LPL Financial Holdings Inc

SWB:7LI

LPL Financial Holdings runs a wealth-management platform for independent financial advisors, registered investment advisers, banks, and credit unions. It gives them the brokerage, custody, trading, compliance, planning, and technology tools they need to serve their own clients, while also letting them keep their independence instead of working for a large wirehouse. The company makes money by charging advisors and institutions for using its platform, clearing and custody services, and related transaction and account services. It also earns fees tied to client assets and trading activity, along with interest income on client cash balances. In practice, LPL sits in the middle of the advice chain: advisors bring in the clients, and LPL provides the plumbing behind the scenes. What makes the business model different is that LPL is less of a product seller and more of an essential service provider for the advisory industry. Its main customers are financial professionals and the firms that support them, not individual retail investors directly. That gives LPL a recurring, infrastructure-like role in wealth management, where it helps advisors run their businesses while keeping the client relationship with the advisor.