A year after sale, Commonwealth Financial and LPL start cutting staff

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. in March 2025 said it was acquiring Commonwealth Financial Network, a group of 3,000 financial advisors who were the highest annual revenue producers on average in the industry. 

Many of those Commonwealth Financial advisors stayed loyal to the privately held firm because of the high-touch service they received in trading, compliance and client services. LPL closed the acquisition for $2.7 billion in cash last August.

A year later, LPL Financial has begun the process of cutting an unknown number of Commonwealth Financial back office workers who do not deal directly with financial advisors. 

Such job cuts are common after mergers; buyers like LPL Financial look to improve margins in the wake of an acquisition, and reducing the number of employees is the surest way to accomplish that.

“My expectation is for what management has promised, continued and uninterrupted service,” said Thomas J. Batholomew, a leading, veteran Commonwealth Financial advisor and head of his eponymous firm.

“A lot of the Commonwealth staff hadn’t been feeling secure about their roles, and have been told to look for matching jobs at LPL, “ said one senior industry executive, who spoke privately to InvestmentNews about the layoffs.

“Commonwealth believed in over servicing advisors compared to the competition,” another senior executive told InvestmentNews. “That’s how the firm got such great advisor retention.”  

“LPL saw enormous post potential for cost reductions there,” the executive added.

As it has stated, LPL Financial intends to keep the Commonwealth Financial brand. Employees are also in line to earn severance pay, but details were not clear.

LPL Financial has offered positions to some of Commonwealth’s employees and kept the door open to others to apply for jobs at LPL, according to a statement from the company.  

“After more than a year of collaboration with Commonwealth, we've reached a key milestone in shaping our future organization,” an LPL Financial spokesperson wrote in an email. “Many Commonwealth employees have been mapped to roles in the combined company, and we encourage others to explore opportunities at LPL.”

Industry news website Citywire first reported the layoffs of Commonwealth Financial’s home office staff. It’s not clear how many home and back office workers Commonwealth had at the time of the sale last year.

LPL Financial currently has more than 9,900 employees and 32,000 financial advisors across its platform, the majority of whom are independent contractor reps.

Commonwealth Financial joins a number of firms that have recently cut jobs. The reductions in jobs at large firms are happening in an era when artificial intelligence software is replacing back office jobs and firms are trying to boost profitability.