Earnings Labs

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (LPLA)

Q1 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Apr 28, 2016

$334.86

+1.35%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the LPL Financial Holdings First Quarter Earnings Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Mr. Chris Koegel. Sir, you may begin.

Chris Koegel - Senior Vice President-Investor Relations

Management

Thank you, Kelly. Good afternoon and welcome to the LPL Financial first quarter 2016 earnings conference call. On the call today are Mark Casady, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Matt Audette, our Chief Financial Officer. Mark and Matt will offer introductory remarks and then we'll open the call for questions. We ask that each analyst limit their questions to one question and one follow-up. Please note that in contrast to past quarters, we've not posted a financial supplement on lpl.com. We have included information that previously would have appeared in the financial supplement in our earnings release. Before turning the call over to Mark, I would like to note that comments made during this conference may include certain forward-looking statements concerning such topics as our future revenue, expenses and other financial and operating results; improvements in our risk management and compliance capabilities; the regulatory environment and its expected impact on us; including the final Department of Labor rule industry growth and trends, our business, strategies and plans as well as other opportunities we foresee. Underpinning these forward-looking statements are certain risks and uncertainties. We refer our listeners to the Safe Harbor disclosures contained in the earnings release and our latest SEC filings to appreciate these factors that may cause actual financial or operating results or the timing of matters to differ from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. In addition, comments during this call will include certain non-GAAP financial measures governed by SEC Regulation G. For a reconciliation of these measures, please refer to our earnings press release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mark. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you, Chris, and thank you, everyone, for joining our call. Today, I'd like to briefly summarize our first quarter results and…

Matthew J. Audette - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Thank you, Mark, and it's good to speak with everyone on the call today. It was quite a start to the year. The S&P 500 index after ending 2015 at $2,044, dropped down to $1,829 midway through the first quarter, and then ended the quarter up nearly 1%. And after December's increase and the Fed funds effective rate, for the first time in about a decade, the 2016 outlook went from multiple projected rate hikes to a dialogue around the profitability of negative interest rates in just a matter of weeks. And as we sit here today, the possibility of 2016 rate hikes are again part of the dialogue. So what is clear is the macro environment is quite volatile. And we will keep this top of mind as we manage our expenses and capital going forward. Despite the challenging environment, we are pleased with the performance of our diverse gross profit streams combined with disciplined expense management. In volatile times like these, growth in cash balances and transaction volume provides a nice offset to pressures on other areas, and we delivered quarterly earnings per share of $0.56 double our fourth quarter EPS. And our EBITDA was also up and our net leverage ratio decreased. We feel good about the strong P&L and balance sheet results to start 2016. Let's now discuss our Q1 results in more detail, starting with gross profit. As you know, assets both brokerage and advisory are the key driver of our gross profit. Our assets finished Q1 at $479 billion, up 0.7% from the prior quarter. It's also important to note that much of our gross profit trailing commissions and sponsor revenues is primarily driven by average assets. And while our assets were up at the end of Q1, markets were down for most of…

Operator

Operator

Our first question comes from the line of Ken Worthington with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Kenneth B. Worthington - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Hi, I'm sure this will surprise you, but I'm going to ask a question on DOL. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: No, Ken.

Kenneth B. Worthington - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

After seeing the draft rules last year, LPL and others in the industry contemplated moving brokerage retirement accounts over to advisory accounts as sort of a potential solution, maybe an attractive solution based on that information. Based on the final rules, does that option still seem at least potentially attractive or is it obviously unattractive? Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, Ken, I think when we started a little bit higher levels than that and I'll be happy to get to that question specifically. I think what's important is that we've already announced a number changes in suspicion of the DOL, including the changes we talked about in the call here around MWP and aftermarket portfolios and our robo advice platform and the new mutual fund brokerage platform as well. As you know, it's 1,000 pages, there is a lot to review and understand, but we are pleased that allows us more flexibility to serve retirement brokerage accounts than the initial proposal did. So it was better than we thought it would be coming into it. And it does preserve choice for the consumer for brokerage or advisory accounts. So one of the things that we think is helpful as I think about one of the principles that we are operating under this new world, which will guide us to the question like yours. Number one is transparency, fees and services that get disclosed and are available via websites and materials such as conference accounting opening information and other investor disclosures. So that transparency is really critical to consumers understanding what they are paying for. Number two is reasonable compensation. Investors should pay reasonable fees for the services they receive and advisors are entitled to receive reasonable compensation for the services they provide. Number three, that…

