LPL adding hours to its back office

As the brokerage industry continues to figure out how to work most effectively in the midst of COVID-19, LPL Financial said Thursday it will keep its back office open longer each day to support its financial advisers.

Starting Monday, the company is extending service hours for its more than 16,000 advisers from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. EDT until further notice, the company said in a statement. And starting Saturday, LPL will be open to work with its advisers from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT.

LPL said it wanted to accommodate its advisers' busy schedules during this time.

LPL is also implementing a work-from-home policy, with about 70% of its employees working remotely at this point. It has also cut all business travel and restricted access to its offices for visitors.

The largest broker-dealer for independent contractor reps and advisers, LPL, like the rest of the brokerage industry, is changing its policies to battle the coronavirus outbreak. A number of mainstay industry conferences have already been cancelled or delayed. Earlier this week Edward Jones said it was asking advisers to halt face-to-face meetings with clients and instead communicate electronically, and today Charles Schwab announced that it was closing all of its branches to the public through April 7.