Products January 14, 2014

LPL Revamps Adviser Mobile App

An updated mobile application from LPL Financial LLC provides better access to financial and market data, along with a new secure messaging system for communicating with clients.
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LPL Financial, a wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings Inc., provides independent broker/dealer and registered investment adviser (RIA) custodian services. The firm says the enhanced app offers advisers greater real-time insight into market events and an improved ability for advisers to interact directly with clients.

Other additions to the app include the following:

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  • Real-time financial headlines from Thomson Reuters;
  • Daily commentary and market insight from members of the LPL Financial Research team, including YouTube videos from various investment and market strategy executives;
  • A redesigned user interface with a simpler look and feel, and a sidebar menu for easier navigation on both smartphones and tablets;
  • Continuous updates about the company via the LPL Financial Twitter stream; and
  • Information-sharing capability via email, direct message, Twitter or Facebook. 

There are a number of additional enhancements slated for LPL Financial’s technology suite in 2014. These include a redesigned email service, updates to performance reporting available in the Portfolio Manager product, and a significant upgrade to the Resource Center, which is the online portal that the company uses to communicate with advisers.

More information is available at www.lpl.com.

Compliance January 14, 2014

DOL Seeks Recovery of Pa. Plan Assets

The Department of Labor (DOL) is suing a Bigler, Pennsylvania, trucking company to recover employee contributions and payments to its 401(k) plan.
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The DOL filed the lawsuit in December 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The suit, Perez v. Kephart (docket number: 3:05-mc-02025), names David Kephart, Timothy Kephart, Kephart Trucking Co., and the Kephart Trucking Co. 401(k) plan as defendants.

The suit alleges that after establishing the Kephart Trucking Co. 401(k) plan in 1988 for its employees, the plan fiduciaries—David Kephart, Timothy Kephart and the company—violated their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

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The plan fiduciaries were responsible for making decisions concerning the remittance of elective contributions to the plan. However, investigators from the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) found that from September 2011 to the present, the company deducted money from the participants’ pay as employee contributions and participant loan repayments. Certain employee deductions representing voluntary contributions and loan repayments for employees of the company, totaling approximately $270,000 plus interest, were not remitted.

The suit by the DOL seeks restitution to the plan of delinquent employee contributions and loan repayments, including lost opportunity costs. The DOL is also asking the court to appoint an independent fiduciary to administer or terminate the plan, and to offset any remaining individual account balances that David Kephart and Timothy Kephart have in the plan against the losses.

The DOL is also seeking an injunction from the court, which would bar the defendants from serving as fiduciaries to any ERISA-covered plans.

The full text of the DOL’s complaint document can be downloaded here.

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