LPL’s Atria deal poses complexities: Report

investmentnews.com:

Bringing aboard 2,400 financial advisors from seven separate broker-dealers, as LPL Financial is doing with its acquisition of Atria Wealth Solutions Inc.’s network of firms, will be “complex,” even for a firm with LPL’s long experience with acquisitions, according to a March research note from analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

In February, LPL Financial Holdings Inc. said it was buying the private equity broker-dealer aggregator Atria for $805 million, with up to another $230 million based on retention, or keeping advisors in their place. Atria’s advisors work with about $100 billion in assets, and LPL is aiming to complete the integration of the seven Atria broker-dealers by mid-2025.

“Preparations for onboarding/integration are underway,” according to the JPMorgan note. “While LPL does not expect to complete the full integration until mid-2025, the integration of seven separate broker-dealers will be complex even for an experienced LPL team that has a streamlined process to onboard advisor teams and enterprises within the banks/credit union segment.”

Atria was backed by private equity investors Lee Equity Partners, and Morgan Stanley veteran Doug Ketterer was its CEO. In roughly seven years, Atria bought two broker-dealers that focused on supporting banks and credit unions — CUSO Financial Services and Sorrento Pacific Financial – and five that work with independent financial advisors — Cadaret Grant, NEXT Financial Group, SCF Securities, Western International Securities, and Grove Point Financial.

LPL Financial is one of the most prolific dealmakers in the wealth management industry, and it has been buying up broker-dealers at a prodigious rate since 2005, when it sold a majority stake to two private equity