UBS said the brokerage generated a record $211 million in
quarterly pretax profit as revenue rose 5 percent to $1.59
billion from a year earlier. Increases in management fees offset
lower commissions, as client trading activity slowed, and net
interest income declined.

“Operating at a smaller scale than the other wirehouses is
helping them here,” said Cerulli Associates analyst Bing
Waldert, alluding to national brokerages Merrill Lynch, Morgan
Stanley Smith Barney and Wells Fargo Advisors. “They can be more
selective about whom they take or don’t take. They also put
their house in order earlier than the others.”

Waldert noted, though, that the investment gains are not
sustainable ongoing income.

The ranks of UBS brokers rose by just six advisers to 7,021
from the end of March, but were up 2 percent from 6,862 a year
earlier. Broker attrition rates remained low, UBS said.

The firm’s broker ranks have stabilized after thousands fled
as the bank suffered some of the biggest financial crisis losses
as well as several regulatory setbacks.

Merrill Lynch, by comparison, saw its broker ranks slip by
24 to 16,151 during the quarter.

U.S. wealth management results were a bright spot for UBS,
whose investment bank in comparison posted a pretax loss of 130
million Swiss francs driven by a 349 million franc loss from
executing Facebook trades during its botched IPO on the
Nasdaq stock market in May.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. brokerage business declined to
say whether the Facebook debacle had any impact on the brokerage
results. Lead Facebook underwriter Morgan Stanley, by
comparison, offered to make clients whole by adjust thousands of
limit order sell trades from the first day of trading.

Customers added $3.8 billion of net new money during the
quarter, excluding interest and dividends on investments already
in accounts. Fund flows also reflected $1.8 billion of U.S.
income tax payments out of accounts.

The net additions mark at least the eighth straight quarter
of positive in-flows at UBS.

Overall client assets slipped 2 percent to $838 billion,
though, reflecting falling stock prices during a period of
renewed worries about the outlook for the U.S. economy and
Europe’s debt crisis.

Still, UBS said annualized average broker production had
risen 1 percent to $905,000 from the first quarter, while client
assets per adviser slipped by $1 million to $114 million. Bank
of America Corp’s Merrill Lynch, by comparison, reported
average production had fallen 5 percent to $915,000 in the
second quarter.

UBS realized $63 million of gains during the quarter from
selling U.S. Treasuries and government agency securities to
rebalance an investment portfolio associated with the firm’s
Utah-based bank unit.

Operating expenses rose 3 percent to $1.38 billion, fueled
by higher broker pay and the lingering cost of recruiting.

Shares of LPL, the largest U.S. independent brokerage, were
down 13 percent in midday trade on the Nasdaq. They slid as much
as 25 percent earlier, hitting their lowest since September.

Boston-based LPL said net income fell to $39.5 million, or
35 cents a share, for the quarter that ended June 30, from $45.5
million, or 40 cents s share, a year earlier. Excluding certain
charges and other adjustments, LPL earned 49 cents a share.

Analysts on average had forecast much higher earnings of 56
cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

“Underperformance was driven entirely by higher than
estimated expenses,” said Sandler O’Neill analyst Devin Ryan in
a client note. “Revenues and the production ratio were right in
line with our expectations.”

LPL said net revenue for the quarter rose 1.5 percent to
$907.8 million, slightly exceeding expectations of $913.6
million, even as choppy markets reduced investors’ confidence.

Commission revenue in the quarter fell 2.7 percent from the
year-ago period, though overall revenue rose due to the addition
of new brokers and increased advisory fee income. LPL declared
its first quarterly cash dividend of 12 cents a share.

“Investors are exhibiting more cautious behavior in light of
the uncertain market conditions, which manifests itself in lower
investment activity and reduced trading,” LPL Chief Executive
Mark Casady said in a statement.

LPL sells technology, clearing and other services to
self-employed brokers, who retain the lion’s share of the fees
and commissions they generate but pay their own overhead
expenses. LPL and other independent brokerages have grown in
recent years as thousands of advisers have left traditional
brokers and banks to form their own practices.

During the second quarter, LPL increased its ranks of
advisers by 223 to 13,185 by the end of June. Client assets in
fee-based advisory programs rose almost 8 percent to $111.4
billion, while overall client assets at the brokerage rose 3.6
percent to $353 billion.

