offer retirement solutions for commission- and fee-based services that allow advisors to provide brokerage services, consultation and advice to retirement plan sponsors using LPL Financial. We offer proposal generation, investment analytics and portfolio modeling capabilities to both our advisors and external clients in the wealth management industry and provide an advisor-facing trading and portfolio rebalancing platform.
Our Financial Model
Our overall financial performance is a function of the following:
• Our revenue stems from diverse sources, including advisor-generated advisory fees and commission revenue, as well as other asset-based fees from product sponsors, recordkeeping, networking services, client cash balances, service and fee revenue, transaction revenue and revenue for other ancillary services that we provide. Revenue is not concentrated by advisor, product or geography. For the year ended December 31, 2023, no single relationship with our independent advisor practices or enterprises accounted for more than 2% of our advisory and commission revenue, and no single advisor accounted for more than 1% of our advisory and commission revenue.
• The largest variable component of our expense, advisor payout percentages, is directly linked to revenue generated by our advisors.
• A portion of our revenue is not asset-based or correlated with the equity financial markets. Service and fee revenue is generated from advisor and retail investor services, including insurance, licensing, business services and planning and advice services, IRA custodian and other client account fees. Service and fee revenue from business services is based on recurring subscription fees. We charge separate fees to RIAs for technology, clearing, administrative, oversight and custody services, which may vary. In addition, we host certain advisor conferences that serve as training, education, sales and marketing events for which we charge sponsors a fee.
• Our operating model is scalable and is capable of delivering expanding profit margins over time.
• We have managed our capital allocation framework and expenditures such that we have been able to both invest in our business and return capital to stockholders.
Our Competitive Strengths
Market Leadership Position and Scale
We are the established leader in the independent advisor market, which is our core business focus. We use our scale and position as an industry leader to champion the independent business model and the rights of our advisors and their clients. Our scale enables us to benefit from the following dynamics:
• Continual Reinvestment — We actively reinvest in our comprehensive technology platform and practice management support, which further improves the productivity of our advisors.
• Economies of Scale — As one of the largest distributors of financial products in the U.S., we have been able to obtain attractive economics from product sponsors.
• Payout Rates to Advisors — As one of the largest U.S. broker-dealers by number of advisors, we believe that we offer our advisors the highest average payout rates in our industry.
The combination of our ability to reinvest in our business and maintain highly competitive payout rates has enabled us to attract and retain advisors. This, in turn, has driven our growth and led to a continuous cycle of reinvestment that reinforces our established scale advantage.
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Comprehensive Solutions
We differentiate through the combination of our capabilities across research, technology, risk management and practice management. We make meaningful investments to support the growth, productivity and efficiency of advisors across a broad spectrum of models as their practices evolve. Our focus is working alongside advisors to navigate complex environments in order to create the best outcomes for their clients.
We believe we offer a compelling value proposition to independent financial advisors and enterprises. This value proposition is built upon the delivery of our services through our scale, independence, and integrated technology, the sum of which we believe is not replicated in the industry. As a result, we believe that we do not have any direct competitors that offer our business model at the scale at which we offer it. For example, because we do not have any proprietary manufactured financial products, we do not view firms that manufacture asset management products and other financial products as direct competitors.
We provide comprehensive solutions to enterprises, such as regional banks, credit unions and insurance companies, that seek to provide a broad array of services for their clients. We believe many enterprises find the technology, infrastructure and regulatory requirements associated with delivering financial advice to be cost-prohibitive. The solutions we provide enable financial advisors at these enterprises to deliver their services on a cost-effective basis.
Flexibility of Our Business Model
Our business model allows our advisors the freedom to choose how they conduct their business, subject to certain regulatory parameters, which has helped us attract and retain advisors from multiple channels, including wirehouses, regional broker-dealers, banks, other RIAs and other independent broker-dealers. Our platform can accommodate a variety of independent advisor business models, including financial advisors as independent contractors, employee advisors and Independent RIAs. The flexibility of our business model enables our advisors to select their preferred affiliation model and product mix as their business evolves and preferences change within the market or their client base all within an environment that allows for evolution with minimal interruption to their business and their clients.
In addition, our business model provides advisors with a multitude of customizable service and technology offerings that allow them to increase their efficiency, focus on their clients and grow their practice. For example, LPL Services Group provides business support to advisors in areas critical to the operation of their practices, such as marketing, accounting and transaction support.
