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

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The short answer: is Carson Group a fiduciary?

Yes. Carson Group is a fiduciary when it acts as your investment adviser, and with $50.6 billion in client assets it is among the larger SEC-registered investment advisers. Carson Group is the brand. The legal entity that registers and files with the SEC is CWM, LLC (CRD #155344), and that is the name you'll see on IAPD. According to its latest Form ADV (filed September 30, 2026), the firm reported $50.6 billion in regulatory assets under management (a firm-reported figure). Its Form ADV (Item 5.E) lists how it is paid: a percentage of assets under management, hourly charges, fixed fees, and other. Every line here traces to a public filing you can pull yourself in a few minutes.

Its Form ADV also reports that a related person is a broker-dealer (Item 7.A), and brokerage accounts fall under Regulation Best Interest instead. Our take: because the adviser files as CWM, LLC while a related company runs broker-dealer business, we recommend asking Carson Group to list, in writing, which of your accounts are advisory accounts under the fiduciary standard and which are brokerage accounts under Reg BI. A brand name alone won't tell you. 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)

Carson Group at a glance

✅ Verified from public filings, last checked October 5, 2026. Carson Group (SEC CRD #155344) is a fiduciary when acting as your adviser, on an advisory-fee basis, with $50.6 billion in regulatory assets under management. Every figure below links to its primary source.

What	Carson Group	Source
SEC CRD	#155344	IAPD
Registration	Investment adviser, with a related person that is a broker-dealer (Form ADV Item 7.A)	IAPD
Registered since	January 3, 2011 (SEC)	IAPD
Fiduciary?	Yes, when acting as your adviser	SEC adviser standard
Fee model	Advisory fees (no commissions reported in Item 5.E)	Form ADV Item 5.E
How it's paid	A percentage of assets under management, hourly charges, fixed fees, and other	Form ADV Item 5.E
Regulatory Assets Under Management	$50.6 billion (Form ADV filed September 30, 2026)	IAPD
Client accounts	154,206 (146,763 discretionary)	IAPD
Employees	1,416 (472 in advisory roles)	IAPD
Ownership	Parent-owned	Form ADV Schedule A
Disclosures	Form ADV answers No to firm-level disciplinary questions	IAPD
HQ	Omaha, NE	IAPD

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Carson Group fees: what you'll pay

Carson Group charges advisory fees: its Form ADV (Item 5.E) reports no commissions for its advisory services. Its filing also reports broker-dealer, insurance or other sales activity by the firm or a related company, business that can be paid by commissions. With four pay methods on file (asset-based, hourly, fixed and other), it's worth asking which one applies to your own agreement. The fee schedule behind them is in its Form ADV Part 2A, and the plain-language summary is in its Form CRS. To compare that setup with a strictly fee-only arrangement, see Fee-only financial advisor: costs and how to find one.

Advisory fees are what clients pay the adviser directly. Commissions earned through a related broker-dealer or insurance business are a separate source of pay, and fund costs can add a third layer (how hidden investment fees work). Whether the fee is fair depends on what you get for it, a point covered in Are you paying too much? Why that might be the wrong question.

Who owns Carson Group, and what conflicts does it disclose?

Carson Group is owned by Carson Group Holdings, LLC, as listed in Schedule A of its Form ADV. (Form ADV Schedule A) That places CWM, LLC inside a larger holding structure, so ask whether any affiliate earns money from what you're recommended.

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

Carson Group SEC record: disclosures

According to its Form ADV (2026), CWM, LLC answers No to the firm-level disciplinary-history questions. Those answers cover the firm as an entity, not each of the 472 people in advisory roles. Look individual advisers up on IAPD and FINRA BrokerCheck too. Any disclosures tied to Carson Group or its advisers are on that public record, where you can read them with their full context.

On the record, the firm has been registered with the SEC since January 3, 2011, makes notice filings in 52 jurisdictions, and reports 1,416 employees, 472 of them (about a third) in investment advisory roles. If you're asking "is Carson Group legit?", start with registration: a public CRD and filings anyone can pull. That confirms it's a real, regulated adviser. Whether it's right for you is a separate question.

