Last updated · first published · reviewed by the Smart Money Verified Team
How to Check If a Financial Firm Is Registered
Every legitimate brokerage or advisory firm dealing with people in the United States appears in a free public register. Here is exactly where to look, and how to tell a real record from a copied one.
The short answer
Search the firm name on FINRA BrokerCheck (brokercheck.finra.org) and on the SEC adviser database (adviserinfo.sec.gov). Between them they cover registered brokerage firms and registered investment advisers. Both are free, take about two minutes, and show registration status, the states the firm may operate in, and every reported regulatory action or customer complaint.
If the firm appears in neither, check your state securities regulator through nasaa.org — smaller advisory firms register with states. If it appears nowhere at all, treat that as a stop sign, not a paperwork issue.
Which register covers which kind of firm?
Covers: Brokerage firms (broker-dealers) and the registered people who work for them
Shows: Registration status and date, states registered in, licences, regulatory actions, arbitrations, customer complaints
Covers: Investment advisory firms and their representatives
Shows: Form ADV filings, assets under management, fee structure, disciplinary history, affiliations
Covers: Advisers managing under $100 million, and state-level enforcement
Shows: State registration, state orders, cease-and-desist actions, local complaints
Covers: Public filings by firms and funds
Shows: Form ADV, Form D private-offering notices, audited reports, prospectuses
What steps catch the most fake firms?
1Start with the exact legal name
Type the name precisely as it appears on the paperwork or website you were given. If a slightly different name comes back, you may be looking at a clone rather than the real firm.
2Check the adviser side as well
A firm can be a registered investment adviser without being a broker-dealer. Searching only one database is the most common reason people wrongly conclude a firm is unregistered — or wrongly conclude it is clean.
3Confirm the state registration
Advisory firms below the SEC threshold register with states, and every state keeps its own enforcement record. A firm can be federally registered and still be barred in your state.
4Check the specialist registers if it fits
Futures, forex, and commodity firms are not on BrokerCheck. Money transmitters and crypto businesses are registered differently again.
5Read the disclosures and save a dated copy
Registration status is only half the answer. Download the full report so you have evidence of what the record said on the day you checked.
Does registration mean the firm is safe?
No — and assuming otherwise is how people lose money
Registration means a firm filed the required paperwork and accepted oversight. No regulator endorses a firm, approves what it sells, or guarantees your money.
A registered firm can still have a long disclosure history, and a clean record only means nothing has been reported yet — fraud is usually reported long after it starts. The point of the check is to rule out the clearly unregistered and to read the history of everyone else.
What should the record show — and not show?
Warning signs
- No result in BrokerCheck, IAPD, or your state register for the name you were given
- The name almost matches a well-known firm but the website domain or phone number is different
- Registration lapsed or was withdrawn years ago, but the firm still presents itself as licensed
- They send you a screenshot or PDF of a registration instead of letting you search it yourself
- The address on the record is a mailbox service or does not match the office they describe
- They claim a foreign licence exempts them from United States registration
Reassuring signs
- The firm appears under its exact legal name with current registration
- The website domain, address, and phone number match the regulator record
- Registration in the state where you live, not only where the firm is based
- Disclosures, if any, are old, minor, and explained openly when you ask
- They give you the CRD or SEC file number without being pushed
- They encourage you to verify everything independently before you sign
What if you find nothing at all?
- Stop sending money, and do not accept a "compliance fee" or "tax" to release funds — that is a second scam layered on the first.
- Report to the SEC at sec.gov/tcr and to FINRA at finra.org/investors/have-problem.
- Report to your state securities regulator, found through nasaa.org — states often act faster on local cases.
- If you were approached online, file with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
- Report to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, which feeds a database used by law enforcement nationwide.
What to do next
Search the firm in front of you on BrokerCheck and the SEC adviser database now, and save a dated copy of each report before any money moves.
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Who writes these guides
Written and reviewed by the Smart Money Verified Team. We build every guide from primary regulator material, we take no payment from any company we write about, and we say plainly when public records cannot answer a question. Our guides are education, not financial advice.
Primary sources we work from
How we check things: our methodology · disclosures