Our Sources of Growth
Increasing Productivity of Existing Advisor Base
We believe the productivity of our advisors has the potential to increase over time as we continue to develop solutions designed to enable them to add new clients, manage more of their clients’ investable assets and expand their existing practices with additional advisors. We expect to facilitate these productivity improvements by helping our advisors better manage their practices in an increasingly complex external environment, which we believe has the potential to result in the assets per advisor growing over time. Business services and planning and advice services are a source of organic growth as a larger share of advisors adopts these service solutions.
Attracting New Assets to Our Platform
We intend to grow the assets served by our platform across traditional markets and through new affiliation models. Ongoing investment in and enhancements to our platform and support teams have led to an expanded pipeline. We have also experienced momentum from a continued expansion of our advisor affiliation models, which has attracted prospects from new sources. Finally, we have opened up a new market with our newest enterprise affiliation model resulting in strategic relationships with M&T Bank Corporation, BMO Harris Financial Advisors, CUNA Brokerage Services, Inc., People’s United Bank, Bancwest Investment Services and Commerce Financial Advisors. Most recently, we announced an agreement with Prudential to transition the brokerage and investment advisory assets of Prudential Advisors, Prudential’s retail wealth management business, from its current third-party custodian to the Company’s Institution Services platform in the second half of 2024, subject to receipt of regulatory approval and other conditions. Related investments in our enterprise platform have generated interest from new enterprise clients.
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Competition
We compete with a variety of financial firms to attract and retain experienced and productive advisors. These financial firms operate in various channels and markets:
• Within the independent broker-dealer channel, the industry is highly fragmented and consists primarily of regional firms that rely on third-party custodians and technology providers to support their operations.
• Wirehouses tend to consist of large nationwide firms with multiple lines of business that have a focus on the highly competitive high-net-worth investor market.
• Competition for advisors also includes regional firms that primarily focus on specific client niches or geographic areas.
• Independent RIA firms, which are registered with the SEC or through their respective states’ investment advisory regulator and not through a broker-dealer, may choose from a number of third-party firms to provide custodial services.
Our advisors compete for clients with financial advisors of brokerage firms, banks, insurance companies, asset management and investment advisory firms. In addition, they also compete with a number of firms offering direct-to-investor online financial services and discount brokerage services.
Human Capital
Our success depends on our ability to attract, hire, retain and develop highly-skilled professionals in a variety of specialties, including finance, technology, compliance, business development, cybersecurity and management.
Workforce
As of December 31, 2023, we had approximately 8,400 full-time employees, all of whom are located in the U.S. Approximately 49% of our employees self-identify as women and 40% self-identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color.
Talent Management and Culture
Due to the complexity of our business, we compete with other companies for top talent, both inside and outside of our industry, and in multiple geographical areas within the United States. Our Human Capital efforts focus on further developing our culture of service in concert with our mission statement: We take care of our advisors so they can take care of their clients . To that end, we seek employees who are committed to excellence, integrity and living our values. Our employees are one team on one mission: to seek, embrace and apply feedback, stop and consider the big picture, and deliver results for our advisors and their clients.
Compensation and Benefits
To maintain a high-caliber, values-driven workforce that is committed to our culture, we strive to offer total rewards, including compensation, benefits and recognition programs that position our company as an employer of choice. Our compensation is designed to be performance based and competitive in the markets in which we compete. We closely monitor industry trends and practices to ensure we are able to attract and retain the personnel who are critical to our success. We also monitor internal pay equity to help ensure that our compensation practices are fair and equitable across our organization. Our Company’s senior leaders have an opportunity to receive a portion of their compensation in Company equity, and, subject to a cap, we match the contributions of all of our employees to our retirement savings plan to help support their long-term financial goals. We also offer an employee stock purchase plan that enables eligible employees to acquire an ownership interest in our Company at a discount to prevailing market prices.
We offer an array of benefits intended to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their eligible dependents. From healthcare to holidays, our aim is to help our employees enjoy happy and healthy lifestyles while maintaining work-life balance. We offer comprehensive benefits to all full-time employees and part-time employees working at least 30 hours per week, which equates to over 99% of our workforce. Our health and welfare benefits include, among other things: medical coverage; dental and vision coverage; healthcare and dependent-care flexible spending accounts; Health Savings Accounts; accident and critical illness coverage; life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance; short-term and long-term disability insurance; and the LPL Live Well employee wellbeing program, which supports employees and their family members in their wellness journeys as well as offering targeted and focused programming for mental health, Type 2 Diabetes care and maternity management.
