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Summer B-D Recruitment: More Sizzle Than Slowdown
Amid an ongoing war for talent, industry hopes have turned on Commonwealth advisors jumping ship from LPL. By Jennifer Lea Reed
WHEN LPL FINANCIAL ANNOUNCED IT WAS acquiring Commonwealth Financial Network earlier this year, it lit a fire throughout the broker-dealer industry. Firms hoping to lure advisors away from the Commonwealth ecosystem were inspired in the second quarter to try a full-court press to scoop up anyone unhappy with their LPL future. After all, LPL CEO Rich Steinmeier has reiterated his confidence that LPL can retain 90 % of Commonwealth advisors, implying that more than 200 of them could switch firms.
That momentum has now continued into the third quarter, say sources, who add that recruitment in the summer of 2025 is bucking the typical summer-slowdown trend by staying hot, hot, hot— and all to advisors’ favor. From a broader view, this looks like the natural extension of the talent war being waged across the industry, one that has flooded recruiters with more money than most professionals remember seeing— ever— thanks in particular to higher interest rates earned on client cash filling firm coffers.
And recruiters are the first to say there has never been a better time for advisors to look for a new affiliation, whether the catalyst for change is their desire for more money, better technology, richer relationships, broader offerings for clients or simply their dissatisfaction with their current firms.
Jodi Perry, head of advisor recruiting at Raymond James, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Fla., says this summer has been particularly busy, and she chalks up some of that activity to heightened expectations advisors have of their firms to do more and be more.
“ Usually in the summer, everybody takes the opportunity to
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