LPL Financial

I thought I'd try LPL. Not knowing much about them, I assumed they knew a whole lot more about investing than me. Was I wrong. The past year my Fidelity investments (managed by me, someone who knows little of investing) had a loss of only about a third of my "professionally managed" investments by LPL. If I had to do it over again, I would have not used them. They don't know any more than me.

LPL Financial is a platform for independent advisors. Every advisor runs their own practice under LPL as a custodian. Therefore, it is given that different clients will have different experiences with different advisors as each has their own practice. Last year, LPL made some acquisitions where they transferred the advisors of the acquired company as "employees" so their model is a mix of independent and employee advisors but if you hire an independent advisor, make sure you like the advisor and that he follows industry standards of integrity and suitability and has a prudent investment process.

These people are the worst! I wish I could give negative stars. I have been getting the runaround for a year. This is the third of my deceased mother's accounts that I have inherited and the only one that I have had to jump through hoop after hoop after hoop. Also, their customer service is a joke. When you do get a call back number ( such as in an email), they leave out the last digit of the number so that it is impossible to reach them. Also, I have sent the requested paper work to them 8 times and have had my financial advisor also email and fax it. Yet each time I speak with them, they tell me there is no record of the paperwork on file. Funny that they were able to set up an account, complete with account number, with account level amounts, but when I call I get told there is nothing in this account and, you guessed it, they still need the same paperwork I have already sent in ( by email and fax). Avoid at all costs!

Disjointed, technologically archaic, dishonest, self-interested. Those are the adjectives I'd use to describe LPL and its financial advisors. Without going over the entire mess of a story I'll just tell you that over the last 2 years they have made almost no trades on my family members' stocks losing them over $600,000 when the pandemic started, they have ignored phone calls, they have accused a durable poa of stealing money and demanding receipts for all dollars spent even after the account holder themselves called LPL and told them to back off because they had full durable POA, they have lied, they have manipulated, and they are only interested in maintaining people's assets so they can ride on their fees for doing almost nothing at all. I can't wait to get the account closed and the assets moved to Schwab or some other institution that doesn't have their heads up their rears.

So I have an account with LPL, a rollover IRA. (I will no longer have this account in a week or so) I have been with them for a couple of years. Almost a year ago, my new financial people put in a request to transfer my LPL money into a new account with my new company. Ignored. They sent in multiple requests and it was completely ignored. We finally called on 4/7/2022 with my new financial advisor. They told us that I was supposed to talk with a trade team or something like that the entire time to get it liquidated first and no one ever told me. When I asked why I was never told, the guy on the phone told me that an advisor should have told me, but I apparently did not have an advisor the entire time. So I have been sitting on this transfer attempt for almost a year, where the amount in my account has almost halved since my original transfer request. I am beyond livid and want the entire world to know that LPL sucks and that no one should ever use them.

It has been a very annoying year and I am appalled that this guy admitted to me that no one ever contacted me because I don't have an advisor. Like, why did I not have an advisor? I thought every account has one? The guy on the phone told me that if a client does not have an advisor than no one is watching the account or anything. So not only have I not been getting any advice, but this company was essentially not doing anything with this account mindfully and watching to make sure what was happening was good. They do not care about their clients at all.

LPL is one of the worst financial companies out there! I was told by my financial advisor Chuck Stewart to take my mutuals and stocks and go to another company as he had more important clients to deal with. He then told me there would be no fees to withdraw/transfer my money. Well guess what... after 2 $60 no activity fees charged they then charged $125 to transfer my accounts out of there company! Go to ETRADE!! They are much better with no fees and excellent customer service!

DO NOT do business with LPL. I am currently going through a real headache with LPL, which acquired Waddell & Reed several months ago. My 91-year-old mom's IRA and her trust account was with W&R, and since my mom has had worsening dementia in recent years, I submitted power of attorney documents about five years ago when the funds were with W&R. I set up her Required Minimum Distributions for her IRA, set up direct deposits to her family trust account at the bank and also drew on my late dad's IRA to help pay for his medical costs during the last months of his life. When LPL acquired Waddell & Reed several months ago, I naturally assumed that all documentation verifying my Power of Attorney authorization and my status as a trustee for my mom's family trust had transferred with the investment accounts to LPL. However, last week I was shocked to learn that LPL has no record of me having Power of Attorney for my mom, nor did they have any documentation for my authority as a trustee for my mom's family trust. LPL merely says it is Waddell & Reed's fault that the records for the accounts somehow did not transfer to the LPL database, but I pointed out to them that is no excuse, they bought Waddell & Reed and they own the mistake. They have made no effort to locate the missing records. W&R and LPL are now one and the same, but the way LPL staff see it, the blame rests with the company they swallowed up. Adding to the screw-up, LPL required me to re-submit all of the Power of Attorney documents (the same ones that W&R accepted years ago) but has now informed me that the POA is "not in good order" and it appears they are rejecting it. No details about why, only that they consider it "not in good order." If LPL had not lost our legal documentation that was previously in force and on file with W&R, I would not be going through this problem. The transfer of my mom's financial accounts and related records from W&R to LPL was incomplete, and it was botched by LPL. To not accept responsibility nor even try to find the missing records indicates that LPL is only concerned with profits and is not customer-oriented. Beware of LPL Financial.

Horrible. Stay far away from this company. I had a cash balance of several thousand, and called to get a check for the amount. When I called I was told, no, it is being re-invested. Reinvested?? Why do I have precisely the same number of shares as I did when I opened the account?? I kept telling him it was cash and to his credit he kept saying "nope". I had to talk to three agents before they would agree to send a check, after I insisted (and after they went on hold to speak with a manager). Clearly, they tell all agents to deny customers any cash balance on their accounts - they like free money.
Unbelievable.