LPL sniffing around Philly broker-dealer: Report

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. is kicking the tires on the advisers and wealth management assets of Boenning & Scattergood Inc., a Philadelphia area brokerage firm, according to a report Friday in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Citing industry sources, the report said Boenning & Scattergood, which was founded in 1914, had reached the goal line of an expected restructuring and potentially spinoff of various business lines, including wealth management.

But the deal had yet to close as of last Thursday, the firm’s chairman and CEO, Harold F. Scattergood Jr., told staff at a noontime gathering, according to the report, which cited two people close to the company for that detail. The firm is based in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia.

With more than 20,000 affiliated financial advisers, LPL Financial has been an adviser and broker-dealer acquisition machine.

The firm reported this winter that it recruited advisers with $89 billion in assets last year, more than double the amount — $42 billion — in the prior year. Also last year, LPL continued its spate of acquisitions of broker-dealers and wealth management firms, and closed the purchase of the wealth management business of Waddell & Reed Financial Inc., paying $300 million for 70% of Waddell & Reed’s 921 advisers.

A spokesperson for LPL did not return calls to comment. A spokesperson for Boenning & Scattergood did not comment.

Boenning & Scattergood’s registered investment adviser, 1914 Advisors, has about $1.2 billion in client assets, according to its Form ADV. It’s not clear how many financial advisers and brokers are under its roof, but the firm offers a range of services, including investment banking, public finance and municipal trading, areas that LPL hasn’t shown any interest in in the past.

According to the article, Scattergood said the firm’s RIA and brokerage arm together have about $5 billion in assets and would continue to bear the Boenning & Scattergood name.