LPL ratchets up effort to "mobilize' its troops

LPL Financial LLC last week announced major upgrades to its technology platform, ranging from mobile access and website branding to portfolio re-balancing and trading. Most notable among the up-grades is a new mobile capability that will give clients access to positions, transactions and statement information from their mobile devices. The new application, LPL Financial Mobile, will be available for Android devices, iPads and iPhones, LPL said at its annual adviser meeting in San Diego. The app will be out this year. At the same time, LPL an-nounced new functionality for the company's client-account access portal, Account View, including capabilities for advisers to brand their public web pages. In a related tech an-nouncement, the firm introduced an enhanced trading and re-balancing platform, which supports simultaneous trading across multiple accounts. In addition, LPL has rolled its e-signature, remote-deposit and paperless-storage technology into one system, called the Streamlined Office suite. The firm is combining its main set of online tools into a core tech package with a price of $75 a month, which the company says is 50% less than current pricing for a typical adviser. The separate trading and re-balancing program costs $150 a month but is being offered free of charge this year. “I think it's a big deal,” Joel Bruckenstein, publisher of Technology Tools for Today, said about the changes. “For the last few years, LPL has not been known as a leader in technology,” said Mr. Bruckenstein, who also runs the industry's T3 techn conference. LPL chief information officer Victor Fetter was blunt when discussing some of the firm's tech stumbles. “You've been disappointed [about] undeliverables, nagging issues, the inability to run on tablets [and] concerns around data accuracy,” he told attendees. “Let there be no doubt ... I heard you.” Mr. Fetter and his staff detailed upgrades to LPL's tech platform, generating applause several times from the 3,700 financial advisers at the conference. LPL had a 20,000-square-foot “digital town square” in the conference exhibit hall promoting the changes. Mr. Fetter, the former chief information officer of Dell Online, was hired in December and has added 60 professionals to the LPL tech team. LPL spokeswoman Betsy Weinberger declined to disclose the cost of the tech projects. [email protected] Twitter: @dvjamieson