The largest independent broker-dealer in the US, LPL Financial Services, increased its advisor count by almost 30 per cent after completing the acquisition of three rival advice groups owned by US financial services conglomerate, Pacific Life Co.

LPL vice president of corporate relations, Kevin Dinino, confirmed with WealthBriefing, the firm acquired 2,200 advisors and the operations of Waterstone Financial Group based in Illinois; Mutual Service Corporation, based in West Palm Beach, California; and Associated Financial Group, based in Los Angeles, California.

The three networks have a combined annual revenue of $353 million and increase the total number of advisors in the LPL network to 9,900.

The three brands will be retained by LPL and the deal will officially close in June this year, said Dinino.

“The benefit for LPL is the scale it gains from the acquisition, while the firms will benefit from access to our products and services,” he said.

The privately-owned LPL had not issued an official statement on the deal and was unwilling to provide further information regarding the financials.

According to reports, the LPL acquisition of the Pacific Life broker-dealers has been in the works for the past eight months.

According to Dinino, Pacific Life retained ownership of two existing broker-dealers, MML Stern Co. and United Planners Financial Services of America.

LPL has dual headquarters in San Diego and Boston with $1.3 billion in revenue in 2005 and advisors in 50 states in 4,000 branch offices the US.