No commissions, no ads, no advice. This Cambridge Investment Research profile draws only on public records, each linked so you can confirm it yourself.

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The short answer: is Cambridge Investment Research a fiduciary?

It depends on your account: Cambridge Investment Research is a fiduciary in its advisory programs, and follows the Regulation Best Interest standard as a broker. Publicly, it files with the SEC as Cambridge Investment Research Advisors (CRD #134139). As of its latest Form ADV (filed September 11, 2026), the firm reported $138.7 billion in regulatory assets under management and 361,213 clients, according to the client breakdown in Item 5.D of that filing. Its Form ADV (Item 5.E) lists how it is paid: a percentage of assets under management, hourly charges, fixed fees, commissions, and other. It's all in the public filings. A few minutes is enough to confirm every line yourself.

The firm is a dual registrant, so the standard of care changes with the type of account you hold. In its advisory programs it acts as an investment adviser with a fiduciary duty. In brokerage accounts it acts as a broker-dealer under Regulation Best Interest (a best-interest obligation at the time of a recommendation, not a continuous fiduciary relationship). Our stance: at a dual registrant this size, which account you hold matters more than the name on the door, so ask your advisor to confirm the account type in writing. Get started with Truthifi

What "fiduciary" means: a fiduciary is legally bound to place a client's interests above its own. (More on fiduciary duty)

Cambridge Investment Research at a glance

✅ Verified from public filings, last checked October 5, 2026. Cambridge Investment Research (SEC CRD #134139) is a fiduciary in its advisory programs, on a fee-based basis, with $138.7 billion in regulatory assets under management. Every figure below links to its primary source.

What	Cambridge Investment Research	Source
SEC CRD	#134139	IAPD
Registration	Investment adviser and broker-dealer (dual registrant)	IAPD
Registered since	February 3, 2005 (SEC)	IAPD
Fiduciary?	Yes in advisory programs, Reg BI in brokerage	SEC Reg BI
Fee model	Fee-based (commissions + advisory)	Form ADV Item 5.E
How it's paid	A percentage of assets under management, hourly charges, fixed fees, commissions, and other	Form ADV Item 5.E
Regulatory Assets Under Management	$138.7 billion (Form ADV filed September 11, 2026)	IAPD
Client accounts	608,275 (585,088 discretionary)	IAPD
Employees	3,527 (3,496 in advisory roles)	IAPD
Ownership	Parent-owned	Form ADV Schedule A
Disclosures	Records carry disclosure items (common at this size). Review them directly	IAPD
HQ	Fairfield, IA	IAPD

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Cambridge Investment Research fees: what you'll pay

Cambridge Investment Research fees depend on the account type: commissions in a brokerage account, an asset-based fee in an advisory program. In a brokerage account you generally pay commissions and product costs (mutual fund sales loads, markups, annuity commissions). In an advisory program you pay an asset-based advisory fee instead of per-trade commissions, plus the underlying fund expenses. Knowing which account you're in tells you what you're paying. Its Form ADV (Item 5.E) lists how it is paid: a percentage of assets under management, hourly charges, fixed fees, commissions, and other.

Treat that Item 5.E list as a map of incentives, not just prices. A percentage-of-assets fee rewards growing and keeping your balance, while a commission rewards a transaction, so the fee line on your own statement tells you which incentive sits behind the advice you get. The firm's Form CRS summarizes the same split in plain language. (For a different angle on cost, see Are you paying too much? Why that might be the wrong question.)

Fee-based means cost can come from both an advisory fee and commissions, depending on the account.

Who owns Cambridge Investment Research, and what conflicts does it disclose?

Cambridge Investment Research is owned by Cambridge Investment Group, Inc., according to Schedule A of its Form ADV. (Form ADV Schedule A)

Its Form ADV Part 2A describes the firm's conflicts of interest, including how it and its advisers are paid.

