FINRA BrokerCheck is a free public tool that lets you look up the registration status, licensing, employment history, and disciplinary record of U.S. brokers and brokerage firms. The data comes from the Central Registration Depository, the securities industry’s main registration database.1Investor.gov. Central Registration Depository (CRD) You can reach it three ways: online at brokercheck.finra.org, by phone at (800) 289-9999, or by written request mailed to FINRA BrokerCheck, P.O. Box 9495, Gaithersburg, MD 20898-9495, or faxed to (240) 386-4750.2FINRA. BrokerCheck FAQ For due diligence on anyone selling or supervising the sale of securities, it’s the logical first stop.
Who and What BrokerCheck Covers
Two groups are in the database: FINRA-registered brokerage firms (broker-dealers) and their associated persons, meaning the individuals who sell securities or supervise those who do. Both must register with FINRA to conduct securities business with the public in the United States.3FINRA. Register a New Broker-Dealer Firm Each registered individual carries a unique CRD number for life, and every firm they join, license they earn, and disclosure event they trigger gets tied to it.
BrokerCheck also pulls basic information from the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) database, so a search may return investment adviser representatives alongside traditional broker records.2FINRA. BrokerCheck FAQ Many professionals hold both broker and adviser registrations, so it’s worth checking IAPD directly for the advisory side.
Former Brokers
Leaving the industry does not erase the record. FINRA releases the full report for anyone associated with a registered firm within the last ten years. After that window, FINRA still discloses the record if the person had a final regulatory action, a criminal conviction, a civil injunction tied to investment activity, or an arbitration award or civil judgment for sales practice violations.4Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA Rule 8312 – FINRA BrokerCheck Disclosure Serious events stay visible indefinitely; clean records eventually age off.
Statutory Disqualification
If a report flags a broker or firm as subject to “statutory disqualification,” treat it as the most severe signal the system produces. The status means the person’s background contains events that bar them from associating with any FINRA member firm without a special application. Triggers include felony convictions, certain misdemeanor convictions within the past ten years, SEC or self-regulatory organization bars, and investment-related injunctions.5FINRA. Appendix A Statutory Disqualification Codes
How to Run a Search
At brokercheck.finra.org, pick individual or firm and search by name, firm name, or CRD number. The CRD number is the cleanest input because it removes false matches on common names. Searching by name alone works if you add city or state to narrow results.
The results page shows each match’s current registration status and firm affiliation. Confirm the employer and location line up with the person you mean before opening the full report, which downloads as a PDF. Save it. A timestamped copy in your files documents that the due diligence was actually performed, which matters if the check is part of a compliance workflow.
Prefer not to use the site? The hotline gives quick verbal confirmation of registration status before a meeting, and mail and fax are available for written requests.
What an Individual Report Shows
An individual report is organized into sections that each answer a different question.
Employment History and Registration Status
Every FINRA-registered firm the person has worked for is listed, with dates and capacity. Current registration status appears up top. A professional needs an active registration to legally conduct securities business, so a status like “Terminated” or “Administrative Termination” means the person cannot currently do so under that registration.6FINRA. Individual Registration Statuses Short stints at multiple firms in rapid succession are not themselves a disclosure event, but the pattern is worth asking about.
Qualifications and Exams
This section lists every qualification exam the person has passed and the date. Common ones include the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE), Series 7, and Series 66. The exams held define what securities activities the person is authorized to perform. FINRA does not release exam scores or information about failed attempts, so only passes appear here.4Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA Rule 8312 – FINRA BrokerCheck Disclosure
Disclosure Events
This is the section that carries the most weight for due diligence. It catalogs reportable events across several categories:7FINRA. About BrokerCheck
- Regulatory actions: formal discipline by FINRA, the SEC, or state regulators, including fines, suspensions, and industry bars.
- Customer disputes: allegations from clients, including arbitration claims and civil lawsuits. A pending dispute is unresolved. A “settled” status means money changed hands to close the claim, though settlement alone isn’t an admission of wrongdoing.
- Criminal and civil judicial matters: felony charges, certain misdemeanor charges, and civil judgments connected to investment activity.4Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA Rule 8312 – FINRA BrokerCheck Disclosure
Small customer settlements can convert to “historic complaints” that appear in a slightly different format, but they are still released through BrokerCheck. The practical point is that settlement size affects how a record is displayed, not whether you can see it.4Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA Rule 8312 – FINRA BrokerCheck Disclosure
What a Firm Report Shows
Firm reports are structured differently. Expect a summary overview, a profile identifying controlling owners and key operational personnel, a firm history section covering mergers, acquisitions, and name changes, and an operations section listing active licenses, registrations, and business lines.7FINRA. About BrokerCheck
The disclosure section works like an individual’s, covering arbitration awards, disciplinary events, and financial matters. Two flags at the firm level deserve serious scrutiny if either appears. The first is FINRA’s “Taping Rule.” The second is a “Restricted Firm” designation under Rule 4111, which requires the firm to deposit cash or qualified securities into a restricted account and may impose operational conditions for investor protection.8FINRA. FINRA Rule 4111 – Restricted Firm Obligations
Gaps to Know About
A clean BrokerCheck report is useful, but it isn’t the whole picture. Several things the tool doesn’t show can matter to your evaluation.
Exam scores and failed attempts are not released. A broker who passed the Series 7 on the fifth try looks identical to one who passed on the first. The reason a broker left a firm is also not disclosed. You’ll see that a registration was terminated, but not whether the person was fired for cause, laid off, or moved on voluntarily. Personal financial issues such as bankruptcy filings and federal tax liens don’t appear, though some state regulators collect and publish that information.
Brokers can also petition to have customer dispute records removed through a process called expungement. Under FINRA Rule 2080, the broker needs a court order or a confirmed arbitration award directing the expungement, and generally must name FINRA as a party in the proceeding.9FINRA. FINRA Rule 2080 – Obtaining an Order of Expungement of Customer Dispute Information from the Central Registration Depository (CRD) System The bar isn’t trivial, but expungements do happen, which means a clean report today might have contained disputes that were later removed. State securities regulator databases sometimes retain records FINRA has expunged, which is one reason a deeper check reaches beyond BrokerCheck.
When to Look Beyond BrokerCheck
If the professional or firm you’re checking also gives investment advice for a fee, run a parallel search at the SEC’s IAPD site at adviserinfo.sec.gov.10Investment Adviser Public Disclosure. Investment Adviser Public Disclosure Homepage BrokerCheck imports basic advisory data, but the IAPD site itself gives you the firm’s Form ADV filing, the mandatory disclosure document for registered investment advisers.
Form ADV Part 2A, the “brochure,” is where operational detail lives. It discloses the firm’s fee schedule and whether fees are negotiable, how the firm handles conflicts of interest and whether advisers receive sales compensation, disciplinary history of the firm and key personnel, and the types of advisory services offered.11U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form ADV Part 2 – Uniform Requirements for the Investment Adviser Brochure Reading BrokerCheck and Form ADV together gives you a fuller view of how the operation actually runs.
For evaluating a brokerage firm’s parent company or corporate affiliates, the SEC’s EDGAR full-text search provides access to regulatory filings going back to 2001. You can search by company name, ticker symbol, or CIK number and filter by filing type.12U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. EDGAR Full Text Search
Finally, state securities regulators run their own licensing databases and often have jurisdiction over smaller advisory firms operating within a single state. They sometimes hold information BrokerCheck omits, including reasons for termination and personal financial disclosures. Layering a state check on top of BrokerCheck and IAPD closes most of the gaps that any single system leaves open.