Since LPL Financial announced its deal to acquire Commonwealth Financial Network in March, roughly 328 advisors have left the independent broker/dealer, according to a new analysis by Wolfe Research. That includes the Summit Wealth Group, a team of 24 advisors who left in May to start their own registered investment advisor.
Excluding that group, which decided to leave prior to LPL’s announcement, the firm has lost 304 advisors, an attrition rate of 10%, Wolfe Research states.
LPL closed on its acquisition of Commonwealth, the Waltham, Mass.-based IBD with 3,000 advisors and $305 billion in assets, in August. Since then, many Commonwealth advisors have decamped for other broker/dealers.
On its recent third-quarter earnings call, LPL CEO Rich Steinmeier stated that Commonwealth advisors representing nearly 80% of assets have signed to date. That represents $275 billion in assets onboarded in the third quarter from Commonwealth advisors, and the firm is still on track to retain 90% of its advisors, its target retention rate.
“Based on the data, it appears we are past peak attrition, with September representing the high watermark,” wrote Steven Chubak, managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wolfe Research, in the report.
Source: www.wolferesearch.com
The report, based on data from ISS Market Intelligence, stated that November is on track for 63 departures, down from 70 in October and 93 in September.
“Despite the improvement, the trends suggest we are not out of the woods quite yet, and we would like to see the U-5s slow to a greater extent to have greater conviction on reaching the 90% target,” Chubak wrote.
Raymond James has been the biggest beneficiary of Commonwealth attrition, recruiting 105 advisors since the deal was announced. The firm is followed by Kestra, which picked up 67, and Cambridge Investment Research, which recruited 28 Commonwealth advisors. Farther, Cetera and Osaic have also put up some numbers.
That said, LPL is at the top of the scoreboard for advisor recruits year-to-date, with 541 net advisor wins, followed by Raymond James with 255 and Schwab with 145. Bank of America tops the list of advisor losses for the year-to-date, with 623 net departures. It’s followed by Osaic (396), UBS (262) and Fidelity (204).
Overall, advisor churn is tracking at around 5% for 2025, which is consistent with recent years and the long-term average, Wolfe states.