But expenses rose at a faster pace, reflecting LPL’s recent
acquisitions, expansion of its retirement services and launch of
a new mass-market business. LPL executives said they are
pursuing steps, such as outsourcing, to cut expenses that have
risen as the company supports larger, more complex practices.

President Robert Moore stressed that LPL is making
acquisitions and investments to boost growth later. This year
LPL paid about $38 million to buy Fortigent LLC, a firm that
provides investment management and consulting service to
advisers who serve high net-worth people.

He declined to comment on LPL’s sinking stock price. “We
will deal with the volatility that happens in our business and
that happens in our share price. Those are transitory things; We
are here to make sure we have sustainable growth,” Moore said in
a brief telephone interview.

The company also launched a mass-market financial planning
business, NestWise, that began with the takeover this month of a
small firm called Veritat Advisors.

Moore said these takeovers and expansion efforts will reduce
earnings by 3 to 5 cents a share in each of the next two
quarters. NestWise, moreover, is not expected to break even
until 2014. LPL said.

Matthew Celenza and Lawrence DiGioia, who joined Merrill
earlier this month, had joined Britain’s Barclays PLC
in March after about 11 years at Morgan Stanley and predecessor
firm Smith Barney. At the time, the duo was part of Barclay’s
broader expansion in the Los Angeles area.

Celenza and DiGioia generated $4.4 million of revenue in the
past 12 months with clients holding $789.5 million in assets at
the firm. Also joining are team members Linda Hayes, Andrea
Shieh and Shannon Walker.

Barclays Wealth Management has for the past two years been
on a hiring spree, adding hundreds of high net worth advisers to
build on a business it acquired from the bankrupt Lehman
Brothers in 2008.

But the British bank’s reputation has taken a hit in recent
weeks over its involvement in a scandal surrounding the
manipulation of Libor, a key benchmark interest rate for the
financial markets.

Merrill, a unit of Bank of America, has been ramping
up its own recruiting efforts after suffering a string of
departures this year. At least 110 veteran advisers, managing
more than $21 billion in client assets, left the brokerage in
the first seven months of 2012, according to moves tracked by
Reuters.

Last week, Merrill said it had hired seven advisers from
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in late May and June, advisers who
together managed more than $559 million in client assets.

UBS said the brokerage generated $211 million in quarterly
pretax profit as revenue rose 5 percent to $1.59 billion from a
year earlier. Increases in management fees offset lower
commissions, as client trading activity slowed, and a decline in
net interest income.

Operating expenses rose 3 percent to $1.38 billion at UBS
Wealth Management Americas, fueled by higher broker compensation
and the lingering impact of recruiting bonuses. Nonbroker
compensation and other general expenses fell.

The ranks of UBS brokers have been expanding in the past
year after being gutted in 2008 and 2009 by departures triggered
by the bank’s financial crisis losses and by several regulatory
setbacks. During the second quarter, they rose by just six
advisers to 7,021 from the end of March, but were up 2 percent
from 6,862 a year earlier.

Customers added $3.8 billion of net new money during the
quarter, excluding interest and dividends on investments already
in accounts. Overall client assets slipped 2 percent to $838
billion, though, reflecting falling stock prices during a period
of renewed worries about the outlook for the U.S. economy and
Europe’s debt crisis.

Still, UBS said annualized average broker production had
risen 1 percent to $905,000 from the first quarter, while client
assets per adviser slipped by $1 million to $114 million. Bank
of America Corp’s Merrill Lynch, by comparison, reported
average production had fallen 5 percent to $915,000 in the
second quarter.

UBS realized $63 million of gains during the quarter from
selling securities to rebalance its own investment portfolio.

The Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokerage, the largest in the United States with nearly 17,000 financial advisers, will have four regional managers reporting to three divisions led by Richard Skae in the Northeast, Arnold “Bill” McMahon in the Midwest and South, and Douglas Kentfield in the West.

A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said Monday the changes “create a more effective and efficient regional structure.” The four managers affected by the realignment, who were not identified by the company, will be offered other management jobs.

Morgan Stanley is trying to cut costs as it faces pressure to boost the performance of a business that has generated lower-than-expected results since Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) combined their brokerage businesses in 2009 to create Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

The joint venture cut the number of regions to 16 from 19 in December.