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Recruiting
As a Fortune 500 company focused on innovation and growth, talent drives the success of our company. Therefore, we are focused on attracting and retaining our employees. To reach a diverse pool of talent, we are continually in the market and take a multi-faceted approach to recruiting in pursuit of diverse, entrepreneurial and dedicated team members. By expanding our reach and sourcing efforts and implementing diverse recruitment methods, we seek to create a workforce representative of the communities and partners we serve.
We continue to invest in talent recruitment channels to introduce emerging talent to the opportunities within wealth management and financial services. As part of our university recruitment strategy, we have expanded partnerships with colleges and universities in the local communities we serve and beyond. We continuously seek ways to collaborate with students, faculty and diverse campus organizations to increase exposure and opportunities for students. LEAP, our Leadership Excellence and Achievement Program, encompasses the Company’s emerging talent initiatives and offers internship, part time and full time opportunities to develop the next generation of leaders.
Training and Development
We believe in our employees’ potential and provide training and development opportunities intended to maximize their performance and professional growth. To ensure that new employees integrate into our culture and their daily work, we provide a robust new-hire experience, as well as extensive ongoing training for existing employees to acquaint them with our business. We require all of our employees to complete courses in key regulatory areas, such as insider trading and anti-money laundering compliance, and we offer professional development opportunities through training sessions, on-demand learning and cross-departmental workshops, resulting in over 170,000 completed courses and workshops and approximately 200,000 development hours for our employees . In addition, we have mentorship programs that pair employees with more experienced professionals, giving mentees access to experience, expertise, and guidance. To help employees determine the next steps in their careers, we continue to provide a Career Growth Portal that provides employees with tools, resources, training courses and assessments as they chart their career paths. Lastly, we have created skills cards with curated content targeting key skills and desired capabilities to help employees develop.
Employee Safety
We aim to provide a safe, inclusive environment for our employees where they feel engaged in our business, supported in who they are and empowered to succeed. We are committed to providing a workplace that is free from violence, harassment and other unsafe or disruptive conditions and require our personnel to attend regular training sessions and workshops on those topics.
To promote health and safety in our workplace, we have an environment, health and safety function that partners with others across the organization to support compliance with applicable workplace health and safety requirements. We also have a cross-functional team, with members who have been trained to conduct threat assessments to support workplace violence prevention. We provide leaves of absence and workplace accommodations, and we provide employees with the flexibility to support their individual circumstances, where possible. In addition, the LPL Financial Foundation continues to support the LPL Care Fund, an employee-to-employee relief fund created to help employees facing unexpected and unavoidable financial hardships as a result of a natural disaster or epidemic by providing tax-free grants .
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Our diversity, equity and inclusion (“DEI”) efforts are overseen by our chief executive officer, chief human capital officer and chief diversity officer. In 2023, the management committee received quarterly updates on DEI-related issues. Our Board of Directors, its compensation and human resources committee and its nominating and governance committee, which oversees our environmental, social and governance program, also received multiple updates on our progress in this area.
At LPL, we believe that well-being is more than just physical safety and that our employees should feel welcome and supported as who they are. We seek to foster a culture of inclusivity. Our employee-led resource groups give voice to the needs, concerns and experiences of various diverse groups so that our leaders can ensure that all employees, regardless of background, are valued, respected and fully supported.
Continuous improvement is a pillar of our culture, and we regularly solicit employee feedback on the effectiveness and quality of our programs, including our diversity and inclusion programs, and their level of engagement with our business. We use this feedback to improve our programs and processes and inform decisions about our business.
In furtherance of our commitment to cultivating diversity of thought and ideas within the organization, we sponsor and encourage all of our team members to participate in Employee Resource Groups to leverage the individual
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talents and share the perspectives and experiences of our employees across all demographics. These include, but are not limited to, groups open to all employees focusing on the experience of individuals who identify as African-American, Asian-American and Pacific Islander, Hispanic, LGBTQ, Veterans, Women, People with Disabilities and Working Parents.
Finally, our professional development and recruitment efforts include targeted outreach to and collaborations with organizations that serve historically underserved and underrepresented populations. We closely monitor employee turnover across a variety of dimensions to evaluate our effectiveness in retaining personnel. In addition, our DEI talent attraction efforts are centered on strengthening relationships with community partners, particularly historically Black colleges and universities. Our goal has been to broaden the pool of talented applicants to include groups historically underrepresented so that we can truly reach the best candidates, and our efforts towards this goal helped create a 2023 class of interns with significant representation by people identifying as a woman and/or as Black, Indigenous or a Person of Color.
