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Industry Spotlight > Advisors

LPL Rolls Out Scaled-Down CFO Solution for Advisors

By Jeff Berman

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LPL Financial on Wednesday announced the launch of a CFO Essentials offering from its LPL Business Solutions.

The new offering provides “chief financial officer expertise to emerging firms and growth-minded advisors seeking executive-level strategic counsel,” LPL said Wednesday. CFO Essentials “delivers individualized financial benchmarking, budgeting, and forecasting strategies provided by experienced financial professionals,” it noted.

Dan Arnold, LPL’s CEO and president, mentioned CFO Essentials in July, during an earnings call with analysts, but few details were given at the time. Arnold noted it was an example of one of the firm’s new streamlined versions of existing solutions to “help advisors who may have less complex” client needs than others.

LPL’s flagship CFO Premium solution was “designed for complex, multi-layered practices,” the company noted. On the other hand, CFO Essentials is a “lower-priced, lighter-touch bundle of services providing advisors with a dedicated CFO who offers fundamental support and actionable roadmaps for optimization, growth, and efficiency,” LPL said.

The price difference between the two offerings wasn’t cited by the firm in its news release, and LPL didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Advisors using the CFO Premium solution have seen promising results so far, including in some cases increased average annual business valuations upwards of 30%, LPL said.

Initial Response Positive

In LPL’s news release, Stephen Iaconis, owner and advisor at Financial Advice & Consulting, said that his Birmingham, Alabama-based firm participated in a pilot rollout of CFO Essentials in January.

Iaconis’s advisory firm includes a certified financial planner, director of operations and client service, as well as LPL Admin Solutions, it noted.

“Adding CFO expertise to the team has been beneficial in supporting the firm’s current phase of growth by providing focus and clarity in areas like client segmentation, benchmarking the business, and defining staff roles while ensuring competitive compensation,” Iaconis said, according to LPL.

Iaconis and his team are now “on track to onboard several advisors in the coming months,” as well as a support advisor and an additional client service associate, as a result of his outsourced CFO engagement, LPL said.

The CFO Essentials rollout follows the release of the Build Your Extraordinary Business study developed by LPL Business Solutions, examining the common strategies that top-performing advisors use to achieve results.

The recent research shows commonalities among how the top 10% of LPL advisors pursue success. The data indicates that, on average, firms outsourcing two or more core business functions, such as CFO, CMO or administrative services, work a similar number of hours as lower-producing advisors but “generate three times the revenue,” LPL said.

“We continue to expand our outsourcing service offerings to meet the growing demand from advisors to free up time and leverage outside thinking and insights,” Lanser pointed out. “Advisors can access professionals in marketing, access administrative support, and offer financial planning without adding staff.”

LPL now serves about 22,000 financial advisors, including advisors at about 1,100 enterprises and at approximately 550 U.S. registered investment advisor firms, it said.

Jeff Berman

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