Morgan Stanley’s profit margin in wealth management improved to 12 percent from 11 percent in the second quarter, but still fell short of its reduced “mid-teens” percent target.

(Reporting by Joseph A. Giannone; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Leto, a former chief administrative officer for Citigroup Inc’s private bank, joined Standard Chartered in 2009 to repair and expand a high-net-worth business spanning the United States and Latin America. Standard Chartered sold its Americas private bank to Banco Santander earlier this year, and Leto departed in March.

As head of TD Bank’s wealth business in the New York metropolitan area, Leto will be responsible for getting investment management, estate-planning and other wealth advisory business from millionaire clients from the company’s commercial and consumer bank, he said.

TD Bank’s U.S. franchise stretches from Washington, D.C., to Maine, and has offices in Florida.

Leto estimates the New York area, including parts of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, is home to as many as 700,000 millionaire households. TD’s high-net-worth business seeks households with $1 million to $10 million.

The New York area is already crowded with well-established brokerages, private banks and wealth boutiques. But Leto believes TD still has an opportunity to build a sizeable presence partly because Canadian banks weathered the financial crisis better than their American counterparts.

“The world has changed in the past five years, and the faith placed by investors in the financial services industry has changed,” Leto said.

TD does not disclose results or asset figures for its U.S. wealth business. It told investors in April that its 8 million U.S. bank clients collectively held about $950 billion of wealth, concentrated among people with $1 million or more to invest.

The bank estimates it has wealth management relationships with 3 percent of its customers who have more than $100,000 to invest. It has about 300 advisers and other employees in the United States focused on wealth management.

There is some potential for conflict between TD’s new U.S. wealth effort and the advisory business of TD Ameritrade, the online brokerage in which TD owns a 45 percent stake. TD Bank in the United States refers clients with $250,000 to $1 million to the affiliated company.

But Ameritrade also sells custody and other services to about 4,000 independent investment advisers, many catering to the same millionaire market now pursued by TD Bank.

“We are two separate companies with different client offerings, pursuing our own strategies,” Ameritrade spokeswoman Kristin Petrick said. “In terms of interaction between the two companies, nothing has changed.”

(Reporting by Joseph A. Giannone; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Wealth managers to the rich are telling clients who are
considering selling a family business, they’d better act fast.
Capital gains taxes will rise to as high as 25 percent from 15
percent if Congress does not extend cuts set to expire Dec. 31.
The cuts were enacted under President George W. Bush in 2001.

Some people earning more than $200,000 a year also face a
3.8 percent Medicare surcharge on investment income.

As a further incentive to sell, companies and private-equity
buyers have piles of cash and financing for deals is widely
available, investment bankers say, driving valuations for some
sectors to their highest since 2008.

But owners starting the sales process now may find there is
not enough time. Others may choose to keep businesses in the
family for personal reasons that outweigh the possibility of a
bigger tax bill later.

“The vast majority of companies are deciding they’re not
going to sell,” said Cascadia Capital LLC managing director
Christian Schiller, who advises family-owned companies for the
Seattle investment bank. “Family companies are driven by a
number of legacy issues, and taxes are one of the smallest.”

Even so, some wealth advisers, who benefit from sales that
generate windfalls of cash to invest, are warning clients about
the perils of waiting.

Northern Trust Co, one of largest providers of
estate and investment advice to multi-millionaires, says a
family selling a $70 million business on Dec. 31 would pay $10.5
million in gains taxes. On Jan. 1, that tax bill could jump to
as much as $20.2 million.

“That’s real money,” said Mary Ann Cisco, head of client
solutions at Northern Trust’s wealth management division.

OBSTACLES

The biggest obstacle to getting a business sold by the end
of the year: time. Examining the books of a business for sale
and drumming up cash can take prospective buyers six months.

“Unless you’re already on the sales block, you’re probably
out of luck,” said Holly Isdale, a former Lehman Brothers and
Bessemer Trust adviser who formed Wealthaven LLC in 2010 to
counsel ultra-rich families on estate and tax planning.

Many non-financial issues can also scuttle deals. Parents
and grandparents, for example, may become emotionally invested
in a company and see their business as a legacy they want to
pass on to heirs.

“People say ‘I’ve given my life to this company. How can I
put a dollar sign on it?’,” said Dennis Jaffe, a professor at
Saybrook University in San Francisco.

