By Andrew Welsch
LPL Financial reached a settlement agreement with fired CEO Dan Arnold that permits him to retain stock options that have a value of $12 million, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The settlement agreement also contains a general release of claims by Arnold against the company, as well as non-competition, non-disparagement, and non-solicitation provisions, according to the filing. The non-competition and non-solicitation provisions are in effect until Sept. 30 of 2025.
The two sides reached an agreement about two months after LPL's board of directors announced it had terminated Arnold for cause. The company said Arnold made statements to employees that violated the company's code of conduct. LPL didn't specify what the statements were.
Neither Arnold nor a representative of LPL responded to requests for comment.
Arnold had served as chief executive since 2017 and oversaw a massive expansion of LPL's advisor ranks and businesses. The company is one of the nation's largest wealth managers with more than 23,000 advisors and $1.6 trillion in advisory and brokerage assets. Shares of LPL are up 42% this year compared with a 27% gain for the S&P 500.
In October, the San Diego-based company named Chief Growth Officer Rich Steinmeier as its permanent CEO.
The company had previously disclosed that Arnold was not entitled to receive severance benefits and that all of his equity awards under the company's incentive plans would be automatically forfeited upon his termination.
The company's Dec. 9 filing says that the value of his retained options represents approximately 15% of the aggregate total value of the severance benefits and equity awards that he would have been entitled to receive or retain had he not been terminated for cause.
Write to Andrew Welsch at andrew.welsch@barrons.com
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December 09, 2024 16:18 ET (21:18 GMT)
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