LPL Advisor Eliminates His Portfolio Rebalancing Headaches

A few years ago, LPL advisor Brian Ursu, CFP and president of Intentional Wealth Advisors, realized he needed to spend less time on investment management so he could focus on providing other, value-added services to his clients. “I was at a conference, and I heard the presenter say that if you believe your unique value proposition is rooted in how you manage money, you will definitely be replaced, because technology is going to take over,” he says. “That really resonated with me and forced me to reevaluate my value proposition.”

But Ursu also knew that he wanted to continue offering his clients the portfolios he built—he just needed a way to scale it. His answer came when LPL launched Model Wealth Portfolios (MWP) Advisor Sleeve. “LPL came up with Advisor Sleeve as a way to better leverage my time and their resources, and it just made all the sense in the world,” he says. “Using the tool creates more time and capacity for me to develop more meaningful relationships with my clients and offer them more value-added services, because I’m not the one making the trades or rebalancing the portfolio.”

No more rebalancing headaches

While Ursu was already running an efficient practice through models and the Enhanced Trading and Rebalancing Tool, Advisor Sleeve has even further reduced the time it takes him to set up, transition, or trade accounts.

“Previously, we’d have to wait for the money to clear, create the tickets, and place the trades,” he says. “It’s all easy with technology, but it still takes time. With Advisor Sleeve, everything’s done automatically upon account opening.”

Where Ursu really finds value is in the automated trading that happens when rebalancing is needed. “The automated rebalancing is, to me, the big advantage,” he says. “First there are the systematic withdrawals. Every time money comes out, the account is automatically rebalanced back to the target allocation. But even better is the rebalancing that happens when a client wants to pull out money or contribute new money.”

Ursu routinely has clients come to him with requests for contributions or distributions – and it always seems to happen right after he rebalances their portfolio. And because he was using SAM II prior to Advisor Sleeve, he was the one picking up the ticket charges for the extra rebalance. “MWP Advisor Sleeve is beautiful in that it doesn’t matter how often a client takes out money, because LPL will automatically rebalance it every time,” he says, “and the fee we pay for the platform covers the ticket charges. It’s all invisible to me, which is just amazing. I can’t tell you how much easier it’s made my life.”

Clearing the primary hurdle: Cost

With how easy it is use Advisor Sleeve and the amount of time you can save – all while continuing to build portfolios yourself – why wouldn’t you want to use the platform? Well, Ursu recognizes the only hurdle that really exists is the admin fee. “That’s primarily the main sticking point,” he says. “But ultimately, I believe you’re going to have to make the concession at some point, one way or another. Either you’ll have to reduce your fee as investment management becomes less of a differentiator, hire someone to help you, or use tools like Advisor Sleeve to gain time so you can enhance client relationships with other, value-added services.”

For Ursu, the extra cost wasn’t a barrier, even though he made the decision to eat the cost himself and not pass it along to his clients. “I’m exchanging money for time,” he says, “and for us it’s a good exchange. We’re able to help our clients with financial planning, charitable planning, and legacy planning. We’re also doing family meetings now with our clients. All of this is adding to our value and deepening our relationships.”

On top of practice growth, Ursu feels Advisor Sleeve has had a positive impact on his life and work overall. “I want to like my life. I want to like my job,” he says. “I don’t want to be staring at a spreadsheet all day. Advisor Sleeve has freed me up to be in front of my clients more than before and made my job that much more enjoyable.”

Advisor Sleeve helps put the focus back on the client

For Ursu, being a financial advisor is all about helping clients, and to do so, he feels it’s necessary to spend a lot of time understanding individuals and their feelings about money. “While clients might initially come to us because of our investment philosophy, they stay because of the relationship we build,” he says. “Advisor Sleeve allows us to build that relationship.”