Is your advisor's
firm clean?

Each broker-dealer firm receives a size-normalized A-F safety grade based on its FINRA BrokerCheck disclosure history — the count and severity of regulatory actions, arbitrations, and civil events reported on the firm's record. A firm with no reportable disclosures earns an A regardless of size. Firms that do carry disclosures are ranked by disclosure intensity (weighted disclosure load per branch office) against same-size peers, so large firms are not penalized simply for operating more offices. Grades update when new FINRA data is released.

Form U4 is the Uniform Application for Securities Industry Registration filed by a broker-dealer when registering an individual representative with FINRA, the SEC, and state regulators. Form U5 is the Uniform Termination Notice filed when that representative leaves — it documents the reason for departure, including any allegations of misconduct. Disclosures on either form become part of the public BrokerCheck record and feed into our firm-level disclosure counts.

An A grade means the firm has no reportable disclosures on its FINRA BrokerCheck record. B and C grades indicate low-to-typical disclosure intensity for a firm of that size; D and F grades mean the firm carries materially more disclosures per branch office than same-size peers. The grade is a relative, size-normalized measure — every firm with an active registration appears, regardless of grade.

Firm-level disclosure data comes from FINRA BrokerCheck and the SEC IAPD (Investment Adviser Public Disclosure) databases. We refresh our snapshot quarterly. Individual disclosure events that have been reported to FINRA but not yet posted publicly will not appear until FINRA publishes them, which can lag the underlying event by 30 to 90 days. Always cross-check material decisions against BrokerCheck.org directly.

A broker-dealer (BD) buys and sells securities for customers and is regulated by FINRA and the SEC under suitability standards. An investment adviser (IA) provides advice about securities for compensation and is regulated by the SEC or state securities regulators under a fiduciary duty. Many firms are dually registered. PlainAdvisorCheck currently focuses on broker-dealer firm records; many of those firms are also IA-registered, which we note where applicable.

FINRA-reportable disclosures include customer complaints (formal grievances about a representative's conduct), arbitration awards and settlements, regulatory actions (sanctions by FINRA, the SEC, or state regulators), criminal matters, civil judgments and liens, terminations after allegations, and certain bankruptcies. Not every disclosure indicates wrongdoing — some are dismissed or resolved without finding fault — but the cumulative pattern across a firm is a meaningful signal of compliance culture.