Leading Bank Joins LPL Financial's Institution Services Platform

SAN DIEGO – March 30, 2021 –  LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: LPLA) (the “Company”), the parent corporation LPL Financial LLC, today announced that BMO Harris Financial Advisors (BHFA) - the retail brokerage and advisory business of BMO Harris Bank (NYSE: BMO) - has joined LPL’s Institution Services platform. BHFA comprises approximately 115 financial advisors, who collectively serve approximately $15 billion of brokerage and advisory assets.

BMO Harris Bank and LPL Financial signed an agreement in October 2020 to transition support of the bank’s retail advisory and brokerage business to LPL. On March 27, BHFA joined LPL’s Institution Services platform and onboarded approximately $11 billion of brokerage and advisory assets. The remaining approximately $4 billion of assets are expected to onboard over the next several months. 

“We welcome BMO Harris Financial Advisors to LPL’s platform serving institutional clients,” said Rich Steinmeier, LPL Financial managing director and divisional president, Business Development. “Institutions are in a position to be able to maximize the role of their brokerage and wealth management business through partnership with LPL. We bring a deep understanding of the advice business and the role advisors play in their clients’ financial lives, along with the capacity and commitment to invest and evolve our platform to meet the fast changing environment. We look forward to partnering with the team at BHFA to serve the growing demand for financial advice.”

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this announcement regarding LPL’s and BHFA’s future operating results, growth and plans, including the amount and timing of the onboarding of BHFA’s brokerage and advisory assets, as well as any other statements that are not related to present facts or current conditions or that are not purely historical, constitute forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the historical performance of LPL and BHFA and LPL’s plans, estimates and expectations as of March 30, 2021. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees that the amount or timing of asset onboarding, or the results, plans, intentions or expectations, expressed or implied by LPL will be achieved. Matters subject to forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including economic, legislative, regulatory, competitive and other factors, which may cause levels of assets onboarded, actual financial or operating results, levels of activity or the timing of events to be materially different from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. In particular, LPL can provide no assurance that the assets reported as serviced by BHFA financial advisors will translate into assets serviced at LPL. Important factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include: difficulties and delays in onboarding the assets of BHFA’s advisors; the choice by clients of BHFA’s advisors not to open brokerage and/or advisory accounts at LPL; changes in general economic and financial market conditions, including retail investor sentiment; fluctuations in the value of assets under custody; effects of competition in the financial services industry, including competitors’ success in recruiting BHFA’s advisors and their clients; and the other factors set forth in Part I, “Item 1A. Risk Factors” in LPL’s 2020 Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent SEC filing. Except as required by law, LPL specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this announcement, even if its estimates change, and you should not rely on those statements as representing LPL’s views as of any date subsequent to March 30, 2021.