Cambridge Investment Research SEC record: disclosures

Cambridge's adviser entity reports 3,496 people in investment advisory roles, and that headcount shapes how its disclosure record should be read. Like most large firms, Cambridge Investment Research's regulatory records may carry disclosure items, and at that scale the number of disclosures is not by itself a measure of wrongdoing or of the firm's quality. Disclosure counts track headcount, not misconduct. A large firm will show more total items than a small one because more people are registered under it. Read any that matter to you at the source, on the SEC's IAPD and on FINRA's BrokerCheck. Any Cambridge Investment Research disclosures sit on the public record, not on anyone's characterization of them.

On the record, it has been registered with the SEC since February 3, 2005, makes notice filings in 53 jurisdictions, and reports 3,527 employees, 3,496 of them in investment advisory roles. Searches asking whether Cambridge Investment Research is legit have a short answer: it has a public CRD and public filings anyone can pull. Registration shows it's a real, regulated adviser, not that it's the right fit for you.

Reading Cambridge Investment Research reviews against the public record

A review of Cambridge usually describes one advisor in one office, while the filing describes a firm with 3,496 advisory staff and a notice-filing footprint in 53 jurisdictions. That gap is why a glowing or harsh review tells you little about the firm-wide rules. Before you weigh Cambridge Investment Research reviews, check three things this profile takes from the public record. First, how the firm is paid: advisory accounts and brokerage accounts are paid differently, so the standard that applies depends on your account. Second, who owns it and what conflicts it discloses. Third, whether its Form ADV reports any disciplinary history. Read reviews alongside the record, not instead of it.

How to verify Cambridge Investment Research yourself

Here's how to confirm all of it in three steps:

1. Check the SEC adviser record (IAPD): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/134139.
2. Read the filings (Form ADV / Form CRS): linked from the IAPD page.
3. Confirm the entity: match Cambridge Investment Research (CRD #134139, legal name CAMBRIDGE INVESTMENT RESEARCH ADVISORS, INC.) so you're reading the right firm.

What Cambridge Investment Research does and who it serves

On its Form ADV, Cambridge Investment Research reports providing financial planning, portfolio management for individuals, small businesses and institutions, pension consulting, selection of other advisers, market timing, and educational seminars.

Separately, it reports providing financial planning services to about 48,500 clients over its last fiscal year (Form ADV Item 5.H). That is a count of planning engagements across a full year. The 361,213 total below (Item 5.D) is a point-in-time count as of the filing, so the two figures measure different things and shouldn't be added together.

Its Form ADV (Item 5.D) breaks its clients down by type, 361,213 in all:

Client type	Clients	Assets managed
Individuals	308,441	$65.01 billion
High-net-worth individuals	47,431	$69.61 billion
Pension and profit-sharing plans	2,387	$1.06 billion
Charities	6	$16.9 million
State or municipal government entities	2,948	$3 billion

Read this table by assets, not by headcount. By Truthifi's arithmetic from Item 5.D, high-net-worth individuals are about 13% of clients but hold about 50% of the $138.7 billion, roughly $1.47 million each on average against about $211,000 for other individuals. If you're one of the 308,441 individuals, it's worth asking whether the fee schedule in Part 2A treats your balance the same way it treats the larger relationships.

It reports 608,275 client accounts, more than the 361,213 clients counted above (many clients hold more than one account, about 1.7 per client on average). Of those, 585,088 are discretionary (about 96%; the firm can trade without seeking your approval first) and 23,187 non-discretionary (Item 5.F). Its main office is in Fairfield, IA.

It reports that it or a related person has custody of certain client assets, which brings extra safeguards such as surprise examinations. The specifics are in its Form ADV.

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Confirming the firm is the easy part. Seeing everything you hold is the valuable one.

Confirming Cambridge Investment Research is registered takes a few minutes. No advisor, however good, sees your whole financial life by default. The held-away retirement plan, a spouse's portfolio and the costs inside a fund show up scattered and unreconciled. This is where Truthifi comes in.

Beyond the filing: seeing everything you hold

Confirming Cambridge Investment Research is registered takes a few minutes. No advisor, however good, sees your whole financial life by default. The held-away retirement plan, a spouse's portfolio and the costs inside a fund show up scattered and unreconciled. This is where Truthifi comes in.

