LPL inks deal for First Horizon's broker-dealer business

LPL has entered into an agreement to support First Horizon Bank's investment advisor operations.

Under the strategic partnership, LPL Financial will assume support of the brokerage and advisory operations of First Horizon Advisors, a move that signals continued expansion in the institutional wealth management space.

The agreement, announced Monday, will transition support of First Horizon Advisors’ broker-dealer and RIA services to LPL and its Institution Services platform.

First Horizon Advisors includes about 110 financial advisors managing approximately $16 billion in assets across a 12-state region. The transition is expected to close in the second half of 2025, pending regulatory approvals.

The financial advisors affiliated with First Horizon Advisors will remain in place and continue working directly with their clients, according to the announcement.

Headquartered in Memphis, First Horizon Bank had $82.2 billion in assets as of Dec. 31. It operates across the southern US and is a subsidiary of First Horizon Corporation.

The deal comes just after LPL, the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer, revealed plans to acquire Commonwealth Financial Network in a $2.7 billion all-cash transaction. That transaction, which is also expected to close in the latter half of 2025, underscores LPL’s appetite for scale and its focus on higher-revenue-producing advisor teams.

“Commonwealth is respected throughout our industry as a standard-bearer for service excellence, and their commitment to the success of their advisors is embedded in all aspects of their business,” said Rich Steinmeier, LPL’s chief executive officer, in the Commonwealth deal announcement.

The firm currently supports roughly 29,000 advisors and oversees $1.7 trillion in client assets.

For its part, First Horizon has been resetting course following the collapse of a proposed $13.4 billion merger with TD Bank. That deal, which the two banks struck in 2022, aimed at growing Canada-based TD’s presence in the southeastern US. The agreement was later terminated in May 2023 following delays due to uncertainty in obtaining regulatory approval, particularly as watchdogs reportedly expressed concern over the Canadian lender's anti-money-laundering practices.

Those concerns would later prove well-founded as TD found itself on the wrong end of a historic multibillion-dollar penalty last October, with the resulting scandal pushing the bank to slash pay for its top US executives.

First Horizon received $225 million in breakup fees from TD Bank as part of the mutual termination agreement.