FINRA BrokerCheck is a free public tool at brokercheck.finra.org that lets you look up any FINRA-registered brokerage firm or securities professional and pull a report covering their employment history, licensing, exam qualifications, and disclosure events. The data comes from the Central Registration Depository, the main registration database for the U.S. securities industry.1Investor.gov. Central Registration Depository (CRD) If you’d rather not use the website, you can call the BrokerCheck hotline at (800) 289-9999 or submit a written request by mail or fax.2FINRA. BrokerCheck FAQ For anyone vetting a broker or firm before signing paperwork, this is the first stop.
Who Shows Up in a BrokerCheck Search
Two groups are covered: FINRA-registered broker-dealer firms, and the associated persons 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 their entire career, which tracks every firm they join and every reportable event.
BrokerCheck also pulls basic data from the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) system, so a search can surface investment adviser representatives alongside traditional brokers.2FINRA. BrokerCheck FAQ That matters because many professionals are dually registered. For the full advisory-side detail, the IAPD site itself is the better destination (more on that below).
Former Brokers
Someone who has left the industry doesn’t disappear from the database. FINRA releases the full report for anyone who was associated with a registered firm within the last ten years. After that, FINRA still discloses information if the person was subject to a final regulatory action, convicted of a crime, hit with a civil injunction tied to investment activity, or had an arbitration award or civil judgment entered against them for sales practice violations.4Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA Rule 8312 – FINRA BrokerCheck Disclosure Serious events stay visible indefinitely. Clean records age off.
Running the Search
Go to brokercheck.finra.org and pick individual or firm. You can search by name, firm name, or CRD number. The CRD number is the most reliable input because it eliminates false matches when the person has a common name. If you only have a name, enter the full first and last name and filter by city or state.
The results page shows each match with current registration status and firm affiliation. Confirm the right person by checking the current employer and location before clicking through. The full report generates as a downloadable PDF. Save it. If BrokerCheck is part of a compliance workflow, you want a timestamped copy showing the due diligence was done.
Reading an Individual Report
Individual reports are broken into sections, each doing different work in your evaluation.
Employment History and Registration Status
The employment section lists every FINRA-registered firm the person has worked for, with dates and capacity. Current registration status appears prominently. A professional must show an active registration to legally conduct securities business, and statuses like “Terminated” or “Administrative Termination” mean the individual cannot currently conduct business under that registration.5FINRA. Individual Registration Statuses A pattern of short stints at multiple firms in rapid succession isn’t a formal disclosure event, but it’s worth asking about.
Qualifications and Exams
This section lists every industry exam the person has passed and the date. Common ones include the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE), Series 7 (General Securities Representative), and Series 66 (Uniform Combined State Law). The exams held determine what securities activities the individual is authorized to perform.
Disclosure Events
This is the section that matters most for vetting. It catalogs reportable events across several categories:6FINRA. 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 was paid, 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
One nuance that trips people up: customer disputes settled for less than $15,000 (or less than $10,000 for settlements before May 18, 2009) can become “historic complaints” that drop off the active registration form, though FINRA still releases them through BrokerCheck if they became historic after August 16, 1999.4Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA Rule 8312 – FINRA BrokerCheck Disclosure Small settlements may appear in a slightly different format than large ones, but they’re still visible.
Reading a Firm Report
Firm reports are structured differently. They include a summary overview, a profile identifying the controlling owners and key operational personnel, a firm history covering mergers, acquisitions, and name changes, and an operations section listing active licenses, registrations, and business lines.6FINRA. About BrokerCheck
The disclosure section works like the individual version, covering arbitration awards, disciplinary events, and financial matters. Two firm-specific flags to look for: whether the firm is subject to FINRA’s “Taping Rule,” and whether it has been designated a “Restricted Firm” under Rule 4111.4Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA Rule 8312 – FINRA BrokerCheck Disclosure A restricted designation requires the firm to deposit cash or qualified securities into a restricted account and may impose operational conditions for investor protection.7FINRA. FINRA Rule 4111 – Restricted Firm Obligations Either flag warrants serious scrutiny.
Statutory Disqualification
If a broker or firm shows a “statutory disqualification” status, that’s the most serious flag the system produces. It means the background includes events severe enough that FINRA rules bar association with any member firm absent 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.8FINRA. Appendix A Statutory Disqualification Codes
What BrokerCheck Will Not Tell You
The tool is powerful, but it has gaps. A report that looks clean may not tell the whole story.
FINRA does not release exam scores or information about failed attempts.4Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA Rule 8312 – FINRA BrokerCheck Disclosure A broker who passed the Series 7 on the fifth try looks identical to one who passed on the first. BrokerCheck also does not disclose the specific reason a broker left a firm; you can see that a registration was terminated, but not whether it was for cause, a layoff, or a voluntary exit. Personal financial issues like bankruptcy filings and federal tax liens don’t appear either, though some state regulators collect and disclose that information.
Finally, brokers can petition under FINRA Rule 2080 to have customer dispute records removed through a process called expungement, which requires a court order or an arbitration award granting the relief.9FINRA. FINRA Rule 2080 – Obtaining an Order of Expungement of Customer Dispute Information from the Central Registration Depository (CRD) System If the effort succeeds, the dispute disappears from the public report entirely. A clean BrokerCheck record might once have contained disputes that were later scrubbed, which is one reason deeper due diligence often extends to other databases.
Where to Look Next
BrokerCheck is built around broker-dealer activity. If the professional also provides investment advice for a fee, check the SEC’s IAPD site at adviserinfo.sec.gov.10Investment Adviser Public Disclosure. Investment Adviser Public Disclosure Homepage The IAPD site gives you access to the firm’s Form ADV filing, the mandatory disclosure document for registered investment advisers.
Form ADV Part 2A, the “brochure,” is where the operational detail sits. It must disclose the firm’s fee schedule and whether fees are negotiable, how the firm handles conflicts of interest and whether its 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 If BrokerCheck is the résumé, Form ADV is the employee handbook.
For publicly traded firms or larger entities, the SEC’s EDGAR full-text search covers regulatory filings going back to 2001, searchable by company name, ticker symbol, or CIK number.12U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. EDGAR Full Text Search EDGAR won’t replace BrokerCheck for individual research, but it helps for evaluating a brokerage firm’s parent or affiliated entities at the corporate level.
State securities regulators maintain their own licensing databases and sometimes hold information BrokerCheck omits, including reasons for termination and personal financial disclosures. They may also retain records that FINRA has expunged. Checking the state regulator alongside BrokerCheck and IAPD closes most of the gaps that any single system leaves open.