Kenneth B. Worthington - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Great, thank you. Hopefully, as a thought this is not too in the weeds, but the BIC, which I think the industry thought was unworkable, now seems to be at least from an operational perspective workable. From a functional perspective, however, is the BIC exemption something that is attractive either broadly or maybe more finely to help you. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yes. I think a BIC exemption is attractive, because it preserves choice, and therefore allows us to really engage – advisor to engage with a client or a prospect around what's best in their particular situation. And so by the changes that were made it certainly made it quite workable. And again we thought they would make a number of changes, they made more than we planned, so we are quite pleased with the fact that they listened and really acted in the best interest of keeping choice available for consumer. So it is something that is workable, it's something that we intend to support and feel comfortable with working our way through the details of it.

Kenneth B. Worthington - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay, awesome. Thank you very much. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Sure, absolutely, Ken.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Christian Bolu with Credit Suisse. Your line is open. Christian Bolu - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Good afternoon, Mark. Good afternoon, Matt. So, yeah, another question on DOL unfortunately. So, I guess, you get revenue share from product manufacturers in your Hybrid RIA business, and that's similar to peers like SWOTs, so nothing unique to LPL, but curious kind of how that gets impacted by the DOL proposal? Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, it does appear from everything we read and again a very large document that's coming out is that all third-party compensation can continue to be received on the brokerage side, the BIC is used, and on the advisory side as has been the practice in the industry. There are still a lot more to sort through and understand and make sure things are reasonable in terms of how compensation is paid. And that's, I think, still the work before as we go to spend more time on the details. Christian Bolu - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Okay. And then maybe couple of – for my follow-up, couple of clean-up financial questions. I guess, from promotional expenses, I guess $1 million up sequentially versus your guidance last quarter of $5 million growth, you mentioned lower transition assistance. What drove that, is there some sort of a pause in hiring because of DOL or something else? And then, also on the advisory fee rate, that fell from 110 basis points to 105 basis points, so any color on what drove that would be helpful. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yes. So it's a question on transition assistance. More – we've talked about last quarter more seasonal. So Q4 tended to be seasonally higher, and I think that was – so you see that decline into Q1. But keep in mind, it's a hard one to predict, right, because each quarter is going to be based on recruiting that happens in that quarter. And then I think on the advisory fee, I think it's more just highlighting the transition of assets of the hybrid platform that moves some of the assets outside of that into the RIA category. It will be the key thing to highlight on, on the advisory side. Christian Bolu - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Okay, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Bill Katz with Citi. Your line is open.

William Raymond Katz - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Your line is open.

Okay, thanks so much. Appreciate you taking questions kind of bunch of them. And the first one is, as you go through via BIC, can you talk a little bit about how you sort of viewing the interpretation on shared revenue and what that might mean or your business and the ability to continue that and how might react strategically if you had to move to more of a uniform pricing per shelf space? Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, I think it's still too early to really fully understand all the issues. With that said, I think it's important to understand that we have agreements in place with the product sponsors on our platform and those standardize compensation around any number of factors with them and have been in place for quite some time. Also important to understand that the agreements for the PLUS (29:18) level sponsors do have a 10-year cancellation clause in them, and has been a feature since they were created in the early 1990s. So we feel very comfortable with where we are today and still need more time with the DOL regulations to really dig through them more deeply, but clearly, again, it does appear the third-party compensation was specifically mentioned by the DOL and their new regulation that's there. As always, disclosure is really critical. In this process, we disclose today arrangements on our website. So that's easily found by both investors and others. And so we understand that that is an important feature what the DOL wants and one that we've supported for a long time.

