Independent BDs

After 17 years with LPL, planner says the large B-D's service dropped off.

"This disturbs me to the core," Sheryl Garrett says after FINRA election; new FINRA leader says his views were distorted.

The move "is not part of a broader consolidation strategy," Cetera maintains.

"Make no doubt about it, we are not near a recession," says LPL chief investment officer Burt White.

The independent broker-dealer knows it’s in a dogfight to stay competitive in a sellers’ market.

Recruiting "is as competitive as I've seen it in the last 10 years," says LPL exec.

One goal is to fully automate LPL's roughly 20 million pages it uses each year and eliminate the experience of working in an office over-filled with files.

“The changes we announced today makes the [robo] cost issue go away,” LPL Chairman and CEO Mark Casady tells Financial Planning.

A recruit from the banking channel at Wells Fargo moves to the regional's independent broker-dealer.

The firm reported solid growth and record advisor productivity in its wealth management business.

Recruiting stayed strong as Raymond James reported a 6% increase in quarterly profits for its wealth management unit year over year.

The top rankings change considerably when the B-D networks are considered as single operations. Here's an all new top 10 list.

The advisor agreed to a lifetime bar from the industry after a hacker who impersonated a client persuaded him to illegally transfer $160,000 of client funds.

With the addition of the new recruits, Faubourg Private Wealth Advisors now has seven former J.P. Morgan advisors.

The advisors managed a combined $278 million in client assets.

Even as a first step for clients seeking information on advisors, BrokerCheck is under scrutiny by advocacy groups.

Regulators have cracked down on LPL advisors in Massachusetts for using terms like "Retirement Specialist" and "Retirement Income Planning Specialist" -- while its planners use them elsewhere.

Which independent broker-dealers have the most female advisors?

Which independent broker-dealers have the most female advisors?

LPL aims to serve retirement plan assets of large RIAs, some of its strongest competitors in non-retirement plan advisory work.