California

Broker-dealer firm disciplinary records from FINRA BrokerCheck

Data updated July 2026

California at a glance

According to FINRA BrokerCheck disclosure totals used on /states, California ranks #7 of 56 states and territories by aggregate disclosure load (most disclosures first). As of July 2026, the state registers 279 broker-dealer firms on FINRA BrokerCheck - 189 carry a clean record and 572 disclosures are on file statewide.

#7 of 56
disclosure load · /states
279
registered firms
189
with a clean record (Grade A)
572
total disclosures statewide

Disclosure-load ordinal matches the /states listing. See methodology for corpus placement.

279
Registered Firms
189
Clean Record (Grade A)
572
Total Disclosures
2.1
Avg Disclosures / Firm

How California ranks

A state's raw firm count and its disciplinary clean-record rate measure two different things, and they do not always move together. A jurisdiction can host a large number of broker-dealer firms simply because it is a major financial hub, while a smaller state with far fewer registered firms can post a cleaner disciplinary record in relative terms, or vice versa. Comparing both rankings side by side, rather than looking at either figure in isolation, gives a fuller picture of what is actually happening on the ground in a given state.

According to the firm-count and clean-record sorts on this page, California is #2 of 56 by firm count and #8 of 33 by clean-record rate (Grade A share among the 33 states with at least 10 registered firms). Its /states disclosure-load placement is #7 of 56. These ranks diverge notably -- a larger firm footprint here does not translate into a proportionally cleaner record. Neither ranking implies wrongdoing on its own; always review an individual firm's own size-normalized grade before drawing a conclusion about it specifically.

Grade Distribution

How California's 279 graded broker-dealers split across the size-normalized A-F safety scale.

A, clean (189)189 firmsB, low (80)80 firmsC, typical (7)7 firmsD, elevated (3)3 firmsF, heaviest (0)0 firms
Grade breakdown of 279 graded firms headquartered in California

Firms by Disclosure Count

# Firm DisclosuresOfficesGrade
1 Wedbush Securities Inc. Pasadena 212 152 D
2 Cetera Wealth Services, LLC El Segundo 37 4,114 B
3 Roth Capital Partners, LLC Newport Beach 28 18 D
4 Centaurus Financial, Inc. Anaheim 26 376 B
5 Casey Securities LLC Greenbrae 20 2 D
6 Independent Financial Group, LLC San Diego 17 395 B
7 Westpark Capital, Inc. Los Angeles 16 8 B
8 Btig, LLC San Francisco 13 28 C
9 Mutual Securities, Inc. Camarillo 10 79 B
10 Jonestrading Thousand Oaks 9 21 C
11 B.B. Graham & Company, Inc. Orange 7 41 B
12 American Trust Investment Services, Inc. San Clemente 6 9 B
13 Banyan Securities, LLC Larkspur 6 2 C
14 Citizens JMP Securities, LLC San Francisco 6 23 C
15 Glendale Securities, Inc. Sherman Oaks 6 4 B
16 Investment Placement Group San Diego 6 5 B
17 Mischler Financial Group, Inc. Irvine 6 10 B
18 Quincy Cass Associates, Incorporated Los Angeles 6 2 C
19 American Investors Company San Ramon 5 44 B
20 Farmers Financial Solutions, LLC Westlake Village 5 2,417 B
21 Planmember Securities Corporation Carpinteria 5 303 B
22 Syndicated Capital, Inc. Diamond Bar 5 15 B
23 Dunham San Diego 4 12 B
24 Globalink Securities, Inc. Pasadena 4 5 B
25 Infinity Financial Services Oakland 4 36 B
26 Wulff, Hansen & Co. San Rafael 4 5 B
27 Alamo Capital Walnut Creek 3 5 B
28 Bill Parker Agency Sacramento 3 2 B
29 Imperial Capital, LLC Los Angeles 3 6 B
30 Integral Financial LLC Cupertino 3 4 B
31 J.K. Financial Services, Inc. Norco 3 5 B
32 RBC Securities, Inc Los Angeles 3 133 B
33 Sutter Securities Incorporated Irvine 3 4 B
34 ACE Diversified Capital, Inc. San Gabriel, 2 2 B
35 Acorns Securities, LLC Irvine 2 2 B
36 Balanced Security Planning, Inc. Newport Beach 2 2 B
37 Boustead Securities, LLC Irvine 2 2 B
38 CWS Investments Newport Beach 2 21 B
39 Emerson Equity LLC San Mateo 2 110 B
40 Great Pacific Securities Costa Mesa 2 5 B
41 Griffin Capital Securities, LLC Irvine 2 3 B
42 Houlihan Lokey Capital, Inc. Los Angeles 2 14 C
43 J K R & Company, Inc. Van Nuys 2 6 B
44 OAK Tree Securities, Inc. Livermore 2 10 B
45 Penserra Securities, LLC Orinda 2 4 B
46 Rance King Securities Corp. Long Beach 2 2 B
47 Shareholders Service Group, LLC Culver City 2 2 B
48 Signature Estate Securities, LLC Los Angeles 2 10 B
49 Sofi Securities LLC San Francisco 2 6 C
50 Sprott Global Resource Investments Ltd Carlsbad 2 5 B

