### Introduction and Welcome
Hi everyone and welcome to this wealth management fast chat. I'm Shan Rossi, director of content solutions, and I'm joined today by Sarrod Tomlinson, senior vice president, divisional director at LPL Financial, and we're going to unpack why more top warehouse advisors are taking a closer look at independence, what supported independence really means in practice, and how LPL's independent advisor network is helping advisers make that transition with the right mix of flexibility, resources, and community. So, Srod, thank you so much for being here and joining me. Thanks, Shen. It's a pleasure and a privilege to be able to tell the Independent Advisor Network story. So, thank you. Absolutely. But before we even get to that, if you wouldn't mind, just tell us a little bit about yourself, your role at LPL Financial, and what drew you to LPL.

### Career Background and LPL Culture
Sure. Um, so I've worked my whole career in wealth management and either as an adviser or supporting wealth management teams and adviserss. And so, uh, I've had the privilege to work at some really great firms, build a couple of books, um, but it was always in a captive environment, um, major some of the big investment banks on Wall Street. And so, uh, having the opportunity to come to LPL, I've been at LPL about a year now. Um, and I will tell you this, it is the most adviser-driven firm that I've ever worked for. Um we um I think every firm will say that their advisers are their clients, but we actually operate like that on a daily basis. Um it's been inspiring to have a firm with leadership that is operating in in the mindset that I've worked my whole career. Um, and I think it's what allows us to truly deliver for adviserss and it creates a really special environment that's way less about the numbers and more about the experience which ironically leads to great performance as well.

### Understanding Supported Independence
Absolutely. And that's helpful context because a lot of adviserss especially those coming from the warehouse world independence you know can sound exciting but also a bit like a major leap. And and I know one phrase that comes up often in that conversation is around supported independence. So when people are talking about the about LPL's independent advisor network for a wirehouse advisor, what does that phrase actually mean and why does it matter?

Yeah, it's support independence has kind of become a buzzword in the industry. Um and and talk only gets you so far. And so uh for us specifically with the independent advisor network, it comes down to three things. foundationally, it's community. So, do you have a group of like-minded adviserss that are facing the same challenges that you are, uh, that you can talk to on a day-to-day basis, share best practices, um, be a part of a local regional community that has a dedicated coach assigned to that community to help you with strategic business planning. Um, and then there's also like the so there's the strategic component to it and then the tactical side of things on top of community. So if we're thinking community is the foundation, you can be independent but you don't have to be alone. Then next comes the more pragmatic support. So um as an adviser, have you thought about what you want your goals to be? You spend your entire career helping clients and prospects with their with what they want to accomplish, but have you taken a step back and thought about what you want to accomplish with your business as an adviser? So there's that certainly strategic business planning and coaching. Um, and then also making LPL feel more personalized, um, in a way that as an adviser, if you're doing it on your own, you may have to spend a lot of time trying to curate the resources and tools you need for your business. We've got the dedicated LPL employees in each of these regional communities that can do that for you and on your behalf and create shortcuts across LPL. Um, so that's a little bit across the board, community, strategy, and tactics. And um I think that's where supported independence comes to life where it's not just hey yeah you're part of a group. It's you're part of a group and here are the specific ways we're going to help you. The other thing I'll add is we have subject matter experts that are stacked to each of our communities. And that's across financial planning, advisory, consulting, marketing, and succession planning. And it creates a really nice opportunity for the regional coaches to then bring in these subject matter experts to to then go deeper in a specific aspect of an advisor's business. Um, and I'll share that like the experts that we chose, the resources that exist were driven by advisor feedback. These were the items that advisers told us was were most important to them. And we'll continue to monitor and evaluate the offering based on how the needs of our adviserss change. But no matter what, like all of this is done through the lens of helping the adviserss build a better business, create an asset that they can then hopefully one day have a liquidity event and and truly create some enterprise value for themselves and also make it feel like they don't have to go it alone. Because that idea of just not having to build everything from scratch feels especially relevant right now because we're seeing more and more of those high-erforming adviserss kind of question whether their current platform still fits where they want to go next. So I have to ask why are so many warehouse advisers starting to consider a move and why now?

