LPL Financial fielded several questions on its first-quarter earnings call about the impact of artificial intelligence on its business model, following news in early February of a selloff in traditional wealth management stocks, including LPL Financial. Many attributed the selloff to the launch of Altruist’s AI tax planning tool. 

Year-to-date through April 30, LPL shares are down 6.4%; shares declined about 6% during the first quarter. 

CEO Rich Steinmeier said the firm is investing in AI tools and technology to support advisors, not replace them. He said there’s an opportunity for advisors to serve more clients with deeper personalized advice with AI. 

“You see the opportunity there for a significant enhancement in the delivery of the EQ element of the advisor experience, while you see a commoditization of some of the IQ elements, that being portfolio construction, risk remediation, etc., but with a personalization opportunity that is dramatically enhanced. We are running headlong into those enhancements through AI that prop the advisor up,” he said. 

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The firm’s investment in the technology falls into three buckets: those that directly help the advisor, such as notetaking and proposal generation tools; those that help with processing transactions; and those that improve the firm’s coding and development.

“The integration of those capabilities is incredibly important in driving efficiency through the advisor’s practice,” he said. “We marry that with our ability and responsibility to protect our cyber environment through the deployment of AI and enhancement of our controls and governance systems and strengthening our own defenses through AI, like reducing the time required to identify and address emerging risks and an increasingly AI-driven threat environment. When you take that together, we feel like this is an extension and continuation of our strategy and not a marked change.” 

In late February, LPL announced an expanded relationship with Anthropic, the creator of Claude, to work on AI integrations for its more than 30,000 financial advisors. LPL announced the partnership on the same day Anthropic leadership reported it had expanded Claude AI “plug-ins” for wealth managers, investment bankers, equity research and private equity firms. 

The firm also addressed the recent acquisition of Commonwealth Financial Network, closed last summer, which it has been working to integrate. As of today, LPL has retained Commonwealth assets in the mid-80% range, and they’re on track to retain 90% of assets.

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LPL had to lower the estimated EBITDA benefit from Commonwealth from $425 million to $410 million, which CFO Matt Audette attributed to market conditions. There are no changes to expected synergies from the deal. 

Steinmeier said on the earnings call that the firm is developing a comprehensive case management program that will change how LPL routes work and communicates progress to its advisors. 

“The modernized platform will connect advisors’ offices to critical systems from relationship management, to service, to operations, to product experience functions, helping ensure greater continuity, consistency, and follow-through across every step of the advisor experience,” he said.

LPL reported $17 billion in recruited assets during the first quarter, down 55% from $38.6 billion during the year-ago period, which was prior to the Commonwealth Financial Network acquisition. But that’s improved from the fourth quarter of 2025, with recruited assets of $14.5 billion. 

The firm has recruited a total of $83 billion in new assets over the last four quarters. The first quarter recruiting included $15 billion in its traditional independent channel and $2 billion in its newer affiliation models. 

LPL is on track to complete the conversion of Commonwealth in the fourth quarter of 2026, and as it approaches that conversion, the firm’s recruiters will return to their organic recruiting efforts. 

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Advisor headcount ended the quarter at 32,144, about flat from the previous quarter.

Overall, the firm reported adjusted earnings per share of $5.60, up 9% year over year, beating analysts’ expectations by 13 cents, according to Seeking Alpha. Revenue was $4.94 billion, up 34.6% year-over-year, missing by $60 million. 

Total client assets were $2.3 trillion, up 30% year-over-year and down 1% sequentially. The firm reported total organic net new assets of $21 billion, up 4% on an annualized basis. That’s down slightly from $22.5 billion in the fourth quarter.