Foes turn friends in blockbuster merger

LPL Financial and Commonwealth Financial Network are strange bedfellows. Previously archenemies in the battle for advisor talent, one is a behemoth with about 29,000 advisors and one is a boutique firm with about 2,900. No love has been lost between the two. It’s akin to the New York Yankees buying the Boston Red Sox. Think about that.

So, when news broke that Commonwealth had agreed to a $2.7 billion all-cash merger, reverberations were felt across the industry. The deal is arguably the most significant ever in the independent broker-dealer space and is a welcome change in tone for LPL after the sudden firing of former CEO Dan Arnold last year for alleged improper conduct. 

The instigation and rapid conclusion of the Commonwealth deal is also a major feather in the cap for Arnold’s successor, Rich Steinmeier. As InvestmentNews reported, Steinmeier got the ball rolling with a reach-out email to his opposite number, Joe Deitch, at Commonwealth around Christmas. Initially a meet-and-greet endeavor, it evolved, remarkably given the size of the deal, to a signed-and-sealed agreement a little over three months later.

For LPL, this is a coup. It now has access to Commonwealth’s secret sauce and advisors who routinely generate some of the highest revenues and organic growth rates in the business. For Dietch, a revered leader and business builder, this is the culmination of his life’s work. For Commonwealth’s advisors, this is a nervous time.

Wayne Bloom, previously CEO, will remain as the head of Commonwealth within LPL, while Steinmeier’s pitch to his new colleagues is that nothing will change. However sincere this is, given the differences between the two firms, skepticism will be rife. Commonwealth advisors now have a once-in-a-lifetime decision to make: join the behemoth that is LPL or seek another boutique.

Ironically, given how the two firms have dueled for top advisors in the past, the challenge for the executives over the coming weeks and months is to open arms and make them all one big happy family. LPL’s target is to retain 90 percent of their new advisors.

LPL has taken the adage of keeping friends close but enemies closer to another level. This, however, fails to factor in the respect it clearly had for what Commonwealth was doing. Now these two combatants are on the same side, it’ll be fascinating to see whether they can contain the fallout.