### Why Advisors are Moving to Independence
Yeah, I think uh for a few reasons. one um the first I I think first and foremost it's do they want to have more control over their day-to-day. So if you're in a captive environment in a W2 channel like I I've spent a lot of my career um yes you have the freedom and flexibility to manage your clients like you want but you're kind of stuck in a position where you can only use the preset resources that are available. um you can't like automatically decide that you no longer want to use a certain vendor for your CRM and switch to another. So I think independence presents the idea of some flexibility both from a practice management side but also from a a business management side as an owner operator. You have more control over how you direct your income versus it being all just in a paycheck. you can reinvest more of that into your business and you have that flexibility to um you know hire someone, bring on a junior advisor, potentially add to your tax stack or change your financial planning software. Um you don't have that optionality in a captive environment and so I do think more and more people uh are going to be heading towards independence and it's kind of the wave of the future for wealth management. Um I just had the opportunity to be at a conference last this this week and Lewis Diamond was there as one of our guest speakers. He leads Diamond Consultants. Um they uh noted in their annual transition report that in 2024 about 9,000 adviserss uh switch firms and then in 2025 that increased to over 11,000 which is you know that's a massive jump. That's 16% in one year. and um looking at where those adviserss are moving to more and more each year they're shifting to an independent firm. Um so really does a BC market report uh but on an annual basis and in their 2024 report they noted that like by 2028 like 42% of moves are going to be going towards independence. Um and I think that's probably understated based on how things are progressing uh just year-over-year. So there's going to be a dramatic shift towards like true ownership of your business and what you can create with it and how you can deliver for your clients. Um that was also really important when we created the independent advisor network. We wanted to provide structure framework support for them so they can meet with one of our subject matter experts. They can meet with their regional coach and create a strategic plan but they still have choice in how they want to execute on it. So for us, you get flexibility, support and community.

### The Importance of Community
Well, and to your point, when advisers do make that move, the platform matters. But going back to the point you made earlier, that people side of an aspect of it all and of the experience is equally, if not more important. And I want to talk about something that really sets the independent advisor network apart, which what you mentioned earlier, the community. So tell us what that actually looks like daytoday for an adviser inside the network.

Yeah. And so there's kind of two layers to the community which is great. First you have that local flare of who you're you're working with directly every single day and the adviserss that are part of your region. Um that creates that relationship building opportunity where you can truly get to know some of the teams around you. Learn from them learn from each other share best practices. But then we also have a national layer of support and community. So that national community looks uh it's more it's like a bigger version of the regional community. So we'll do uh like national events throughout the country where it will be cross region and have advisers join from different uh some of the different regions and then you get to build that network even more. And it's very interesting when you meet an adviser in California or you meet an adviser in New York City or someone in the middle of the country. They all may approach their clients a little bit different. They all may have different verbiage that resonates and then people get to get to collect all the the great ideas and and try them and bring them to life. We'll often have conversations that come up organically at these meetings and then at the next meeting we'll hear a great success story. So one example I'll give just to be specific is uh the question of asking your clients for referrals. That's one of the most challenging things adviserss can do. Um, but one of our adviserss met with another one at one of our our uh regional meetings and then uh they got some verbiage. They tried it, came back and said they close a $2 million prospect. Uh, and so like like that's a real life example of how the community aspect of things leads to great outcomes for our adviserss uh and like true business growth for them. Um, and I'll also share that, you know, I think for a lot of advisors out there, yes, it's great to have the features, the bells and whistles of like certain tech stack or certain software that they can deliver for their their end clients, but really what it comes down to it is it's a challenging job. And so having like-minded people around you can make all the difference in the world from an experience of like the advisers's dayto-day. So to answer your question, what does that look like? It it's multifaceted and what will happen is after these advisors meet in person that's when the email chains start and everyone starts engaging outside of the office and outside of our our work environments. They they build their own study groups um and the magic really comes together.

### How to Learn More
Well, that's fantastic and that's that's a great point that you make uh as well. Just I think it's the power of community. It's still very much a human and relationship based business and that is never going to change. But maybe for those adviserss who are not quite ready to make a decision, you know that that first step is often just learning what model could uh you know what the model could ultimately look like for their business, their clients and their team. So for advisers listening who want to explore this independent advisor network further, what is the best way to learn more and take that first step? Yeah. Um, so first before I answer that, I, you know, Rich Steiner, our CEO has said on multiple occasions, our goal as a firm is to be the best firm in wealth management. Um, part of that means us having really creative and unique affiliation models through which advisers, if you're at a wirehouse or you're a part of a bank program and you want to go independent, we've got to have the right levels of support and the spectrum of which you can do that in a way that you feel more comfortable. So from a uh you know starting your own business from scratch that can really challenging and and nerve-wracking endeavor to undertake and be scary. So know that we have teams here at LPL that actually will help end to end with the startup process and that's part of being part of the independent advisor network. So in terms of hurdles we've tried to eliminate most of them. Um but in general if people want to learn more first and foremost I'd highly welcome uh reaching out to me on LinkedIn. I just searched for a name Sraad Tomlinson. Um, I'd love the opportunity to connect. I post regularly on there. So, there's a lot of um LPL and independent advisor network content that that's on my profile. And then you can also go to lpl.com. Um, and uh there's a lot of information on all of our affiliation models, not just the independent advisor network. Um, but we're happy to to help connect the dots. out.

### Closing Remarks
Well, it sounds like then here the big takeaway is that with the right support and platform and community, adviserss can explore a model that gives them more flexibility while surrounding themselves with the resources that like you said they ultimately need to grow. So, Sarrod, thank you so much for joining me and sharing your perspective. Thanks for having me. This is great. Absolutely. Thanks for tuning in to this wealth management fast chat.