Two years after the board of directors at LPL Financial Holdings Inc. fired him, Dan Arnold, LPL’s second CEO as a public company, is returning to the wealth management industry, this time to help lead a relative newcomer, Stirlingshire, in the highly competitive marketplace to recruit and hire financial advisors.
According to industry sources who spoke privately about the matter, Arnold has been looking to return to the financial advice industry for some time, attending industry meetings to press the flesh with advisors and industry executives.
Arnold was CEO at LPL Financial from 2017 to 2024. Before that, he was its president.
It’s been quite the road back for Arnold; two years ago, in October 2024, LPL’s board terminated, meaning fired, Arnold, for violations of the firm’s code of conduct related to LPL's commitment to a respectful workplace.
Arnold is now executive chairman of Stirlingshire, which will feature its platform for advisors next week at the industry convention Future Proof.
“Dan obviously has a huge depth of expertise in running very large organizations,” said Stirlingshire’s CEO and founder, Steven Woods, in an interview this week. “And Stirlingshire is being built to be a very large organization.”
Arnold was not available this week for an interview with InvestmentNews.
At the moment, the firm has been up and running for about three years and has close to 40 financial advisors under its roof. The goal eventually is to work with as many as 5,000 advisors, Woods said. Financing has come from friends and family, not private equity or institutions, he said.
“Dan is actively working in the company,” Woods said. “He’s not just on the board of directors.”
Stirlingshire Investments is both an independent broker-dealer and registered investment advisor. It currently uses Apex Clearing Corp. to clear trades but intends to include other clearing and custody options for advisors next year.
It’s also promoting artificial intelligence functions for advisors as well as a 100% payout; industry leading independent broker-dealers like LPL Financial or Raymond James Financial Services pay advisors a base of 80% or more of each dollar of revenue they generate, with percentages rising potentially.
The company intends to be profitable by not pushing products, like many small firms, but through working with clients’ cash in a model more akin to Robinhood – but for advisors - than Morgan Stanley.
“How do we make money,” he asked. “With margin loans, cash sweeps and fully paid stock lending. We’re operating like an AI driven LPL, giving advisors the full capability to run their businesses.”
“Stirlingshire has never sold a single private placement, ever,” said Woods, who entered the retail securities industry in 2009 and worked at three firms that FINRA eventually expelled: John Thomas Financial, Meyers Associates and Worden Capital Management.
With only a GED and no time at college, he began his career at the lowest tier on Wall Street, Woods said.
“I am hyper aware of all the shenanigans that went on out there,” he said about his time at firms that eventually were kicked out of the business. “John Thomas Financial was the last huge boiler room on Wall Street.”
With the ticker LPLA, LPL Financial Holdings saw its stock price make a spectacular rise under Arnold, from close to $36 per share at the time he was promoted to chief executive to close to $230 on October 1, 2024, an increase of more than six times.
Arnold’s fall from one of the most prestigious seats in the financial advice industry – the head of LPL Financial – was sudden and out of the blue. No specific details about Arnold’s violation of LPL’s code of conduct emerged after his termination.
“LPL’s code of conduct requires every employee, no matter their title, to foster a supportive and professional workplace and show respect to each other, our stakeholders and the broader community,” said James Putnam, chair of the board of directors, in a statement at the time. “Mr. Arnold failed to meet these obligations.”
He was replaced by Rich Steinmeier, LPL’s former chief growth officer and a veteran of Merrill Lynch and UBS.
LPL Financial two months after his firing and Arnold agreed to a settlement regarding Arnold’s stock options, which had been deferred when the board fired him for cause.
Under the settlement, Arnold walked away with options worth $12 million, or about 15 percent of the aggregate total value of the severance benefits and equity awards that he would have been entitled to receive or retain, had he been terminated without cause.
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