Cetera has corporate offices throughout the United States, including San Diego, El Segundo, and Walnut Creek, California; Greenwood Village, Colorado; Atlanta, Georgia; Schaumburg, Illinois; and St.

Cetera was established in February 2010 when Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation ING Group sold three broker-dealers to private equity firm Lightyear Capital.

[10][11][12] In April 2014, RCS Capital Corporation purchased Cetera[13] among its acquisitions of other independent broker dealers and registered investment advisers, including First Allied Securities in September 2013;[14] Investors Capital Holdings Ltd., and Summit Brokerage Services, and JP Turner & Company in June 2014; Girard Securities in March 2015 and VSR Group in May 2015.

[15][16][17][18][19] In May 2016, Cetera completed a transformation into an independent, privately held organization under its parent company, Aretec Group, Inc.[20][21] Through this restructuring process, a new board of directors[22] was established.

[28] In January 2023, Cetera entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the retail wealth business of Securian Financial Group, Inc.