William Raymond Katz - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Your line is open.

Okay. And then, Matt, maybe this is getting a little too detailed. I guess, we were hoping that you'd have a little more disclosure on some of these other ancillary expense lines, what was consistent with your supplement. So forgive the question here, it seems like the delta of expenses was quite dramatic. If you look beyond comp, promotion, D&A and the brokerage line, could you sort of carve out what if anything might have been unusual in the quarter or what might be a more normalized run rate for those collective line items?

Matthew J. Audette - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Well, sure, I mean, I think that maybe speaking on the financial results overall, I think the things that I would highlight looking forward from a – call it from one-timer perspective, I think the first and foremost is on the regulatory side and the $3 million of cost recovery items that I highlighted that we don't expect to recur. And then secondarily, I'd highlight on the production bonus side, the advisor share-based compensation, which is really a mark-to-market item where it averages about $1.5 million a quarter of an expense. It was actually $1.5 million of income on this quarter. So, I'd highlight those two things, call it from a one-timer standpoint. And then broadly and more on the revenue side just emphasizing the ICA yield rate that I highlighted from 69 basis points down to the – as the anchor bank contract runs off, in the mid-to-upper 50%s in Q2 and then down to the low 50s for the second half of the year. And maybe just from a seasonality standpoint just highlighting that production bonus that does grow throughout the year would be the other big one that I highlight. So I think those are probably the most relevant ones.

William Raymond Katz - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Your line is open.

Okay. Last with me, thanks for taking the questions. I think one of your peers is out sort of saying that hey look, they think there's an opportunity for some industry consolidation as smaller platforms can't deal with the costs here of implementing the new program fiduciary reform. So as you mentioned, first and foremost, you're sort of protecting the balance sheet and you sort of went through yeah, there's some extra – a couple million dollars (32:11) extra cash beyond the debt covenant. How are you thinking about M&A versus other uses of capital at this point in time? Are we sort of in a sit tight mode as you work through the DOL over the next year plus or would you be willing to potentially use up some of the extra liquidity to do some deals? Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: So the first and best use of capital, I think, we'd all agree is in organic growth of platform. And we do think that these changes as we've been leading on our front feet in terms of making positive changes for investors and advisors can lead to more of recruiting opportunities that's our first place to want to use capital. Second place would be M&A and we agree that things like this tend to squeeze cost structures for smaller competitors. We're the market leader in IBD space, but that doesn't tell us what prices are for M&A. And that's obviously part of what we need to understand in any transaction. So all things being equal, we would agree that this is likely to lead to more opportunity for M&A, and M&A as a good use of capital at the right prices, Bill, there. So I think we're aligned in that thinking. But Matt, I don't know if you'd add anything else?

Matthew J. Audette - Chief Financial Officer

Management

No, it's well said. I think I would just add to any deployment of capital, I mean, things that were focused on is making sure we're comfortable with where the macro environment is heading, in our views, on the impact of DOL. I mean that's going to govern our comfort on deploying capital in general. But agree with what you said on where we deployed to.

William Raymond Katz - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Your line is open.

Okay. I'd like to follow-up offline. Thanks so much.

Matthew J. Audette - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Thanks, Bill.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Steven Chubak with Nomura. Your line is open.

Steven J. Chubak - Nomura Securities International, Inc.

Analyst · Nomura. Your line is open.

Hi, good evening. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Hi, Steve.

Steven J. Chubak - Nomura Securities International, Inc.

Analyst · Nomura. Your line is open.