Regulation
The financial services industry is subject to extensive regulation by U.S. federal, state and international government agencies as well as various self-regulatory organizations. We seek to participate in the development of significant rules and regulations that govern our industry. We have been investing in our compliance functions to monitor our adherence to the numerous legal and regulatory requirements applicable to our business. Compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, only some of which are described below, involves a significant investment in time and resources. Any new laws or regulations applicable to our business, any changes to existing laws or regulations, or any changes to the interpretations or enforcement of those laws or regulations may affect our operations and/or financial condition.
Broker-Dealer Regulation
LPL Financial is a clearing broker-dealer registered with the SEC, a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) and a participant in various clearing organizations including the Depository Trust Company, the National Securities Clearing Corporation and the Options Clearing Corporation. LPL Financial is registered as a broker-dealer in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The rules of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, which are enforced by the SEC and FINRA, apply to the municipal securities activities of LPL Financial. LPL Financial is registered as an introducing broker-dealer with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) and is a member of the National Futures Association (“NFA”). LPL Financial is regulated by the SEC, FINRA, CFTC and NFA.
Broker-dealers are subject to rules and regulations covering all aspects of the securities business, including sales and trading practices, public offerings, publication of research reports, use and safekeeping of clients’ funds and securities, capital adequacy, recordkeeping and reporting, the conduct of directors, officers and employees, qualification and licensing of supervisory and sales personnel, marketing practices, supervisory and organizational procedures intended to ensure compliance with securities laws and to prevent improper trading on material nonpublic information, limitations on extensions of credit in securities transactions, clearance and settlement procedures, anti-money laundering, cybersecurity, credit risk management and rules designed to promote high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade. Broker-dealers are also subject to state securities laws and regulated by state securities administrators in those jurisdictions where they do business. Applicable laws, rules and regulations may be subject to varying interpretations and change from time to time.
Regulators make periodic examinations and inquiries of us and review annual, monthly and other reports on our operations and financial condition. Regulatory actions brought against us alleging violations of applicable laws, rules and regulations could result in censures, penalties and fines, settlements, disgorgement of profits, restitution to customers, remediation or the issuance of cease-and-desist orders. Such actions could also result in the restriction, suspension or expulsion from the securities industry of us or our financial advisors, officers or employees. We also may incur substantial expenses, damage to our reputation or similar adverse consequences in connection with any such actions by the SEC, FINRA, CFTC, NFA, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) or state securities regulators, regardless of the outcome.
LPL Financial’s margin lending is regulated by the Federal Reserve Board’s restrictions on lending in connection with client purchases and short sales of securities, and FINRA rules also require LPL Financial to impose maintenance requirements based on the value of securities contained in margin accounts. In many cases, our margin policies are more stringent than these rules.
LPL Financial's recommendations to retail customers are subject to a standard of conduct specified by the SEC (“Reg BI”). Reg BI requires that, when making recommendations, broker-dealers act in the best interest of retail
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customers without placing their own financial or other interests ahead of the customer’s and imposes obligations related to disclosure, duty of care, conflicts of interest and compliance. Certain state securities and insurance regulators have also adopted, proposed or are considering adopting similar laws and regulations. In addition, the DOL has proposed a “Retirement Security Rule” that would broaden the definition of fiduciary advice and modify the prohibited transaction exemptions in effect as of the date of this Annual Report that enable investment advice fiduciaries to receive compensation on transactions as a result of fiduciary recommendations to a plan covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”), IRA or other account covered by Section 4975 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). Compliance with proposed conduct standards could increase the complexity and costs of our compliance or affect our revenue streams, including, in the case of the DOL proposal, our ability to rely on the current prohibited transaction exemptions. Moreover, to the extent new rules or regulations affect the operations, financial condition, liquidity and capital requirements of financial institutions with which we do business, those institutions may seek to pass on increased costs, reduce their capacity to transact, or otherwise present inefficiencies in their interactions with us. As industry compliance practices and regulatory approaches to guidance, examinations and enforcement continue to develop, the ultimate impact that these new rules or regulations will have on us, the financial industry and the economy cannot be known at this time. It is unclear how and whether other regulators, including banking regulators, and state securities and insurance regulators, may respond to or attempt to enforce similar issues addressed by Reg BI and the DOL.
Investment Adviser Regulation
As an investment adviser registered with the SEC, our subsidiary LPL Financial is subject to the requirements of the Advisers Act, and the regulations promulgated thereunder, including examination by the SEC’s staff. Such requirements relate to, among other things, fiduciary duties to clients, maintaining an effective compliance program, conflicts of interest, advertising, limitations on agency cross and principal transactions between the advisor and advisory clients, recordkeeping and reporting requirements, disclosure requirements and general anti-fraud provisions.