How Truthifi can help

Truthifi links your accounts read-only and shows what you own, how it's allocated, how it's performing and where the risk sits, including single-stock exposure, returns next to a benchmark, a fee breakdown of the fees on each account, by type, and your Truthifi Score. You can share the accounts you choose with your advisor at Cambridge Investment Research.

Prefer your own AI? A paid Truthifi plan lets you connect an AI assistant, such as Claude, that supports MCP sign-in (MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that lets an assistant securely log in to an outside service like Truthifi). Truthifi Connect is the lighter membership for people who only want to use their own assistant. Questions about your fees need Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+. Get started with Truthifi · See how Truthifi keeps your accounts secure

Ask AI about your Cambridge Investment Research accounts

Once your accounts are connected read-only, you can ask in plain English:

• "What do I own across my Cambridge Investment Research accounts and everything else, and how is it allocated?"
• "What am I paying in fees across all of these accounts, by type?"

Try it with Truthifi: start for free at app.truthifi.com and run a Monitoring Checkup (limits apply).

No commissions, no ads, no advice: Truthifi is not an investment adviser and doesn't give investment, tax or legal advice. Its access to your bank and brokerage accounts is read-only. Start free (limits apply). Monitoring Checkup is free. Per Truthifi's published plan limits, you can link up to 10 connections. Plans and limits are on the pricing page → truthifi.com.

One thing no filing can show: Item 5.F tells you the firm can trade without asking in about 96% of its accounts, but only your own statements tell you whether yours is one of them, and under which standard each trade was made.

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FAQ

Is Cambridge Investment Research a fiduciary? It depends on your account. In its advisory programs it acts as a fiduciary. In brokerage accounts it follows the SEC's Regulation Best Interest standard. Ask which type of account you have.

What are Cambridge Investment Research's fees? They depend on the account. Brokerage accounts generally pay commissions and product charges. Advisory programs charge an asset-based fee instead of per-trade commissions, plus underlying fund costs. See the Form CRS.

Who owns Cambridge Investment Research? Cambridge Investment Research is owned by Cambridge Investment Group, Inc., as listed in Schedule A of its Form ADV.

Does Cambridge Investment Research have complaints or disclosures? Its regulatory records may carry disclosure items, as is common at its size. A disclosure is not proof of wrongdoing. Read any directly on BrokerCheck and the firm's Form ADV.

Is Cambridge Investment Research legit? Cambridge Investment Research is registered with the SEC (CRD #134139) and its filings are public on the SEC's IAPD site, which confirms it is a real, regulated firm. Registration doesn't tell you whether it's the right fit or what you'll pay, so read the fee and conflict sections of its Form ADV.

Can AI help me check whether I'm getting good value? Yes. Start free (limits apply): Monitoring Checkup is free and lets you link up to 10 connections. You can also connect an AI assistant you already use (such as Claude). On Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+ you can ask it, in plain English, about the fees on each of your accounts. Truthifi is not an investment adviser and doesn't give investment, tax or legal advice.

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About this profile

Truthifi built this profile from the firm's own SEC filings (Form ADV and, where filed, Form CRS). Every page is reviewed by the Truthifi Team before publishing. The Truthifi advisor fact packs are an ongoing series checking U.S. investment advisers against their public filings, one firm at a time.

Read next from the Truthifi blog

• What is a fiduciary?
• Fee-only financial advisor: costs and how to find one
• Are you paying too much? Why that might be the wrong question
• How to ask AI about your real investment accounts
• Robo-advisor vs. human financial advisor: which is better?
• All advisor fact packs on Truthifi

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A note on sources. The facts on this page come from publicly available documents, Cambridge Investment Research's SEC and FINRA filings, each linked inline so you can verify it yourself (SEC data current as of October 5, 2026). This is general information, not financial or legal advice, and Truthifi is not affiliated with Cambridge Investment Research. Regulatory records change, so always confirm against the official sources linked above. Spot something that should be corrected? Email us at support@truthifi.com.