So one of your competitors recently announced that it will stop offering load mutual funds on its platform and as you see some of your competitors take such actions. Do you see a risk that others ultimately follow suit? And as a quick follow-up to that, do you – can you disclose what percentage of your mutual fund commissions actually come from loads versus trails? Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, let's start with the broad question. Basically the announcement was done by a firm that does very little load fund sales. So, essentially their model is an employee model done through their branches, which essentially are selling advisory products often with their own ETFs as the answer, so it's an advisory-based solution that's there. As I understand it from an investment news article from today, that firm talked about that being less than 750 trades over the last two years. So that's a de minimis amount of transactions. So I think it sounds like there're just cleaning up their approach to the way they operate their branches. But other than that the news reports, I don't know more than that. So I don't see this as anything relevant to the question of choice for consumers. And being able to offer what seems to work best or what they want as they think about things like rollover their IRA accounts or taxable savings or anything else. So I think that's more about an individual firm's business model and what it's trying to do within that.

Steven J. Chubak - Nomura Securities International, Inc.

Analyst · Nomura. Your line is open.

Got it, okay. And then, switching gears for a moment. I had a question on the impact of your lower share price in the quarter on the earnings. And on the payout side, the mark-to-market, it's pretty clear resulted in a lower non-sensitive GDC payout. We've seen that prior quarter, so it's to be expected. But I suppose what surprised me was the elevated other income given that usually there is a resulting negative mark-to-market on some of those deferred comp plans, which is an offset to that lower non-GDC benefit. And I would have also expected a lower marketing allowance as well, just given the declines that we saw in the alternative investment sales side. So I didn't know if you can help reconcile that discrepancy? Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, I'd highlight on the – there's kind of two things I think through on the mark-to-market. So the deferred comp plan, I think the one is, is the one you are thinking of whether it's a mark-to-market where it impacts both production expense and other. So when thinking through our management P&L, it has no impact on gross profit. On the other plan which typically you don't see much noise in because it's the stock based, or stock competition plan for advisors that was mark-to-market as well. And with a drop in stock price that mark-to-market falls to the bottom line. So I think it's more that second one where you don't typically see that impact that's impacting things.

Steven J. Chubak - Nomura Securities International, Inc.

Analyst · Nomura. Your line is open.

And can you qualify the net benefit from the lower share price that we saw in the quarter?

Matthew J. Audette - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yeah, it was a swing of about $4 million. So it was an expense of $2.5 million last quarter, even though that was high, it's averaged about $1.5 million, but it was $2.5 million last quarter and was actually income of roughly $1.5 million this quarter. So a quarter-over-quarter swing of around $4 million.

Steven J. Chubak - Nomura Securities International, Inc.

Analyst · Nomura. Your line is open.

All right. Great. That's it from me. Thank you for taking my questions. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Steven.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Chris Harris with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Chris M. Harris - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Thanks. Hey, guys. Couple of questions on DOL. The new initiatives you guys are talking about launching robo, mutual fund brokerage, and I'm sure perhaps there are some other things you're thinking about. What are the economics of those to LPL relative to the legacy business? And as a goal of these initiatives to route these for the client, does that also mean lower fees for LPL? That's the first part of the question. Second is, do you guys envision still generating revenue sharing payments from these new initiatives? Thanks. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: I will take the second question first. Again, it's a little too early to understand fully what the Department of Labor has brought to us in the 1,000-page document. So we're still digging our way through it. It does appear though that our third-party compensation is going to continue to be received on the brokerage side as well as biggest used and that would be what we have space as we sit here today. So it seems to be affirming to that situation. Important to understand that most of the changes we talked about on the advisory side in the different world and in that case, as it goes. So on the your question about the economics, which was your first question, important to understand that our experience has been that we make changes in pricing what happens as we gain additional assets from additional market share and that market share overcomes the cost of the changes that are made. And if it doesn't do it in the first year, it certainly does it in the second or third. And so, given that our experience over many years of this kind of change, we see it is as being a profitable choice from a shareholder standpoint, and obviously a good solution for consumers and a good solution for advisors as well. This just really helps us grow the business, which is what, of course, we're all after. So, I think, the best way to think about it is that well, certainly is less profitable than it was before, because you've made a price change. In aggregate, you are picking up additional assets that create additional profits.

