Firm Rankings
Ranked lists across 20,055 registered broker-dealer firms Data from FINRA BrokerCheck and the SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD), covering registered firms across all 50 states; see our methodology.
What the rankings show
Of the 20,055 broker-dealer firms on record, 75% hold a clean Grade-A record; only 987 carry the elevated Grade D or F. The heaviest disclosure loads per office sit with small firms, large national firms spread their disclosures thin across thousands of branches.
- 75%
- clean record (Grade A)
- 5,071
- firms with disclosures
- 987
- Grade D or F firms
- 41,823
- total disclosures
Grades are size-normalized, disclosure intensity per branch office, ranked within size class. See the methodology.
Firm composition by safety grade
Grades are size-normalized: clean firms earn an A; disclosing firms are ranked by disclosure intensity per branch office against same-size peers. Full distribution →
Most Complaints
Firms with the highest number of total disciplinary disclosures
Cleanest Firms
Active firms with zero disclosures and a multi-office footprint
Largest Firms
Firms ranked by branch-office footprint
Highest Risk Firms
Active firms with Grade D or F safety ratings
Grade A Firms
All active firms with a perfect Grade A safety record
Most Disclosures (top 12)
Active firms with the highest total disclosure count, disclosures cover customer complaints, regulatory events, and disciplinary actions filed with FINRA.
- Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (1,233 disclosures)
- UBS Financial Services Inc. (926 disclosures)
- Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC (552 disclosures)
- J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (547 disclosures)
- RBC Capital Markets, LLC (490 disclosures)
- Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC (489 disclosures)
- Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC (433 disclosures)
- Edward Jones (325 disclosures)
- Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (318 disclosures)
- UBS Securities LLC (317 disclosures)
- Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (307 disclosures)
- LPL Financial LLC (289 disclosures)
Cleanest Active Firms (top 12)
Active firms with zero disclosures and a multi-office footprint, surfaces established operators with sustained compliance records.
- Country Capital Management Company (653 offices)
- Capital Client Group, Inc. (607 offices)
- Foreside Fund Services, LLC (248 offices)
- Navy Federal Investment Services, LLC (234 offices)
- Wealth Enhancement Brokerage Services, LLC (147 offices)
- W&S Brokerage Services, Inc. (92 offices)
- Midwestern Securities Trading Company, LLC (92 offices)
- United Brokerage Services, Inc (85 offices)
- Foreside Financial Services, LLC (79 offices)
- BA Securities, LLC (79 offices)
- Quasar Distributors, LLC (68 offices)
- DFPG Investments, LLC (60 offices)
How PlainAdvisorCheck Rankings Are Compiled
Our rankings are computed directly from the upstream dataset, not editorially curated and not influenced by advertisers. Each ranking surfaces a clear, reproducible metric (for example, count of records per jurisdiction, share of records within a category, or rate per capita), and the underlying numbers are visible on the associated record pages so you can verify them. We recompute rankings whenever the upstream data refreshes, and we publish the refresh cadence on the methodology page.
What Rankings Mean (and What They Do Not)
A ranking is a useful lens, it tells you where to start looking, but it is not a judgment about quality, safety, or reputation. Being at the top of a count-based ranking typically reflects scale: more records in a jurisdiction, more entities in a category. It does not mean "better" or "worse." Whenever a ranking could be misread as a quality claim, we include an explanatory note on the page. When a ranking is rate-based (per capita, per thousand, share), we describe the denominator so you can sanity-check whether the normalization fits your question.
Why We Publish These Rankings
Rankings make large public datasets navigable. Most visitors arrive with a question ("Which jurisdiction has the most records?" or "Where is this category concentrated?") and benefit from seeing a ranked list with direct links to the full records. Publishing ranked views of public data is a long-established practice in civic journalism; we are careful to surface the raw numbers, link to the official source, and avoid editorial spin. If a ranking ever implies a value judgment not supported by the data, please email us at the address on the contact page and we will review the wording.
Methodology, Sources, and Corrections
Every ranking is derived from the source dataset linked on the methodology page. We do not blend proprietary signals; we do not substitute editor opinion for data. If you believe a ranking is miscomputed or that a record is misclassified, please contact us with the specific record ID and the expected correction, and we will investigate within the next refresh cycle. Corrections that affect the published ranking are rolled forward immediately; minor formatting fixes go out with the next scheduled refresh.
Every figure on PlainAdvisorCheck is rendered directly from FINRA BrokerCheck and SEC IAPD disciplinary records, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on FINRA BrokerCheck and SEC EDGAR data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.