Jaffe, who also runs a consulting business that advises
wealthy families, said many families struggle with cutting ties.
In some cases, families inflate their asking price, deterring
serious buyers.

There are external factors, too. Choppy markets, continuing
weakness in the U.S economy and other storm clouds may derail
deals. Robert W. Baird investment banker Howard Lanser said
worries about Europe’s debt crisis last month briefly put some
deals on hold.

What’s more, valuations for smaller companies — those under
$100 million — or those in more cyclical businesses, have not
yet fully recovered. Owners in these cases are more inclined to
hold on, bankers said.

Some owners will conclude they will be better off keeping
their business as a vehicle for building new wealth as well as
generating income.

“There’s a back-to-basics movement in wealth management,”
said Mindy Rosenthal, a managing director of Campden Wealth, a
global ultra-rich family networking group. “You’re not going to
create or re-create your wealth by playing the markets.”

Private companies have been more attractive as investments
while stocks are volatile and yields are thin, she said.

But, there’s “no clear consensus on what families will do,”
said Bryant Seaman, head of Bessemer Trust’s private asset
advisory group. “There are also questions about whether the Bush
tax cuts will be extended.”

On July 9, President Barack Obama proposed maintaining the
reduced tax rates one more year for families earning less than
$250,000 a year. Tax cuts for wealthy families would expire.

Democrats in the Senate on Wednesday won passage of a bill
that renewed tax cuts for most Americans, while letting rates
rise for the wealthiest, but the vote was considered symbolic
because the legislation is expected to be rejected by the
Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Republicans, who hope to take the White House this November,
support extending tax cuts for wealthy taxpayers as well.

Two years ago, just weeks before the Bush tax package was
originally set to expire, Obama extended the cuts.

DEAL ACTIVITY

Despite the obstacles, bankers and wealth advisers say
families are heeding their warnings about higher taxes. Bankers
say they saw a spike in business owners engaging their services
in April and May.

But many families are moving slowly. As a result, deals may
come at the end of the year,, bankers said, echoing what
happened in 2010 when the Bush tax package was first expected to
expire.

Excluding sales by private equity firms or divestitures,
there were $54 billion of private company deals in the first
half of this year, down 3.6 percent from the same period last
year, according to research firm Dealogic and Baird. However,
the number of these deals rose 17 percent to 3,236 in the first
half, the data showed.

Many families may compromise and decide to play it halfway
by selling a minority stake of their company to private-equity
investment firms. Such partial sales would let families realize
gains at low tax rates and, in some cases, continue to operate
the business.

Family companies can be attractive to such firms because
they tend to have little debt.

“There’s tremendous interest from private equity,” said
Steve Burt, head of the merger advisory business at Duff &
Phelps, which specializes in deals up to $500 million.
“I’d love to be in the wealth management business at the end of
this year: there’s going to be a lot of liquidity to manage.”

Pulte, the nation’s second largest home builder, said new
orders jumped 32 percent to 5,578 units in the second quarter.

New home orders are a bellwether for builders, and analysts
view it as an indicator of the housing market’s momentum.

Net income topped expectations by 6 cents per share while
revenue jumped 15 percent in the quarter.

“With each passing quarter, we grow more confident that new
home demand has found its footing and is moving along a path
toward a gradual recovery,” said Pulte Chief Executive Richard
Dugas Jr.

Pulte’s shares were up 14 percent to $11.43 on the Nasdaq in
morning trading.

Over the past year, the shares have risen 60 percent,
mirroring an industrywide rally that has the sector on track for
its best year ever. The Standard & Poor’s homebuilder index
is up 42 percent this year.

Last month, Pulte’s biggest rival, Lennar Corp also
reported a rise in new orders for a fifth straight quarter.

Pulte CEO Dugas attributed the surge in new sales in large
part to one thing: the artificially low inventory of the kinds
of homes that consumers want to buy versus those that are in
distressed conditions or in the wrong locations.

“We are still selling a preposterously low number of homes
relative to historical trends,” Dugas said on an earnings call
with Wall Street analysts.

Interest rates, which have been falling for years, have
never been this low for this long. The current rate on a
30-year, fixed mortgage is at a record low of 3.55 percent.

The strong results are markedly different from the
hand-to-mouth environment in the company’s recent past. Pulte
posted losses in six of the last eight quarters.