Chris M. Harris - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Okay. Got it.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Alex Kramm with UBS. Your line is open.

Alex Kramm - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open.

Hey, good evening. I'm going to start with a non-DOL question, and hopefully, it was mentioned before, but, I guess, you talked about the payouts and the bonuses, but you didn't talk about the base payout rate, which has nicely trickles down over the last couple years. I think 82.5% this quarter, down a whole percent. So, is that going to continue the trickling down? What are you doing there exactly? I know, in the past you've talked about kind of like lower producers given a squeeze a little bit. So, what's going on there and what's the trajectory going forward on the base?

Matthew J. Audette - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yeah. So, Alex, I'll start with that one and then, Mark obviously feel free to jump in. I think at a very broad point, the payouts on advisors or advisory business is lower than the payout on brokerage, right. So, as we see the transition in advisory business grow, it's driving that payout down ever so slightly over time as you have absorbed. So, I think that's the key trend there. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I think the only thing I'd add to that is that it's not result of a change of pricing. Our production bonuses have stayed the same for quite some time on both the brokerage side and the advisory side. And what's important is, they have breakpoints that essentially works. So, as you've seen our brokerage business slow down, as it obviously did last year and continue doing here in the first quarter, you will see that it'll naturally payout less to individual practices as is the schedule basically. So that's also the other dynamics you're seeing the switch that not mention from brokerage advisory, and then just lower production per rep or per advisor will lower the payout rate as well.

Alex Kramm - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open.

Okay, great. And then now to my DOL question, which is actually a little bit more big picture, so I'm not going to going to weed, but, I guess, the question is, now that we have the final rules, what happens next from your perspective? And because you have obviously some timelines here, what is it actually mean for your business? Like, when are you going to actually start implementing some of those things? Are you going to wait until April next year? When are you going to communicate with your advisors? When are you may be looking at some of the fee changes, I mean, you're obviously doing some things already, right. So, the bigger question here is like, when do you think some of the behavioral changes might start from the advisor perspective, I guess, also. And then the second question related to that is, obviously all this relates to retirement accounts, but what I keep on hearing is, this is just going to be way too confusing for advisors and also for end client. So, to what degree do you think you're going to have a similar set of rules for both retirement and non-retirement going forward? And then obviously that's related to maybe the SEC is going to come and have their own rules anyway. So, maybe that you can address it from a big picture perspective. Thanks. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. Thank you for that. So, let's start with the harmonization of the rule first, your last question. It is important to understand that the SEC has basically had a mandate since Dodd-Frank was passed, has been delayed in implementation around setting the fiduciary standard. We have two commissioners who have not been ceded yet. So, out of the…

Alex Kramm - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · UBS. Your line is open.

Excellent. Thanks for the lengthy answer.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Devin Ryan with JMP Securities. Your line is open.

Devin P. Ryan - JMP Securities LLC

Analyst · JMP Securities. Your line is open.

Hey, great. Thanks. Good evening. Just love if you could talk a bit about the composition and size of the advisor recruiting backlog right now. How that's trended more recently? And if relevant, how the DOLs impact in that? Meaning, is there more imbalance from advisors at other models, maybe those more focused on proprietary products or it does uncertainty around the DOLs, slow movement for video or maybe just get advisors are kind of an wait and see mode or maybe even you guys are in the wait and see mode just as you are assessing all implications. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, I think we are assessing all the implications. We tend not to be wait-and-see type of people. And so as our actions of price – the changes we've made, the features we're introducing like lower comp balances were all done because we knew that in any scenario they would work and that's a good example of taking forward action. Part of taking that action also tells our existing advisors were here help them and what tells their investors were here to help them. Well that's an important positioning for the company to take. And we know that it does influence people as they decide to move from a firm, perhaps from a proprietary model or an employee model to independent. I'd say anecdotally we do hear that that positive feedback on what we've announced in recruiting, but I don't want to put it as a wave, just yet, I think, it's just too early to tell how that's going to be. I do think it's fair to say that that when you've had the market we have that's the bigger influence in the first six weeks of 2016. That's a much bigger influence on movement. And there's no doubt that that slows down recruiting a bit inevitably as those advisors really pay attention to their investors who get concerned in those kind of rapid sell off moments. So, we had a rapid recovery so that helps, but it is important that that's probably the bigger factor in my view.

