LPL loses $1.8 billion retirement group

Ingham Retirement Group, which works primarily with employer-sponsored plans, left because the firm's brokerage business had been declining.

Ingham Retirement Group, a $1.8 billion advisory firm based in Miami, has left LPL Financial.

The firm — a national, independent shop that provides retirement plan consulting and record-keeping, actuarial and investment advice services — left LPL, the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer, in March.

Ingham executives decided to leave largely because the firm’s brokerage business had been consistently declining, according to a person with knowledge of the decision, who didn’t want to be identified. The firm didn’t affiliate with another broker-dealer and will conduct business solely through its registered investment adviser, the person said.

Spokespeople for LPL and Ingham didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Ingham has more than $1.4 billion in non-discretionary assets under management and $350 million in discretionary assets, according to its most recent Form ADV filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It has 10 investment advisers, according to the filing.

(More: Do specialized retirement plan advisers even need a broker-dealer?)

InvestmentNews recently reported that Independent Financial Partners, a $9.5 billion hybrid RIA with more than 500 advisers, is leaving LPL and creating its own broker-dealer.

LPL has gone through a lot of change within the past year. On the retirement side, David Reich left as head of LPL Retirement Partners in June. That group, which underwent a structural reorganization around the same time, is now helmed by Bill Beardsley, senior vice president of business development and retirement plan consulting.

In January 2017, Dan Arnold took over as chief executive of LPL from Mark Casady. Shortly thereafter, in August, LPL announced it was buying National Planning Holdings Inc., an independent broker-dealer network with 3,200 advisers.