Another 100 Uvest brokers headed out the door at LPL

LPL Financial LLC expects to lose 100 bank brokers this quarter due to the continuing integration of Uvest Financial Services Group Inc., its broker-dealer that specializes in serving financial advisers that work with financial institutions. That is on top of 22 Uvest brokers who left the firm in the third quarter, Robert Moore, chief financial officer of the broker-dealer's holding company, LPL Investment Holdings Inc., said in an interview. LPL management said in March that it was consolidating Uvest with the company's main brokerage platform. The company also indicated that it would complete the rollup by the end of the year. LPL acquired Uvest in 2006 for about $90 million in cash and stock. InvestmentNews last week reported that LPL recently lost about 75 former Uvest representatives who generate about $17 million in fees and commissions annually. At the time, a few reps said that they were more comfortable working with a broker-dealer that focused specifically on financial institutions such as banks and credit unions. Overall, LPL is exceeding its goals in adding new advisers to the firm, Mr. Moore said. “We are quite pleased with the third-quarter results,” Mr. Moore said. During the quarter, the company added 161 net new advisers, and for the 12-month period through September, it added 598. That surpasses the firm's stated goal, which is to add 400 reps a year, Mr. Moore said. RELATED ITEM LPL's IPO: The big winners He declined to say from where specifically LPL was attracting the new brokers, but he said that they came from a variety of brokerage channels, including wirehouse firms, broker-dealers affiliated with insurance companies and other independent-contractor broker-dealers. At the end of last month, the company had 12,799 affiliated reps and advisers, making it by far the largest independent broker-dealer in the industry. LPL Investment Holdings on Wednesday morning reported that third-quarter revenue rose 16.2% to $882.9 million, from $760 million a year earlier. Net income for the quarter was $36.4 million, up 39.3% from $26.1 million a year earlier.