LPL to buy National Retirement Partners

LPL Investment Holdings Inc. is acquiring National Retirement Partners, a San Juan Capistrano, Calif.-based broker-dealer that specializes in retirement plans. When the deal is done, NRP employees will join LPL to form a new division within the company, LPL Financial Retirement Partners. NRP's CEO and president, Bill Chetney, will lead the division, according to a statement e-mailed to InvestmentNews from LPL. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. (See an exclusive breakdown of LPL's financials and other key statistics about the firm.) “In deference to LPL's post S-1 quiet period we have no comment beyond the public documents regarding this transaction,” said Doug Nolte, vice president at National Retirement Partners. National Retirement Partners has about 350 brokers, all of whom serve retirement plans. LPL's acquisition of NRP come just weeks after the independent B-D filed for an initial public offering. The IPO for LPL is valued at $600 million, according to the SEC filing. Over the past decade, LPL has seen fantastic growth and is the largest independent contractor broker-dealer in the industry. In 2000, the firm had 3,569 advisers. It had 12,026 as of March 31. (See how the LPL/NRP deal fits into a time line of major changes in the broker-dealer landscape.)