LPL experiences systems failure

A massive technical snafu that began Monday morning is preventing the 10,000 financial advisers affiliated with Linsco/Private Ledger Corp. of Boston and San Diego from doing business online with their broker-dealer. The advisers still cannot place trades, view accounts or perform other routine tasks online. LPL spokesman Kevin Dinino said the company has information technology experts working feverishly to resolve the problem soon. "We did experience some issues with the software upgrade we implemented over the weekend and we've isolated the root of the problem," he said. "We are in the process of putting in the fix right now. Of course there's some handholding and we're reaching out to our top 500 advisers." All equity, mutual fund and fixed income trades were successfully executed over the past two days, he added. But those trades had to be placed by e-mail or telephone, Mr. Dinino said. The upgrade problem occurred when technicians tried to implement wealth management software from Conshohocken, Pa.-based eMoney Advisor onto BranchNet, LPL's basic trading platform. These types of implementations are necessary, he said. "This was a big upgrade and LPL is committed to technology and we will continue to upgrade," Mr. Dinino said. Some LPL advisers are furious and say that the company is insensitive to the burden this has placed upon them.