Commonwealth Equity Services, Inc

Commonwealth Equity Services, which operates as Commonwealth Financial Network, is an broker/dealer firm based out of Waltham, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1979 by Joseph Deitch, who intended the company as a spinoff of his retail financial planning company the Cambridge Group. The company would officially adopt the Commonwealth name in 1981 and introduce its first mutual fund wrap program in 1984. Although Commonwealth Equity Services would suffer a setback in 1987 with the stock market crash, it would recover and continue to grow, introducing its practice management assistance program in 1989. The company would make an acquisition in 1992, merging with Kavanaugh Securities to facilitate Commonwealth Equity Services’s growth in becoming a national broker/dealer. The company would then be named as the Broker/Dealer of the Year for over half a decade, becoming the second largest private independent broker/dealer in the United States. Commonwealth Equity Services would welcome the new millennia with a new location in San Diego and reach the achievement for being named the Broker/Dealer of the Year 10 times. Wayne Bloom would succeed the founder Joseph Deitch as CEO, although Joseph would retain a role in the company acting as Chairman. The company currently has over $100 billion in total assets under management spread across over 200,000 accounts with all but 3,000 of its accounts being discretionary. Both of its total assets under management and accounts held have been increasing in recent years, with its total assets under management increasing fivefold from its $20 billion amount five years prior to its amount today. Commonwealth Equity Services currently has over 3,100 employees with approximately 1,600 producing advisors. The company is owned by its 11 managing partners and currently caters to a diverse client base, including individuals, which makes up over two thirds of its entire clientele, high net worth individuals, banking institutions, charities, pooled investment vehicles, corporations, and others.