Devin P. Ryan - JMP Securities LLC

Analyst · JMP Securities. Your line is open.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe when you guys think about some of the cost that will be incurred, the DOL rules and then it is essentially enacted and potentially a broader fiduciary standard by the SEC down the road. I know we're all focusing a lot on the costs and potential revenue pressures. But as you add more resulting over side and compliance capabilities for brokers, how much of that can you pass along to the brokers where there could actually maybe be some positive revenue implications as an offset? Should we be thinking about that as an offset to some of these higher costs? Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yes. It's still really early to tell, what exactly is involved. I mean, if you think about it, the mix change, just from brokerage going to advisory, advisory has a different set of principles for overseeing, it's a principles-based process. So, there's less activity based review, which implies less use of technology or less use of humans to do that. So, as that conversion occurs, as we get more and more advisory assets, you'd expect us to be just more efficient at it. Changes that we make that put more assets in our custody at LPL also are just easier to oversee, and therefore more efficient. So, there's definitely some positive efficiency plays within the changes that are here as well. And important to understand that as we think about the changes we certainly want to think about how are we driving successful outcomes to investors and really holding people to the right standards on the advisory side and also holding the correct standards in the new DOL world as well and that implies some cost. So, I think, today, we feel comfortable with implementation cost. And the good news is, we've got a couple years to do it as opposed to just one. And secondly, we're assessing the ongoing cost, but because the DOL took a broader view and made the BIC more workable that certainly feels better than before we had the new ruling.

Devin P. Ryan - JMP Securities LLC

Analyst · JMP Securities. Your line is open.

Got it. Great. Thanks very much, Mark. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Sure.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Chris Shutler with William Blair. Your line is open. Chris C. Shutler - William Blair & Co. LLC: Hey, good afternoon. Another question on the base payout from earlier. Just curious what the floor is you think on that that rate if brokerage assets continue to decline?

Matthew J. Audette - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yeah. Hey, Chris. This is Matt. I wouldn't give a floor. I mean, I think the trends you've seen over the last couple years, they're very small declines on a quarterly basis. I think that's the best information to look at. I wouldn't have a particular number to give you as a floor though. Chris C. Shutler - William Blair & Co. LLC: Okay. And then on the DOL, as we sit here today and I recognize it's early, but what changes do you think need to be made to the way that your advisors use some of the higher upfront commission products. I think that's a question a lot of people are wondering. And I'm just curious what the conversations with advisors have been like today that may have VAs or load mutual funds or types of products is a sizable percentage of their book. Do you think, for instance, with VAs that a good percentage of those will migrate over to a more level fee higher trail type of product? And how you get comfort with the legal risk that you could be assuming there? Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yes. It's a good question. Again, it is awfully early to tell exactly the outcome. I think there's a few things that are important to understand in terms of the DOL's view this. Number one, the DOL itself has acknowledged rule doesn't require the lowest cost product or service, it's not mandating that in any way. And the cost is one of several factors that go into a best interest recommendation, getting asset allocation right is an incredibly important part of investing money for the long-term for example in a rollover. And there are other factors that might be the benefits and value of…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Doug Mewhirter with SunTrust. Your line is open.

Doug R. Mewhirter - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is open.