The company has been re-engineering construction processes
to build homes more quickly and cheaply.

It has also boosted margins by moving away from homes loaded
with lots of built-in options, and instead enabling consumers to
personalize homes.

Pulte has also focused on capturing more “move-up” buyers, a
more profitable demographic for whom financing is often easier
to secure than for first-time home buyers.

Sales to those looking to trade up to new homes enabled the
company to increase its home prices by 8 percent, to an average
$268,000.

Still, Pulte’s results came at a time when the housing
market’s performance has been anything but linear, struggling in
stop-and-go fashion to gain sustained strength.

This week saw yet another batch of seemingly contradictory
reports.

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new U.S.
home sales tumbled in June to their lowest level in more than a
year and prices resumed their downward slide.

Applications for loans to buy new homes have also fallen.

On the other hand, U.S. home builder sentiment surged in
July to notch its biggest jump in nearly a decade, the National
Association of Home Builders said last week.

Many analysts say the worst housing slump since the Great
Depression is over. But a minority of them caution that the
housing market is still at risk of moving sideways, or
stumbling, for years to come.

They point to structural shifts that will weigh heavily on
the market for the indefinite future, including record levels of
student debt, 15 years of flat incomes nearly one-half of
homeowners effectively being stranded in their homes either
having negative equity or less than the 20 percent equity
required to move in to a new residence.

To help counter those pressures and lure more first-time
buyers, Pulte notes it is now cheaper to own than it is to rent
in virtually every major city.

It is using a marketing campaign to convince renters who
don’t think they can afford to own, that they actually can.

In markets like San Antonio, Pulte introduced a $100,000
starter home, whose all-in payment of $775 a month is
specifically designed to undercut nearby rental rates.

Dugas cautioned that in order for the housing market’s
stability to continue through the second half of this year, a
stronger economy is needed.

“For housing to take a big leg up, we are going to need job
growth,” Dugas said.

Pulte posted second-quarter net income of $42 million, or 11
cents per share, compared with a net loss of $55 million, or 15
cents per share, a year ago.

Revenue jumped about 15 percent to $1.07 billion.

Analysts expected a profit of 5 cents per share on revenue
of $1.11 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Michelle Conlin and A. Ananthalakshmi; editing by Alden
Bentley and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Pulte, the nation’s second-largest homebuilder, said it saw
new orders jump 32 percent to 5,578 units in the second quarter.

New home orders are a bellwether for builders. Analysts
consider the metric an indicator of the housing market’s
momentum.

“With each passing quarter, we grow more confident that new
home demand has found its footing and is moving along a path
toward a gradual recovery,” said Pulte Chief Executive Richard
Dugas Jr.

Pulte’s shares have risen 60 percent in the past year,
mirroring an industry-wide rally that has put the homebuilders
on their way towards having their best year ever. The Standard &
Poor’s homebuilder index is up 42 percent this year.

Last month, Pulte’s biggest rival, Lennar Corp also
reported a rise in new orders for a fifth straight quarter.

Pulte, which has had losses in six of the last eight
quarters, has been on a cost-cutting campaign, reengineering
construction practices down to the joists and studs to reduce
spending.

It has also benefited from capturing more “move-up” buyers,
a group for whom financing is often easier to secure than for
first-time home buyers.

Sales to those looking to trade up to new homes enabled the
company to increase its prices by eight percent, to an average
$268,000.

Still, Pulte’s results come at a time when the housing
market’s performance has been anything but linear.

The market has struggled, in stop-and-go fashion, to gain
sustained strength. This week saw yet another batch of seemingly
contradictory reports.

In June, the Commerce Dept. reported that new U.S. home
sales tumbled to their lowest level in more than a year and
prices resumed their downward slide.

Applications for loans to buy new homes have also fallen.

On the other hand, U.S. homebuilder sentiment surged in
July to notch its biggest jump in nearly a decade, the National
Association of Home Builders said last week.

Many analysts have called the worst housing depression since
the Great Depression over. But a minority cohort has cautioned
that the housing market is still at risk of moving sideways, or
stumbling, for years to come.

They point to structural shifts that will weigh heavily on
the market for the indefinite future, including record levels of
student debt, 15 years of flat incomes and the fact that nearly
half of homeowners are effectively stranded in their houses
either having negative equity or less than the 20 percent equity
required to move in to a new home.

