New Account Management Tools Improve Advisor Efficiency and Client Experience; Bundled Suite Reduces Advisor Costs by 50 Percent
Account View, LPL Financial Mobile and Streamlined Office Tools Reflect Overall Technology Focus; Enhanced Trading & Rebalancing Platform Also Launches
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 19, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LPL Financial LLC, the nation's largest independent broker-dealer, a leading RIA custodian and a wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:LPLA), today announced a set of enhanced technology offerings and new mobile capabilities for financial advisors and their clients, designed to simplify account management; improve practice efficiency and scalability; and enhance the client experience. The company has also bundled its main set of online tools, resulting in up to a 50 percent cost savings for many of its advisors.
The revamped Account View and Streamlined Office offerings, as well as the new LPL Financial Mobile application, are an update to the current online offerings for both advisors and their clients. They include a suite of mobility products offering "anywhere access" to account information that is designed to help advisors and clients to make more informed decisions. LPL Financial also announced that its main set of online tools, including BranchNet, iDoc (document storage), Account View, eSignature, Remote Deposit, Compliance Workbench and email will be made available in a bundled Core Technology pricing plan that eliminates more than 50 percent of technology costs to advisors and institutions.
Advisors attending this week's annual focus13 conference in San Diego have a chance to demo the new online offerings and solutions and interact with LPL Financial's technology team at a first-of-its-kind, 20,000-square-foot LPL Financial "Digital Town Square."
In a separate but related technology announcement, LPL Financial also introduced its new Enhanced Trading & Rebalancing (ET&R) platform, which enables advisors to simultaneously manage trading activity across multiple client account portfolios.
"Technology has clearly emerged as a critical differentiator and enabler for our advisors and we have made it a key priority to enhance our technology offerings to serve as a strategic advantage for them," explained Mark Casady, Chairman and CEO of LPL Financial. "We are committed to delivering a technology experience that is smarter, simpler, and more personalized. Our technology platform provides efficiency and scale to advisors and institutions and in turn, improves their experience with their investors."
Account View
LPL Financial announced significant new functionality for the company's client account access portal, Account View, including capabilities that will allow advisors to brand client-facing web pages with their practices' own DBA (doing business as) name, logo, and color scheme. The new site is organized to reflect the way clients think about their finances – their portfolio, accounts, positions, transactions, and statements.
In addition, clients will now be able to access Account View on mobile devices, providing them with robust, flexible options to remain connected to their crucial financial information anywhere and at any time. In conjunction with the company's eStatements offering, Account View gives investors multiple options to access their account data online with clarity and confidence, and further demonstrates LPL Financial's commitment to reducing physical paper usage and helping our environment.
LPL Financial Mobile Application for Advisors
The company also announced the rollout of a mobile application associated with Account View that will enable LPL Financial-affiliated advisors to access client account, position, transaction and statement information from mobile devices. The application, LPL Financial Mobile, provides advisors with additional insight and portability to help them manage their practices, and is available on iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android devices through the devices' respective app stores. The company plans to broaden the account management functionality available to its advisors through LPL Financial Mobile on an ongoing basis.
Streamlined Office
LPL Financial's Streamlined Office suite leverages several critical electronic document management solutions – eSignature, Remote Deposit and iDoc – into a single workflow to save time and money for advisors while greatly improving the client experience. The company's deep understanding of advisor needs, workflow, and technology platforms will enable affiliated advisors and their clients to, for example, sign account documents, deposit funds into the selected accounts and route the documents for archiving all within a single meeting. Key aspects of Streamlined Office include:
- eSignature. LPL Financial's eSignature offering increases efficiency, reduces physical paper usage and enhances the signing experience for advisors and their clients. eSignature has experienced rapid adoption among advisors and clients since its initial rollout in November 2012, due in part to the fact that more than 80% of documents submitted to LPL are eligible.
- Remote Deposit. Mobile solution that provides advisors with an easy, fast, convenient and secure way to deposit client checks into LPL Financial accounts. Advisors affiliated with the company and their clients collectively deposit approximately $15 million every day through Remote Deposit.
- iDoc. Acts as an online vault, in which advisors and their staff members can store documents electronically and securely.
The Streamlined Office suite represents another step in LPL Financial's ongoing efforts to provide full digital office capabilities to its advisors, reducing physical paper consumption and enabling anywhere-to-anywhere transaction functionality. "The new suite has wonderful functionality and is easy to navigate," said Advisor Mitch Carlson of Personal Financial Group from Overland Park, Kansas.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release, including certain statements regarding future technology enhancements and releases, improvements to the services offered to advisors and institutions, and other matters by LPL Financial LLC (the "Company"), as well as any other statements that are not purely historical, constitute forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company's expectations as of August 19, 2013. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees and should not be regarded as a representation by the Company. Important factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include: the Company's success in developing and implementing its technology transformation plans and initiatives, the Company's success in attracting and retaining information technology personnel; effects of competition in the financial services industry; changes in the number of the Company's financial advisors and institutions, and their ability to market effectively financial products and services; the Company's success in negotiating agreements with current or additional technology vendors; the effect of current, pending and future legislation, regulation and regulatory actions; and the other factors set forth in the LPL Financial Holdings Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2012 and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, even if the Company's expectations change, and you should not rely on those statements as representing the Company's view as of any date subsequent to August 19, 2013.
About LPL Financial
LPL Financial, a wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:LPLA), is the nation's largest independent broker-dealer (based on total revenues, Financial Planning magazine, June 1996-2013), a top RIA custodian,* and a leading independent consultant to retirement plans. LPL Financial offers proprietary technology, comprehensive clearing and compliance services, practice management programs and training, and independent research to more than 13,400 financial advisors and approximately 700 financial institutions. In addition, LPL Financial supports more than 4,600 financial advisors licensed with insurance companies by providing customized clearing, advisory platforms and technology solutions. LPL Financial and its affiliates have approximately 3,000 employees with primary offices in Boston, Charlotte, and San Diego. For more information, please visit www.lpl.com.
Securities and Advisory Services offered through LPL Financial. A Registered Investment Advisor, Member FINRA/SIPC
*Cerulli Associates: RIA Service Agent Survey Q1 2013
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