Commonwealth Financial Network

Commonwealth Financial Network is a registered investment adviser that serves a national network of approximately 2,950 advisors and their retail and institutional clients, offering a suite of advisory programs and services including PPS Custom, PPS Select, PPS Direct, third‑party asset manager access, wealth management, and retirement plan consulting. The firm positions itself as a back‑office and platform provider, delivering operations, trading, technology, investment management, compliance, and practice‑management support to affiliated advisors who often market under their own DBAs while providing advice under Commonwealth’s supervision.

Advisors on the Commonwealth platform generally have discretion to construct client portfolios from a wide range of securities and insurance products, while Commonwealth’s Investment Management and Research team creates and manages discretionary PPS Select model portfolios using a five‑step due‑diligence and monitoring process. The firm also offers distinct program structures — for example, two versions of its PPS Custom program (Transactions and Platform), a Personalized Indexing option with tax‑harvesting, and a range of SMA/UMA and strategist solutions — and the brochure discloses that each advisor is limited to offering only one version of PPS Custom to their clients.

The brochure highlights a few features that distinguish Commonwealth from many peers, including a substantial clearing and custody relationship with National Financial Services LLC (NFS) and related revenue‑sharing and sweep arrangements that materially affect program design and available share classes. The firm’s disclosures also note corporate and legal developments: Commonwealth was acquired by LPL Financial Holdings, Inc. on August 1, 2025 and, separately, a prior court ruling concerning revenue‑sharing disclosures was reversed and remanded by the First Circuit on April 1, 2025, both noted as ongoing matters in the firm’s filings.