LPL Financial Announces Acquisition of Certain Assets of National Retirement Partners Inc. to Form New Division

SAN DIEGO and SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif., July 14 /PRNewswire/ -- LPL Financial Corporation ("LPL Financial"), and National Retirement Partners Inc. ("NRP") today announced a definitive agreement under which LPL Holdings Inc. ("the Company"), the parent company of LPL Financial, will acquire certain assets from NRP.  NRP's advisors offer products and services to retirement plan sponsors and participants and comprehensive financial services to high net worth individuals.  Through this acquisition, NRP's independent advisors will have the opportunity to join LPL Financial.

Upon completion of this transaction, NRP employees will join LPL Financial to form a new division within the company, LPL Financial Retirement Partners.  NRP's current CEO and president, Bill Chetney, will lead this new division.

This strategic acquisition will further enhance the capabilities and presence of LPL Financial in the group retirement plan space, while providing unique benefits for both NRP advisors who join LPL Financial as well as for existing LPL Financial advisors.  LPL Financial and its advisors will benefit from enhanced capabilities and growth opportunities with respect to the group retirement plan space, as well as IRA rollovers and other retirement-related services and solutions.  At the same time, NRP advisors joining LPL Financial will benefit from the scale, resources and services offered by the LPL Financial broker-dealer platform, which will directly support the continued growth of their businesses.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals.  Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

For this transaction, Grail Partners LLC served as financial advisor to NRP, with Latham & Watkins LLP as legal advisor to the company.

K&L Gates LLP served as legal advisor for this transaction to LPL Financial.

About LPL Financial

LPL Financial is one of the nation's leading financial services companies and largest independent broker-dealer (based on total revenues as reported in Financial Planning magazine, June 1996-2010).  With approximately 2,500 employees and offices in Boston, Charlotte, and San Diego, LPL Financial and its affiliates offer industry-leading enabling technology, comprehensive clearing and compliance services, practice management programs and training, and independent research to over 12,000 financial advisors, more than 750 financial institutions, and approximately 4,000 institutional clearing and technology subscribers.

About National Retirement Partners Inc.

National Retirement Partners Inc. (NRP) is a network of independent advisors who provide consulting and investment services to retirement plan sponsors and participants nationwide.  NRP is dedicated to supporting advisors who service the retirement plan marketplace.  Providing an independent perspective, NRP Advisors have been utilized by thousands of companies nationwide, with billions in retirement plan assets.

Sharing diverse talents, expertise and a common focus, NRP Member Firms are able to deliver to clients what had traditionally only been available to larger firms - heightened best practices and investment due diligence, open architecture plan analysis and design, independent vendor search and benchmarking analysis and high quality service and communications.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements (regarding management expectations, strategic objectives, business prospects, anticipated expense savings, financial results, and other similar matters) that involve risks and uncertainties.  Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "will," "expects," "believes," and similar terms.  Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and our actual results may differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements.  Important factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to successfully integrate the advisors and operations of NRP and realize the expected synergies in connection with the acquisition, changes in general economic and financial market conditions, fluctuations in the value of assets under management, effects of competition in the financial services industry, changes in the number of our financial advisors and institutions and their ability to effectively market financial products and services, the effect of current, pending and future legislation, regulation and regulatory actions, and other factors set forth in the Company's Amendment No. 2 to Form S-1/A filed on July 9, 2010, which is available on www.lpl.com and www.sec.gov.

SOURCE LPL Financial Corporation