LPL cuts Commonwealth retention forecast to 83%

LPL Financial expects to keep 83% of Commonwealth Financial Network's client assets, down from a 90% goal, with the last Commonwealth advisors due to move onto LPL's platform in mid-November, AdvisorHub reported.

Moves Wire recorded 16 Commonwealth departures in the past 12 months and no arrivals. On Oct. 14, GFS Advisory's Paige Rossi and Stephen Groover, a three-person team with $350 million in client assets, left for Raymond James Financial Services.

An advisor still deciding has a concrete reference point: 83% of the roughly $300 billion Commonwealth managed when LPL agreed to buy it implies about $51 billion of client assets leaving. Conversion is two weeks away. LPL's retention estimate has moved from the 90% goal Chief Executive Rich Steinmeier restated in July to 85% among signed advisors last quarter to 83% now.

“With only two weeks until conversion, we have increased clarity on final asset retention, which we now expect to be approximately 83%,” Steinmeier told analysts on Tuesday's call. Chief Financial Officer Matt Audette said a small number of committed advisors changed their minds: “We just had a small number of advisors that had signed who decided not to stay.”

LPL reported $24 billion of client assets and $29 billion of net new assets in the quarter, a 5% annualized growth rate, according to its earnings report. Moves Wire counted 32 LPL moves in the 12 months to Oct. 22, 25 of them inbound.

The purchase was announced in March 2025 at $2.7 billion, when Commonwealth had about 3,000 brokers. LPL has been preparing to onboard those advisors since, as Private Wealth Daily previously reported. The mid-November conversion would leave LPL's next quarterly update reporting retention as a finished number rather than a forecast.