The SEC is authorized to institute proceedings and impose sanctions for violations of the Advisers Act and associated regulations. Investment advisers also are subject to certain state securities laws and regulations. Failure to comply with the Advisers Act or other federal and state securities laws and regulations could result in investigations, censures, penalties and fines, settlements, disgorgement of profits, restitution to customers, remediation, the issuance of cease-and-desist orders or the termination of an investment adviser’s registration. We also may incur substantial expenses, damage to our reputation or similar adverse consequences in connection with such actions, regardless of the outcome.
Retirement Plan Services Regulation
Certain subsidiaries, including LPL Financial, LPL Employee Services, LLC, PTC, Fiduciary Trust Company of New Hampshire and LPLIA, are subject to ERISA, Section 4975 of the Code, and to regulations promulgated under ERISA or the Code, insofar as the subsidiaries provide services with respect to plan clients, or otherwise deal with plan clients, plan participants and retirement, health and educational accounts that are subject to ERISA or Section 4975 of the Code. ERISA imposes certain duties on persons who are “fiduciaries” (as defined in Section 3(21) of ERISA) and prohibits certain transactions involving plans subject to ERISA and fiduciaries or other service providers to such plans. Non-compliance with or breaches of these provisions may expose an ERISA fiduciary or other service provider to liability under ERISA, which may include monetary and criminal penalties as well as equitable remedies for the affected plan. Section 4975 of the Code prohibits certain transactions involving “plans” (as defined in Section 4975(e)(1), which include, for example, IRAs and certain Keogh plans) and service providers, including fiduciaries (as defined in Section 4975(e)(3)), to such plans. Section 4975 imposes excise taxes for violations of these prohibitions.
The DOL has a “five-part test” defining fiduciary “investment advice” under ERISA and the Code (the “Five-Part Test”). Under this test, providing non-discretionary investment advice or recommendations with respect to a covered account can cause a person to be a fiduciary under ERISA and/or the Code if the advice is provided for a fee, on a regular basis, and subject to a mutual understanding that the advice will be personalized to the needs of the advice recipient and used as a primary basis for an investment decision. In addition, the DOL has proposed a “Retirement Security Rule” that would modify the Five-Part Test to broaden the definition of fiduciary advice and the prohibited transaction exemptions in effect as of the date of this Annual Report.
The DOL’s prohibited transaction exemption 2020-03 (“PTE 2020-02”) provides broad exemptive relief for receiving variable or transaction-based compensation, and certain other “prohibited transactions,” in connection with fiduciary investment advice to investors using covered accounts if certain conditions are met. The preamble to this exemption also included the DOL’s new and expanded interpretation of when providing a rollover recommendation (or potentially other recommendations) could result in fiduciary status under the historic Five-Part Test. This new
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interpretation, as well as other guidance issued by the DOL in connection with this interpretation, has been the subject of multiple litigations in federal district courts challenging the DOL’s authority to issue it. On February 13, 2023, a federal court issued a decision that invalidated, in part, the DOL’s interpretation of who qualifies as a fiduciary under ERISA in providing a rollover recommendation. We operate our business in compliance with a number of DOL prohibited transaction exemptions, including PTE 2020-02, where applicable. However, as industry compliance practices and regulatory approaches to guidance, examinations and enforcement continue to develop, and the outcomes of litigation remain pending, the ultimate impact that these new rules or regulations will have on us, the financial industry and the economy cannot be known at this time. In addition, it is unclear how and whether the DOL and other regulators, including the SEC, FINRA, banking regulators, and the state securities and insurance regulators may respond to or enforce elements of the Five-Part Test and PTE 2020-02 rules or interpretations.
The DOL also proposed amendments to the definition of “fiduciary” under ERISA and the Code and certain of its existing prohibited transaction exemptions, which we expect, if completed, to result in increased legal, compliance, information technology and other costs and could lead to a greater risk of client lawsuits and enforcement activity by the DOL and other regulators. The effect of any future DOL regulations and changes on our retirement plan business cannot be anticipated or planned for but may have further impacts on our products and services and results of operations.
