LPL Financial Adds Enhancements to Retirement Plan Solution

LPL Financial announced enhancements to its Small Market Solution (SMS), delivering more value to advisors who want to grow their business by serving retirement plans.

The platform fee will be lowered from 20 to 10 basis points in January 2019, increasing value for the plan investment management solution, which outsources management of plan investments to LPL.  In addition, the platform will offer more record keepers, providing more choice to address the needs of clients. It is expected that two new providers will be added in 2018 and several more throughout 2019. The firm announced the platform’s enhancements at its recent annual event for the LPL community of retirement plan advisors.

“Our singular focus is to provide advisors with the services and tools that help them create and grow highly profitable businesses,” said Matt Enyedi, LPL Financial executive vice president, National Sales and Consulting. “Advisors increasingly need to address investors’ holistic financial needs, and we want to ensure all 16,000 LPL advisors have access to tools and resources that will help them grow their businesses in the ways that matter most to them.”

The platform has grown incrementally each quarter since its launch in 2016. SMS takes advantage of LPL’s scale to make plan investment management cost effective for smaller clients. Advisors can leverage the turnkey solution to minimize investment fiduciary risk and increase efficiency.

LPL had delivered several enhancements this year to increase advisor access to retirement plan services, provide more choice and make the tools and platforms easier to use. In July, LPL announced it has revised the business requirements for its Retirement Partners Consulting Program (RPCP), broadening advisor access to the program that supports advisors serving advisory-based plans.

LPL is also increasing the resources and support available to advisors regionally. LPL will double the number of regional workshops offered to specialist advisors, increasing access to education, insights and best practices that can help them grow their business. Four new regional consultant positions have been created so that more advisors can take advantage of the retirement plan tools, resources and expertise available to help them grow.