FINRA SAA Form: Designation, Signatory, and Submission

To complete the FINRA SAA form, enter your firm’s legal name and CRD, IARD, or SEC file number exactly as they appear on your regulatory filings; designate one Super Account Administrator with a firm-affiliated email; and have a qualified officer listed on the firm’s Schedule A sign it. Submit through Adobe Acrobat Sign for the fastest turnaround, or download the PDF and send it in with a physical signature. FINRA processes the agreement in up to three business days.¹

Before You Fill Anything Out

Two decisions have to be settled before the form makes sense: who your SAA will be, and who will sign for the firm. Getting either wrong is the most common reason FINRA sends the agreement back.

Who Can Serve as SAA

The SAA must be directly affiliated with the firm and have enough internal authority to oversee system access across the organization.² Firms typically pick a senior compliance officer or operations manager. No specific securities license is required for the designation itself.

Anyone subject to a statutory disqualification under the Securities Exchange Act is ineligible. That includes people barred or suspended from acting as a broker, dealer, or investment adviser, and those subject to findings or orders under Sections 15(b)(4)(D), (E), or (H) of the Exchange Act.³ Check the candidate’s disciplinary history first; FINRA will catch a disqualification during review, and that resets your timeline.

Only one SAA is permitted per organization, so this is a considered choice rather than a placeholder.⁴

Who Can Sign as Authorized Signatory

The signatory has to appear on the firm’s Schedule A, and the qualifying titles depend on firm type:

Broker-dealers and CAB firms: the CCO or another authorized officer listed on Schedule A of the firm’s Form BD.⁵
Investment advisers: the CCO, Additional Regulatory Contact (ARC), or another authorized officer listed on Schedule A of Form ADV.
Funding portals: the CCO, CEO, CFO, CLO, COO, a director, or any individual with a similar function listed on Schedule A of SEC Form FP.⁶

An unsigned form, or one signed by a person not listed on the firm’s Schedule A, is denied outright.

The SAA and the authorized signatory generally cannot be the same person. FINRA allows overlap only in narrow cases: a sole proprietorship, a firm where no other person has signing authority, or an alternate signatory who is unavailable because of illness or another unforeseen circumstance. When the roles have to overlap, the firm completes Section B of the agreement and provides an explanation for FINRA’s review.⁷

Filling Out the Form

The agreement is short, but everything you type has to match FINRA’s existing records. Small discrepancies against your Form BD or Form ADV will bounce the submission.

Item 1: Organization Information

Enter the firm’s legal name exactly as it appears on your incorporation records and regulatory filings. Include the CRD or IARD identification number if one has already been assigned; new firms that have not yet received an ID number can leave this field blank.⁵ Then add the principal office address, phone number, and a firm-affiliated email address.

Item 2: SAA Designation

Provide the designated SAA’s full legal name, firm email address, and direct phone number.⁵ The email must be firm-affiliated because FINRA uses it to send login credentials and system alerts. Personal addresses will not do. The form does not ask for the SAA’s professional title.

Item 3: Authorized Signatory

The senior officer identified above signs here, confirming that the SAA has authority to act on the firm’s behalf. Verify the name against Schedule A before signing.

If You Are a Funding Portal

Funding portals do not use the standard form. They complete the Funding Portal Organization Super Account Administrator (SAA) Entitlement Agreement, which asks for the SEC file number instead of a CRD or IARD number and accepts a broader list of signatories, including CFOs, CLOs, COOs, and directors.⁶ Download the correct version from the FINRA Entitlement page before you start.

How to Submit

FINRA offers two submission paths.

The faster option is electronic submission through Adobe Acrobat Sign. From the SAA form page on FINRA’s site, enter the authorized signatory’s name and email address; Adobe Acrobat Sign then emails the signatory a link to validate their identity and sign the agreement digitally.¹ The entire workflow stays inside Acrobat Sign, so there is no scanning or PDF uploading.

If you prefer to work offline, download the agreement as a PDF, complete it, obtain the authorized signatory’s physical signature, and send it in by email or mail using the instructions printed on the form itself.¹ The electronic route is noticeably faster because it removes mail transit time and legibility problems.

After You Submit

Allow up to three business days for FINRA to process the agreement.¹ During that window, FINRA staff verify the documentation and confirm that the authorized signatory is properly listed on the firm’s regulatory filings.

When the account is created, FINRA sends a confirmation email to the authorized signatory and two separate emails to the new SAA: one with the user ID and another with a link to activate the password.² Activation runs in this order:

Click the activation link, enter your user ID, and create a password.
Log in at the Firm/Org tab, read the Privacy Policy and Entitlement Program Terms of Use, and click “Accept and Continue.”
Answer the security questions when prompted and click “Continue.”
Complete multi-factor authentication enrollment before reaching the FINRA Gateway home screen.

Five wrong password entries lock the account for one hour, so store the credentials somewhere secure before your first login.⁴

What the SAA Owes FINRA Each Year

The designation is not a one-time filing. Each year, the SAA certifies that every user account at the firm still has the appropriate access level. For 2026, the certification window runs from May 11 through September 11.⁸ Firms that have only an SAA account and no other users may certify but are not required to.

Missing the window has real consequences. FINRA disables the ability to create accounts, assign roles, and edit entitlements for all administrators at the firm, suspends all user accounts, and notifies the appropriate district office for member firms or other regulators for non-FINRA organizations.⁷ Regulatory filing capability freezes until certification is complete. Put the dates on the compliance calendar as soon as the account is active.

When You Need to Replace the SAA

When an SAA leaves the firm, the replacement is handled inside the Account Management System in FINRA Gateway rather than by resubmitting this form. Any user at the firm with an active Gateway account can start the request, and the same signatory rules apply.⁴ Some replacement requests trigger a secondary review by FINRA’s Entitlement Group, so processing can run longer than the initial setup. If the firm loses its only SAA without a successor in place, administrative access to every FINRA system freezes until the replacement is approved.

1
FINRA. New Organization Super Account Administrator (SAA) Agreement
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FINRA. Super Account Administrator (SAA)
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FINRA. FINRA Rule 9522 – Initiation of Eligibility Proceeding
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Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA Entitlement Program – Entitlement Reference Guide
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Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. New Organization Super Account Administrator (SAA) Agreement
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Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. New Funding Portal Organization Super Account Administrator Agreement
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FINRA.org. FINRA Entitlement Program Frequently Asked Questions
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FINRA. Entitlement for Funding Portals