LPL Financial Adds Capabilities from Morningstar, Financial Finesse and Wealth Management Systems Inc. to its Worksite Financial Solutions Platform
San Diego, CA - June 27, 2013 - LPL Financial LLC, the nation's largest independent broker-dealer,* a leading RIA custodian, and a wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: LPLA), today announced that it has added key capabilities from Morningstar Associates, LLC. ("Morningstar"), Financial Finesse and Wealth Management Systems Inc. (WMSI) to its recently launched Worksite Financial Solutions retirement planning services platform. With these new capabilities, Worksite Financial Solutions provides a complete end-to-end solution for retirement plan sponsors and advisors, and addresses the needs of retirement plan participants throughout their financial lives.
The Worksite Financial Solutions platform reflects the vision of LPL Financial Retirement Partners, the retirement plan-focused division of LPL Financial, enabling plan sponsors to help their retirement plan participants prepare for the future by promoting their financial well-being through a holistic system of financial education, accessible personalized advice and seamless account transition services.
Bill Chetney, Executive Vice President of LPL Financial Retirement Partners, said, "Through our launch of Worksite Financial Solutions, we are seeking to completely re-invent the world of retirement plan financial advice, in order to counteract the current inadequate and fragmented system of retirement planning prevalent at so many workplaces in America today. We are tremendously excited to work with some of the most outstanding and forward-thinking service providers in the industry, in order to give our nation's workers the tools and resources they need to plan for all stages of their financial lives, including retirement, and to make our vision become a reality."
The new capabilities acquired by the Worksite Financial Solutions platform, and its providers, include:
- Morningstar serves as the technology provider for the Employee Advice Solution, a software platform that allows advisors to provide participants with personalized investment strategies to help them work toward their retirement goals. Plan advisors can select a strategist from the choices available on the platform to conduct the portfolio assignment process and deliver in-plan participant advice. Plan participants have the choice of ongoing professional investment management or point-in-time advice based on a comprehensive analysis of their financial picture. Currently, Morningstar and LPL Financial serve as strategists on the platform.
- Financial Finesse, one of the nation's leading providers of workplace financial wellness programs, serves as the backbone for the program's financial wellness component, aimed at helping employees develop better financial habits and behaviors so they can save sufficiently in an effort to achieve their most critical financial and retirement goals. Through its patent-pending Financial Learning Center, Financial Finesse is able to provide each employee with a personalized assessment of their financial wellness, along with a step- by-step plan to help improve their finances. Plan sponsors, in turn, receive aggregated reporting on the financial wellness of their workforce so they gain a comprehensive understanding of the areas in which their employees need further education. Based on the educational needs identified through this process, LPL advisors are then able to provide their plan sponsor clients with an added benefit-custom financial education programs that leverage LPL's proprietary seminars and educational resources to address the specific financial needs of each workforce.
- WMSI, a leading provider of technology-based transition services within the financial services industry, provides the web and call center technology that aggregates plan and participant data from multiple recordkeeping systems to enable advisors and plan sponsors alike to help participants easily and efficiently transition retirement plan accounts as their employment status changes.
Brock Johnson, President, Retirement Solutions, Morningstar, said, "The Morningstar team is excited that our advice and managed accounts software will play such a fundamental role in the Worksite Financial Solutions platform. We are also happy to serve as a strategist on the platform to help retirement plan sponsors, advisors and participants pursue better outcomes."
Liz Davidson, Founder and CEO of Financial Finesse, stated, "Financial Finesse is wholly dedicated to helping people achieve financial wellness-by developing positive financial habits and behaviors-which is much needed in these economic times. We are very pleased to work with LPL Financial to bring access to financial health to a larger segment of the American workforce."
John Geli, CEO of WMSI, said, "We are very proud to partner with LPL Financial in their new platform that assists employees as they transition through critical stages of their lives. WMSI believes in harnessing data in new and innovative ways to expand financial planning opportunities with participants early on in the game so they can make better, more informed decisions. LPL Financial is at the forefront of positive change in helping employees deal with the vitally important endeavor of financially preparing for their future."
About Morningstar Associates, LLC.
Morningstar Associates, LLC is a registered investment advisor and wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. It is part of the Morningstar Investment Management division, which creates custom investment solutions that combine award-winning research and global resources with proprietary Morningstar data. With approximately $157 billion* in assets under advisement and management, the Morningstar Investment Management division provides comprehensive retirement, investment advisory, and portfolio management services for financial institutions, plan sponsors, and advisors around the world.
*Data as of March 31, 2013. Includes Morningstar Associates, Ibbotson Associates, Morningstar Investment Services, OBSR Advisory Services, and Ibbotson Australia.
Morningstar Associates, Morningstar, Inc, Financial Finesse, WMSI and their affiliates are not affiliated with LPL Financial or its affiliates.
About Financial Finesse
Financial Finesse is an unbiased financial education company providing personalized and innovative financial education and counseling programs to over 600,000 employees at over 500 organizations. Financial Finesse partners with organizations to reach goals such as reducing fiduciary liability, increasing plan participation, decreasing stress, and increasing productivity through its unique approach to financial education. Financial Finesse does not sell products nor manage assets. For more information, visit www.financialfinesse.com.
About Wealth Management Systems Inc. (WMSI)
WMSI is the leading provider of technology based rollover services in the retirement services industry. WMSI has over 40 leading firms participating in its network, is connected to record keepers servicing over 12 million participants, and processes $3 billion in participant rollovers annually. Through WMSI's wholly owned subsidiary, Archimedes Systems, the company is also a leading provider of college planning, retirement planning and personalized communications tools designed to educate and motivate participants and financial advisors. WMSI is dedicated to helping service providers, plan sponsors, and advisors support employees in maximizing their workplace benefits to achieve financial well being and longer term financial security. For more information, please visit www.wealthmsi.com.
About LPL Financial
LPL Financial, a wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: LPLA), is the nation's largest independent broker-dealer,* a top RIA custodian, and a leading independent consultant to retirement plans. LPL Financial offers proprietary technology, comprehensive clearing and compliance services, practice management programs and training, and independent research to more than 13,300 financial advisors and approximately 700 financial institutions. In addition, LPL Financial supports more than 4,500 financial advisors licensed with insurance companies by providing customized clearing, advisory platforms and technology solutions. LPL Financial and its affiliates have approximately 2,900 employees with primary offices in Boston, Charlotte, and San Diego. For more information, please visit www.lpl.com.
Securities and Advisory Services offered through LPL Financial. A Registered Investment Advisor, Member FINRA/SIPC
*Based on total revenues, Financial Planning magazine, June 1996-2013
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