Inside California's Broker-Dealer Landscape

California has 279 actively registered broker-dealer firms in FINRA's public register, of which 189 (67.7%) carry a clean Grade-A record with no reportable BrokerCheck disclosures.

The state's aggregate disciplinary footprint totals 572 disclosures on BrokerCheck, averaging 2.1 per firm. Grade distribution across California's broker-dealers: 189 graded A, 80 graded B, 7 graded C, 3 graded D, and 0 graded F. That means 67.7% of graded firms hold an A and 1.1% fall into the D or F bands.

Grades reflect our internal model weighing disclosure volume against firm size and scope; they are editorial signals, not FINRA ratings. Disclosure totals on BrokerCheck represent reported events, not proven violations, large multistate firms headquartered in California will naturally carry more disclosures than small single-office firms. This page is informational only and is not financial, legal, or investment advice. Before hiring any California advisor, confirm the firm's current record at FINRA BrokerCheck and review the specific representative's individual CRD report.

Frequently asked questions

Where does California sit among states by BrokerCheck disclosure load?
According to FINRA BrokerCheck disclosure totals used on /states, California ranks #7 of 56 states and territories by aggregate disclosure load (most disclosures first). Firm-count and clean-record-rate ranks are separate analytical signals documented under methodology corpus placement. Aggregate disclosure load is not a judgment of the state's regulators or of any individual firm.
How many broker-dealer firms are registered in California?
California has 279 actively registered broker-dealer firms on FINRA BrokerCheck, of which 189 (67.7%) hold a clean Grade-A record with no reportable disclosures.
Which California broker-dealer has the most FINRA disclosures?
Among firms registered in California, Wedbush Securities Inc. carries the most reported BrokerCheck disclosures (212 across 152 branch offices). Disclosure totals reflect reported events, not proven violations, larger firms naturally carry more. Always review the specific records on FINRA BrokerCheck.
How are PlainAdvisorCheck safety grades calculated?
Grades are size-normalized: a firm's weighted disclosure load is divided by its branch-office footprint, then ranked within its size class. Firms with zero disclosures earn an A regardless of size. Grades are editorial signals, not FINRA ratings. See our methodology for the exact formula.
Is this official California broker data?
Yes. All firm records come from FINRA BrokerCheck and the SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) - the official public registries for U.S. broker-dealers. PlainAdvisorCheck aggregates and size-normalizes them; the underlying records are public domain.
All California Firms → All States →

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Related

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Data sourced from official FINRA BrokerCheck and SEC EDGAR enforcement records. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainAdvisorCheck

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 SEC/FINRA regulatory filing 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.