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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Commonwealth
Protecting your assets
A: Whether your primary provider of investment services is a brokerage firm, a financial institution, a financial planner, or an investment management firm, you have the right to expect more—more service, more products, and more attention to your needs. Through our financial professionals, we offer you a comprehensive array of investment and financial products and services along with the personal assistance you want. Our advisors can provide more personalized service with broad access to many types of investment products to help develop, execute, and maintain your personal investment portfolio. Our advisors can also offer you the depth of products and services associated with a larger firm due to our relationship with National Financial Services LLC (NFS)—a Fidelity company. Q: How many advisors do you have, and how many home office employees do
you have to support them? Q: Where are you located? Q: Will Commonwealth stay independent and privately owned? For many reasons, Commonwealth clearly looks to remain a privately held firm. First and foremost, the principals of Commonwealth are relatively young; they love what they do, whom they do it with, and have absolutely no intention of retiring from the business anytime soon. Second, as one of the few remaining truly independent firms, we have a competitive advantage in the marketplace by remaining independent. In short, we think we'd be crazy to sell a nicely growing business we love to an insurance company or a bank that would immediately alter a culture we've spent nearly three decades cultivating. We also do not foresee going public. In our estimation, companies go public for two reasons: it's either a liquidity event for the owners, or the company needs access to the broader capital markets to fund an expansion beyond what it can internally finance. Commonwealth's ownership has no need or desire to "cash out." We’re very satisfied running our broker/dealer and do not harbor international ambitions—and the last thing we want is the pressure of quarterly numbers driving our management decisions. The bottom line is that building this broker/dealer has been our lifework, and retaining the autonomy to manage it while remaining true to our core principles is essential. We value our independence in much the same manner that our advisors value theirs. Back to top
A: You can feel confident that much of the critical trade processing, clearance, client reporting, and systems backing your investment professional is performed by NFS, an industry leader. NFS processes tens of thousands of transactions for millions of investors like you every day. NFS has both the vision and the resources to provide you with innovative products and services for many years to come. NFS is a leading clearing firm and is subject to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), and other principal exchanges of which it is a member. Q: Is there any insurance provided to protect me? A: Commonwealth and NFS are members of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), a federal nonprofit corporation that protects customer assets in the unlikely event that a member broker/dealer should fail to meet its financial obligations. As a result, if your broker/dealer should fail, and NFS fails, cash awaiting reinvestment and all securities held in your account are protected in two ways:
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