(Bloomberg) — LPL Monetary Holdings Inc. Chief Govt Officer Wealthy Steinmeier took the helm of the wealth-management firm in a less-than-traditional method.
He discovered he’d be getting the job simply at some point earlier than the agency introduced, in October, the firing of firm veteran Dan Arnold for trigger – and with out fee of most severance or excellent fairness awards – over still-undisclosed feedback he’d made to staff. Steinmeier, then LPL’s chief progress officer, had all the time needed to guide an organization, however that timeline abruptly turned expedited.
“Clearly, it was a disaster transition – we hadn’t been anticipating it,” Steinmeier mentioned in his first interview since taking the function. “I braced for one thing that was going to be quite a bit worse than it ended up being.”
After serving quickly as CEO for a number of weeks, Steinmeier, 51, was given the place completely later that month. He mentioned he hadn’t been fearful that the function can be too large for him or that he wasn’t prepared, however was involved in regards to the market’s response to the information.
Nonetheless, he took the job at a wholesome time for wealth-management corporations, with the property of the mass prosperous swelling with the post-election market surge — and LPL has benefited together with the remainder of the business. The agency’s whole web new property of $157.3 billion for the fourth quarter blew previous Wall Road analysts’ estimates of $106.1 billion and web earnings grew greater than 24% from a 12 months earlier to $270.7 million.
“It didn’t flip from a disaster occasion to an organization in disaster,” Steinmeier mentioned.
Earlier than serving as chief progress officer for round six months, Steinmeier was president of LPL’s enterprise technique and progress division. He beforehand labored at UBS Group AG and the Merrill Edge impartial advisory program, now a part of Financial institution of America Corp. Steinmeier, who grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, mentioned he bicycled to his first job at Hardee’s and dreamed of working within the automotive business – even studying Japanese in school to make himself a extra aggressive candidate — earlier than making the swap to wealth administration.
LPL differs from different corporations in that the independent-adviser mannequin is core to its enterprise mannequin. Based on its most up-to-date quarterly filings, it really works with greater than 28,800 advisers who’re affiliated with the agency or establishments corresponding to Financial institution of Montreal that work with LPL to ship wealth-management choices. Roughly 4,000 of these advisers work with banks, Steinmeier mentioned.
That places LPL in a unique sector from rising, digital-first gamers favored by youthful traders, corresponding to Robinhood Markets Inc., which more and more depend on synthetic intelligence to advise prospects. Past Robinhood, San Diego-based LPL additionally competes for shoppers with Charles Schwab Corp., Morgan Stanley and different corporations clamoring to handle the cash of tens of millions of Individuals. Whereas LPL had whole advisory and brokerage property of $1.74 trillion on the finish of 2024, Schwab’s whole shopper property topped $10 trillion.
Steinmeier mentioned LPL’s authentic mission was to place the concentrate on the person adviser.
“However the agency had gotten away from recognizing that the way in which you make that adviser crucial particular person in your organization is by making your staff extremely profitable,” he mentioned. “That’s not a response to what went on, however that could be a level of emphasis that we now have elevated as we take into consideration the agency as we proceed to progress into the long run.”
Whereas LPL says its former CEO violated the corporate’s code of ethics, LPL flourished below Arnold’s management, with brokerage and advisory property ballooning. Shares of the agency are up 13% this 12 months and quadrupling for the reason that finish of 2019. Steinmeier goals to remain on that trajectory.
“We’re a progress agency,” he mentioned. “We don’t run away from progress. I don’t run away from scale — I run to it.”