Laguna Hills, CA El Toro Rd. Office

Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc. serves a broad mix of individual and institutional clients — including pension and charitable organization clients — by providing financial planning, ongoing investment management, retirement-plan advisory, and wrap-fee programs. The firm operates through thousands of Financial Professionals and manages a multi‑billion dollar asset base while offering account implementation across multiple platforms and custodians.

The firm supports both discretionary and non‑discretionary management via platforms described in the brochure (CMAP, FlexMAP and the WealthPort wrap program), offers access to unaffiliated third‑party advisers and sub‑advisors, and maintains proprietary model strategies under the Founders Gate Capital brand. The brochure also notes some Financial Professionals offer tactical services such as market‑timing strategies and that a subset of advisers maintain outside professional practices (including accounting and legal services) and may refer clients to those practices.

Notable distinctions in the brochure include the firm’s development and distribution of affiliated model strategies (Founders Gate Capital), with disclosed strategist fees and related conflict‑of‑interest procedures, and detailed governance around platform and third‑party relationships. The brochure also discloses recent regulatory matters — including an SEC consent with restitution and penalties totaling approximately $13.2 million (2025) and a Delaware consent order with penalties and restitution of about $1.05 million (2026) — and describes supervisory and procedural changes the firm has put in place.