The number of brokers at
LPL Investment Holdings Inc. continues to drop as the company prepares for an initial public offering.
LPL Investment Holdings, the largest independent broker-dealer in the U.S., had 12,017 reps and advisers at the end of September, according to a press release from Monday afternoon highlighting the company's third-quarter earnings. The total number of advisers and reps is 49 fewer than LPL had at the end of June. And that level from the end of the second quarter is less than the 12,026 reps and advisers the firm reported at the end of March.
(See how the advisers headcount compares to the four big wirehouses that also just reported third quarter earnings.)
LPL said in the earnings statement that last year's consolidation of three broker-dealers it acquired from Pacific Life Insurance Co. in 2007 continued to be a drag on its broker head count.
After moving the reps of Mutual Service Corp., Associated Securities Corp. and Waterstone Financial Group Inc. onto the LPL platform last September, 138 reps and advisers left the firm in the fourth quarter of 2009. LPL has said that after the integration, 720 of those reps and advisers left the firm.
In its press release, LPL noted that it added 128 new reps and advisers during the 12-month period through September.
Known as a recruiting juggernaut throughout the decade, the firm recruited about 1% of its total rep sales force in the past year.
LPL is not the only large broker-dealer struggling this year to increase its number of reps and advisers. Last week, the three largest wirehouses reported sluggish recruiting. Raymond James Financial Inc., an independent B-D and competitor of LPL's, said the company lost 63 brokers in the U.S. from April to the end of September. Raymond James now has 4,729 brokers.
(See how the independent broker-dealers compare.)
LPL's earnings, however, did not take into account its announced acquisition in July of certain assets, including the advisers and brokers, of National Retirement Partners Inc. That firm has about 350 brokers and advisers, who could join LPL when the deal is completed this year.
LPL said it achieved “solid results” in the third quarter, stemming from its diversified sources of recurring revenue, growth in assets, continued attention to costs and lower interest expense as a result of debt refinancing. It announced net income of $26.1 million for the quarter, compared with a $1.5 million loss for the comparable period last year.
Meanwhile, LPL's net revenue in the third quarter reached $760 million, an 8.2% hike from the same reporting period last year.
In June, the private-equity-backed company filed a registration for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the company is in its quiet period. Consistent with that quiet period, the company had no comment beyond its public filings, LPL spokesman Michael Harley wrote in an e-mail.
