PFG vs LPLA Comparison

Principal Financial Group Inc is a financial services provider. It offers various financial products and services including retirement, asset management, and workplace benefits and protection solutions to individuals and institutional clients. The company, along with its subsidiaries, operates in the following reportable segments; Retirement and Income Solutions, Principal Asset Management, and Benefits and Protection. Maximum revenue is generated from the Retirement and Income Solutions segment which provides workplace savings and retirement solutions, banking, trust and custodial services, individual variable annuities (including RILAs), pension risk transfer, and investment services to businesses, their employees, and other individuals.

LPL Financial is the largest US independent broker-dealer, with more than 32,000 financial advisors affiliated with its platform and roughly 11 million customer accounts at the end of 2025. The firm earns the bulk of its profit from interest income earned on client cash balances and from advisory fees and commissions tied to the $2.4 trillion in assets under management or advisory on its platform at year-end 2025. LPL specializes in providing turnkey wealth management services for affiliated independent advisors, but maintains a diverse array of affiliation modalities, running the gamut from more traditional employee models to a pure RIA custody approach. It earns tuck-in revenue from recordkeeping fees and the provision of software tools and services to its advisor base.