LPL Financial announced this week that it will acquire the wealth management arm of Kansas City-based Waddell & Reed Financial Inc., which encompasses 921 registered representatives and financial advisers and $63 billion in client assets, Investment News reported. In Iowa, Waddell & Reed has three offices in Greater Des Moines, as well as offices in Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Winterset. The deal is expected to close by the middle of next year. In a two-step transaction, Macquarie Asset Management, an Australian firm, will acquire all of the outstanding Waddell & Reed shares for $25 per share in cash. Upon completion of the sale, Macquarie plans to sell off Waddell & Reed’s wealth management platform to LPL Financial Holdings Inc., an independent broker-dealer in Boston, for $300 million. The deal is expected to be completed by mid-2021. It’s not clear what the acquisition will mean for Waddell & Reed’s 18-story tower that is under construction at 14th Street and Baltimore Avenue in Kansas City, the Kansas City Star reported. Construction is well underway on the project, which was supposed to be completed by 2022. Waddell & Reed’s assets under management have declined from $123.6 billion in 2014 to about $70 billion in 2019.