LPL Financial Acquires Minority Stake in Private Advisor Group

LPL Financial LPLA has taken a minority ownership stake in Private Advisor Group, a leading financial services firm. This will further strengthen its registered investment adviser (RIA) relationships and expand its advisor base.

The agreement was signed and became effective on Nov. 18, 2025. The terms of the agreement remained undisclosed. Private Advisor Group will continue to function independently under the existing brand.

Rationale Behind LPLA’s Move

Powered by an advisor-first mindset, Private Advisor Group has been expanding its capabilities and resources for its growing community. Since partnering with Merchant in 2021, the firm has made significant investments across people, processes and technology, including initiatives such as the Alignment & Equity Program, the WealthSuite investment platform, and Greenhouse, advancements that have supported innovation and accelerated asset growth.

The investment will allow LPL Financial to deepen its strategic alignment with one of its largest RIA partners while expanding the resources it can offer to advisors. By enhancing support in areas such as practice management, technology enablement and succession planning, the company aims to help advisors build more resilient and scalable businesses over the long term.

The minority stake strengthens LPLA’s influence within Private Advisor Group’s growing platform, positioning it to capture greater advisor engagement, drive higher asset flows and reinforce its competitive standing in the independent advisor channel.

Additionally, closer alignment with Private Advisor Group gives LPLA access to a fast-growing advisor base and rising asset flows, enabling improved long-term revenue visibility and incremental assets under management growth.

Marc Cohen, group managing director & chief growth officer at LPL Financial, stated, “We are excited to strategically deepen our relationship with Private Advisor Group, which has been built over nearly 30 years on the shared value of driving advisors’ success. This alignment will allow us to better deliver solutions to support advisors throughout their business lifecycle.”

LPL Financial’s Price Performance & Zacks Rank

In the past six months, shares of LPL Financial have declined 5.7%,against the industry's growth of 18.7%.

At present, LPLA carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Strategic Acquisitions by Other Finance Firms

Last week, State Street Corp. STT acquired its long-standing partner, PriceStats, a top provider of daily global inflation data generated from digitally collected prices on millions of consumer products.

PriceStats will be integrated into State Street Data Intelligence, which delivers proprietary data and insights to help clients make more informed investment decisions. The platform also includes State Street Private Capital Indices, a set of benchmarks and analytics built on more than $6 trillion in proprietary private equity and private credit data, supporting the construction and benchmarking of related portfolios.

Similarly, Charles Schwab SCHW agreed to acquire Forge Global Holdings, Inc. FRGE on Nov. 6. The all-cash transaction is valued at roughly $660 million.

This addition of direct access to private securities through Forge Global builds on the recently launched Schwab Alternative Investments Select, an alternative investments platform available for retail clients with more than $5 million in household assets at Schwab. This move aims to capitalize on the sustained momentum in private markets, given the rising investor demand for early exposure to fast-growing startups to achieve greater returns and portfolio diversification.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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