Trust Regulation
Through our subsidiary, PTC, we offer trust, investment management oversight and custodial services for estates and families. PTC is chartered as a non-depository national banking association. As a limited purpose national bank, PTC is regulated and regularly examined by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”). PTC files reports with the OCC within 30 days after the conclusion of each calendar quarter. Because the powers of PTC are limited to providing fiduciary services and investment advice, it does not have the power or authority to accept deposits or make loans. For this reason, trust assets under PTC’s management are not insured by the FDIC.
Because of its limited purpose, PTC is not a “bank” as defined under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956. Consequently, neither its immediate parent, PTC Holdings, Inc., nor its ultimate parent, LPLFH, is regulated by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as a bank holding company. However, PTC is subject to regulation by the OCC and to various laws and regulations enforced by the OCC, such as capital adequacy, change of control restrictions and regulations governing fiduciary duties, conflicts of interest, self-dealing and anti-money laundering. For example, the Change in Bank Control Act of 1978, as implemented by OCC supervisory policy, imposes restrictions on parties who wish to acquire a controlling interest in a limited purpose national bank such as PTC or the holding company of a limited purpose national bank such as LPLFH. In general, an acquisition of 10% or more of our common stock, or another acquisition of “control” as defined in OCC regulations, may require OCC approval. These laws and regulations are designed to serve specific bank regulatory and supervisory purposes and are not meant for the protection of PTC, PTC Holdings, Inc., LPLFH or their stockholders.
Regulatory Capital Requirements
The SEC, FINRA, CFTC and NFA have stringent rules and regulations with respect to the maintenance of specific levels of net capital by regulated entities. The net capital rule under the Exchange Act requires a broker-dealer to maintain a minimum net capital and applies certain discounts to the value of its assets based on the liquidity of such assets. LPL Financial is also subject to the NFA’s financial requirements and is required to maintain net capital that is in excess of or equal to the greatest of the NFA’s minimum financial requirements. Under these requirements, LPL Financial is currently required to maintain minimum net capital that is in excess of or equal to the minimum net capital calculated and required pursuant to the Exchange Act’s net capital rule.
The SEC, FINRA, CFTC and NFA impose rules that require notification when net capital falls below certain predefined criteria. These broker-dealer capital rules also dictate the ratio of debt to equity in regulatory capital composition and constrain the ability of a broker-dealer to expand its business under certain circumstances. If a broker-dealer fails to maintain the required net capital, then certain notice requirements to the regulators are required, and the broker-dealer may be subject to suspension or revocation of registration by the applicable regulatory agency, and suspension or expulsion by these regulators ultimately could lead to the broker-dealer’s liquidation. Additionally, the net capital rule and certain FINRA rules impose requirements that may have the effect of prohibiting a broker-dealer from distributing or withdrawing capital and require prior notice to the SEC and FINRA for certain capital withdrawals. LPL Financial, which is subject to net capital rules, has been and currently is in compliance with those rules and has net capital in excess of the minimum requirements.
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Anti-Money Laundering and Sanctions Compliance
The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, which amended the Bank Secrecy Act, contains anti-money laundering and financial transparency laws and mandates the implementation of various regulations applicable to broker-dealers, futures commission merchants and other financial services companies. Financial institutions subject to these requirements generally must have an anti-money laundering program in place, which includes monitoring for and reporting suspicious activity, implementing specialized employee training programs, designating an anti-money laundering compliance officer and annually conducting an independent test of the effectiveness of its program. In addition, sanctions administered by the United States Office of Foreign Asset Control prohibit U.S. persons from doing business with blocked persons and entities or certain sanctioned countries. We have established policies, procedures and systems designed to comply with these regulations and work continuously to improve and strengthen our regulatory compliance mechanisms.
Security and Privacy
Regulatory activity in the areas of privacy and data protection continues to grow worldwide and is generally being driven by the growth of technology and related concerns about the rapid and widespread dissemination and use of information and general concerns about the security of that information. To the extent they are applicable to us, we must comply with federal and state information-related laws and regulations in the United States, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, SEC Regulation S-P, the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970, as amended, and Regulation S-ID, as well as the California Consumer Privacy Act and further potential federal and state requirements.
Trademarks
Access Overlay ® , BlazePortfolio ® , BranchNet ® , CLIENTWORKS ® , Fortigent ® , LPL ® , LPL Career Match ® , LPL Financial (& Design) ® , Manager Access Network ® , Manager Access Select ® , OMP ® and SPONSORWORKS ® are our registered trademarks, and ADVISORYWORLD, CLIENTWORKS CONNECTED, ALLEN & COMPANY OF FLORIDA, LLC, and THE PRIVATE TRUST COMPANY, N.A. (& Design) are among our service marks.
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