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Two immigrants named Adolph Ladenburg and Ernst Thalmann established their New York financial services firm, Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Ladenburg came from a highly regarded German banking family, whose firm W.H. Ladenburg & Soehne, of Mannheim dated from 1785. In the 1850s, other family members founded E. Ladenburg & Co. in Frankfort and W. Ladenburg & Co. in London.

On December 11, 1879, Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. became one of the first members of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Ernst Thalmann paid $13,550 for his seat on the exchange following Brown Brothers Harriman, Lazard, Lehman, Morgan, and Davenport.

In 1895, with concern among U.S. bankers that the nation's gold reserves were falling below a safe level, New York financier J. Pierpont Morgan invited the leading firms engaged in foreign exchange - including Ladenburg Thalmann - to devise a solution to stop the exportation of gold. He also arranged a syndicate with Ladenburg Thalmann that loaned gold to the U.S. government to stabilize the world market.

At the turn of the century, Ladenburg Thalmann's arbitrage desk had the most modern and extensive wire service on Wall Street. In trans-Atlantic communications, that led to Ladenburg Thalmann handling a substantial portion of arbitrage transactions on two continents.

In 1917, Ladenburg Thalmann and other New York financial firms were active in raising war bonds for the government. The firm invested $1 million in U.S. "Liberty Loan."

In 1933, New York State, relied on Ladenburg Thalmann and the Bank of Manhattan Company for a $20 million private placement. In the same year, Ladenburg Thalmann led a syndicate to manage a $34 million bond offering for the New York Port Authority. The city came back to Ladenburg Thalmann seven years later to head a syndicate that sold a $27.75 million issue.

In 1958, Ladenburg Thalmann played an important role in the postwar reconstruction of Austria, helping to provide $50 million for infrastructure projects. With Kuhn Loeb Co. as co-manager, the firm handled a $25 million, 15-year bond issue that was offered simultaneously with a $25 million loan to the Austrian government by the World Bank. The bond issue was used to help finance electrification of state railroads, automation of the state telephone system and construction of an expressway between Vienna and Salzburg.

Ladenburg's parent company acquires five independent broker dealers, totaling over 4400 independent financial professionals.

In 2020, Ladenburg agreed to be acquired by Advisor Group. The total enterprise value of the transaction is approximately $1.3 billion, taking into account Ladenburg's common stock, preferred stock and outstanding debt creating a b/d network with 11,500 advisors and over $450 billion in assets.