Reading Carson Group reviews against the public record

Star ratings and client comments describe what working with a firm felt like. They usually don't show what the firm reports to regulators. Before you weigh Carson Group reviews, set them against three points from its filings. First, pay: advisory fees with no commissions reported in Item 5.E, alongside a related broker-dealer. Second, ownership: Carson Group Holdings, LLC sits above the adviser, and Part 2A lists the conflicts. Third, client mix: Carson Group serves 45,032 individual clients and 7,231 high-net-worth clients, so a reviewer with a modest account and one with a multimillion-dollar portfolio may be describing different firms in practice. Where a review and the filing disagree, we'd give the filing more weight.

How to verify Carson Group 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/155344.
2. Read the filings (Form ADV / Form CRS): linked from the IAPD page.
3. Confirm the entity: match Carson Group (CRD #155344, legal name CWM, LLC) so you're reading the right firm.

To set Carson Group beside other firms checked the same way, browse the Truthifi /advisors hub.

What Carson Group does and who it serves

On its Form ADV, Carson Group reports providing financial planning, portfolio management for individuals and small businesses, and selection of other advisers.

According to Form ADV Item 5.H (2026), it provided financial planning to about 30,500 clients in its last fiscal year. That figure comes from a different item of the form, which doesn't say how many of those planning clients are also among the 52,669 clients counted by type below. It's unclear how the two counts relate, so this page doesn't add them together and uses 52,669 as the client total.

According to its Form ADV (Item 5.D), its clients break down by type, 52,669 in all:

Client type	Clients	Assets managed
Individuals	45,032	$23.87 billion
High-net-worth individuals	7,231	$21.91 billion
Pension and profit-sharing plans	67	$2.28 billion
Corporations or other businesses	339	$2.52 billion

By our arithmetic from that table, high-net-worth individuals are about 14% of Carson Group's clients but hold about 43% of the assets it manages. Dividing assets by client count gives an average of roughly $3 million per high-net-worth client and about $530,000 per other individual client; those averages are our estimates, not figures the firm reports. The filing doesn't break out revenue by client type. Because fees are reported largely as a percentage of assets, the smaller high-net-worth group may account for an outsized share of fee revenue, though that is an inference. If your account sits nearer the $530,000 average, ask how service differs by account size.

It reports 154,206 client accounts, roughly three per client against the 52,669 counted above (Item 5.F). Of those, 146,763 (about 95%) are discretionary, meaning the firm can trade without seeking your approval first, and 7,443 are non-discretionary. Its main office is in Omaha, NE.

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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Vetting the firm is quick. Seeing your whole financial picture is the part that pays off.

Confirming Carson Group is registered takes a few minutes. The 154,206 accounts in its filing (Item 5.F), about three per client, are the accounts it serves. A workplace 401(k) or a spouse's brokerage account held elsewhere isn't part of that count, so fees and overlapping holdings there may go unnoticed. 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 Carson Group. See how Truthifi keeps your accounts secure

Prefer your own AI? A paid Truthifi plan lets you connect an AI assistant that supports MCP sign-in, such as Claude. 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+. For a walkthrough, see How to ask AI about your real investment accounts.

Ask AI about your Carson Group accounts

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

• "What do I own across my Carson Group accounts and everything else, and how is it allocated?"
• "What am I paying in fees across all of these accounts?"

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. Link up to 10 connections, per Truthifi platform data on plan limits. Plans and limits are on the pricing page → truthifi.com.

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FAQ

Is Carson Group a fiduciary? Yes, when acting as your adviser. Its Form ADV reports a related person that is a broker-dealer, and brokerage accounts fall under Regulation Best Interest instead. Ask which capacity covers each of your accounts.

Is Carson Group fee-only? Not necessarily. Its Form ADV (Item 5.E) reports no commissions for advisory services, but the filing also reports broker-dealer, insurance or other sales activity by the firm or a related company, which can be paid differently. Ask how everyone you deal with is paid. The details are in its Form ADV Part 2A.

Who owns Carson Group? Carson Group is owned by Carson Group Holdings, LLC, as listed in Schedule A of its Form ADV.

Does Carson Group have complaints or disclosures? Its Form ADV answers No to the firm-level disciplinary-history questions. Individual advisers can have their own records on IAPD and BrokerCheck.

Is Carson Group legit? Carson Group is registered with the SEC (CRD #155344) 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, Carson Group's SEC 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 Carson Group. Regulatory records change, so always confirm against the official sources linked above. Spot something that should be corrected? Email us at support@truthifi.com.

One figure to recheck when Carson Group files its next annual Form ADV: the high-net-worth share of assets, about 43% in the 2026 filing (Item 5.D). Comparing that share year to year shows whether the firm's client mix is shifting toward larger accounts or away from them.