Hi. Good evening. Most of my questions have been answered. I guess, adding to the VA question and also fixed index annuities seem to have taken some market share from VA. But I know that you were actually talking about possibly dusting the cobwebs off of a fee-based variable annuity. Do you think that momentum would continue or do you think that third-party VAs and fixed index annuities would fit the bill under maybe the slightly more relaxed guidelines of the DOL rule. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: I think we have to learn and see what's best for the customer. There's a lot of innovation that's occurring in that part of the insurance market, because of the low rate environment. And I think that's part of what we need to see how that works and how we can help influence it. So, I think within the brokerage world, clearly what's happened is, the DOL has taken a view that this really needs to be done under a reasonable compensation standard, not on a product-type standard, which I think is an incredibly thoughtful change on their part and very helpful to making sure consumers have choice and are able to get exposures to different products that are appropriate in their case. So, I think that helps us a lot in terms of serving their needs. I do think relevant to your VA question, and we were a very early innovator in bringing VAs into the advisory world. We just didn't find there was much demand then. Do I think there'll be more demand over time? Yes. Just because they're a good product for providing hedging or providing income – guarantee is not the right word, but income protection let's call it. And so that more than likely you'd see that be more interesting (55:45) over time. I think because the BIC is workable I think in the near-term there's not particularly a reason to move on that idea. But we're still examining it and seeing what our advisors tell us and what their clients tell them are going to work best.

Doug R. Mewhirter - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst · SunTrust. Your line is open.

Okay. Thank you very much. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: You're welcome.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Conor Fitzgerald with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Conor Fitzgerald - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Good evening. Just maybe warn us on kind of what you're seeing from clients as markets have normalized. I think you mentioned that activity was low in January and February just the volatility. Can you give us an update just on what you're seeing in terms of activity levels for March and April? Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, in March, it was more normalized. And that's as far as we'll go in our commentary in terms of it. So we saw January, February, we're now producing the monthly information just trying to make sure there's a lots of good transparency around it. So we'll have the April data out, I'm not sure quite when, Matt, that comes.

Matthew J. Audette - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yeah. Mid-May. And then I would just add if you notice in the release on page 10, we did add the March specific monthly data. And you saw what I think you would expect to see as markets calm down on the clients cash sweet balances went down as that money was redeployed back into the market kind of opposite trend you saw in the January and February volatility. So, I would just highlight that to you, Conor. Conor Fitzgerald - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Yeah. That's helpful. Thanks. And then maybe just a follow-up on 401(k) rollover, I guess. Can you help us maybe size how big a driver that is for your asset growth, and how you think kind of your advisors are going to have to adjust to the rule and how they've conversations with their clients around rollovers? Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, that's the heart of the DOL issue as an instant. So, I afraid we're in the same boat, right, which is that the BIC is more workable than we thought it would be. And they are permitting any number of things that are very helpful to make that rollover conversation successful with an investor. So, I would say that we feel it is all workable and preserves choice. So, not particularly concerned about the act of an individual working with the retail investors on a rollover specifically that we still have an awful lot more to learn about process. And I think it's an important, one thing I would highlight here is that because our model is an independent contractor model, we don't face the issue at some other state who have a recordkeeping business, have their own employees as their advisors, and then are trying to really essentially deal with that individual retail investor both as a 401(k) participant and then moving to a rollover. We don't have the same construct. That construct is harder. It's always been difficult, but it's even more difficult under the Department of Labor as we understand the new rule. But I'm sure they're wanting to evaluate that. In our model that has always worked well and should continue to work well because of the independent nature of each provider in that particular lineup. And so, I think, what's the important is, how we think through that rollover in terms of education disclosure and recommendations for that consumer and that's part of the detail that we need to work our way through. Conor Fitzgerald - Goldman Sachs & Co.: That's helpful. Thanks for taking my questions. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Absolutely.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, and I'm showing no further questions at this time.

Chris Koegel - Senior Vice President-Investor Relations

Management

Thank you very much. Mark Stephen Casady - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you.