To help counter those pressures, Pulte is leveraging the
fact that it is now cheaper to own than it is to rent in
virtually every major city.

It has deployed a marketing campaign to convince renters who
don’t think they can afford to own that they actually can.

In markets like San Antonio, Pulte introduced a new,
$100,000 starter home, whose all-in payment of $775 a month is
specifically designed to undercut nearby rental rates.

Pulte posted a second-quarter net income of $42 million, or
11 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $55 million, or
15 cents per share, a year ago.

Revenue, for the quarter ended June 30, jumped about 15
percent to $1.07 billion.

Analysts expected a profit of 5 cents per share on revenue
of $1.11 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

LPL, the largest U.S. independent brokerage network with
about 13,000 advisers, on Wednesday reduced the minimum needed
to invest in its “model wealth portfolios” program to $25,000
from $100,000. The change makes LPL among the lowest minimums in
the business and half the amount required for similar programs
at rivals like Fidelity.

The Boston-based company also added strategies from three
new firms: J.P. Morgan Asset Management, AlphaSimplex
Group and Morningstar.

Most mutual fund advisory programs usually require $25,000
to $50,000, though some charge as much as $100,000, according to
research firm Cerulli Associates. A total net fee of 2 percent
is typical among brokerages.

Managed portfolios are a fast-growing corner of the wealth
management business, industry analysts say. They let investors
buy a package of funds that pursue a certain strategy – emerging
markets growth, absolute return or tax efficiency, for example -
at lower cost than for customized money management programs.

Investors incur another layer of fees for these programs,
and analysts say managed portfolios overall have underperformed
the market in recent years.

The cost to investors varies. LPL says total fees, including
advisory and program fees, paid by its customers can range as
high as 2 percent of money under management, but that most
investors pay between 1.25 to 1.5 percent, said John Moninger,
LPL’s head of advisory and brokerage consulting.

Still, brokerages across the industry are expanding their
sales of model portfolios because they centralize investment
selection – not all advisers are expert stock-pickers – and free
up brokers to spend more time expanding their practices.

“Broker-dealers see value from a compliance standpoint -
they have more control over investments,” Cerulli analyst
Patrick Newcomb said, noting it also lets advisers find new
clients and provide more financial advice.

Cerulli data shows packaged portfolio programs have been
growing rapidly throughout the industry. Mutual fund advisory
programs have grown to $660 billion in assets at the end of 2011
from $393 billion at the end of 2008, of which packaged
portfolios grew their share to 50 percent from 37 percent.

It is not immediately clear, however, if these programs have
been fruitful for investors. LPL could not immediately provide
performance figures for clients in its model portfolio program.

Cerulli, a research firm that tracks the money management
industry, said a recent industry-wide study of these programs
showed managed portfolios on average generated returns of 10
percent in 2010 and 2011. That lagged a 13 percent rise in the
benchmark S&P 500 Index of large U.S. companies.

Some portfolios, to be sure, focus on capital preservation
and other more conservative strategies.

Wall Street brokerages have for decades offered fee-based
money management programs, such as separate accounts, unified
managed accounts and programs where the broker manages
investments. Total assets for fee-based managed accounts reached
$2.55 trillion last year, up from $1.39 trillion in 2008.

But firms require greater wealth to participate in these
plans. Unified managed account’s typically require $250,000,
while separately managed equities accounts usually require
$100,000.

A more recent innovation has been offering menus of
standardized, centrally managed funds that are affordable to
more investors. The explosive growth of exchange traded funds,
which let investors place bets on different assets and sectors,
have made it easier to construct portfolios along certain
investment themes.

Like other brokerages, LPL wants to expand advisory programs
that generate steady fees. Since it began in February 2008, the
model wealth portfolio program has attracted $8.7 billion in
assets – a small slice of the $110.8 billion LPL had under
various fee-based programs at the end of March.

About one in four LPL brokers use the platform, but Moninger
expects lower minimums will increase participation.

“We had many advisers tell us they liked the program, but
wished they could offer it to more clients,” he said.

LPL’s program pales in size against rivals. Fidelity’s
portfolio advisory service, which requires $50,000 and charges a
net advisory fee of up to 1.7 percent, has attracted $93
billion.

Edward Jones’ advisory solutions program, which also
requires $50,000, has grown to $74 billion since 2008.