How to check if a financial advisor is legit before you hand over a cent

Quick answer

To check if a financial advisor is legit, look them up by name on FINRA BrokerCheck and the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database, read any disclosures and the firm's Form ADV brochure, and confirm the firm and person with your state securities regulator. In the UK, use the FCA Financial Services Register and call the firm on the number listed there, not the one you were given. Anyone who isn't registered, guarantees returns or wants money sent to a personal account is not an adviser you should use.

Key numbers

• $8.65 billionreported lost to investment fraud in the US in 2025, the costliest crime type in the FBI's reportFBI IC3 2025 Internet Crime Report
• 944investigations of unregistered individuals opened by US state securities regulators in 2024, alongside 1,183 enforcement actionsNASAA 2025 Enforcement Report
• 133clone firm alerts added to the FCA Warning List in 2025 (to 8 December), scammers posing as FCA-authorized firmsFCA
• £221.5 millionlost to investment scams by UK bank customers in 2025, up 40% on 2024UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2026

Someone wants to manage your money. Maybe a friend recommended them, maybe they found you on Instagram with screenshots of winning trades, maybe they called out of the blue about a "limited" opportunity. Before you sign anything or move a dollar, you want to know one thing: is this financial advisor legit?

It's a question worth 15 minutes. Americans reported losing $8.65 billion to investment fraud to the FBI in 2025, more than to any other crime type, and state securities regulators opened 944 investigations into unregistered individuals in a single year (NASAA). Most of those cases would have failed the free register checks below.

How do I check if a financial advisor is legit?

You check if a financial advisor is legit by confirming three things in official records: the person is registered, the firm is registered and authorized for what it's selling, and the person you're talking to is really the registered person rather than someone borrowing the name. Work in this order:

1. Get their full legal name, firm name and ID number. In the US that's a CRD number; in the UK it's the firm reference number (FRN) and the individual's reference number.
2. Search FINRA BrokerCheck for brokers and brokerage firms.
3. Search the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) for investment advisers and their firms, and read the firm's Form ADV brochure.
4. Read every disclosure: customer complaints, regulatory actions, terminations, judgments.
5. Confirm with the state regulator if the firm is state-registered or you can't find them at all.
6. Match the human to the record: same name, firm, location and photo as the firm's official site, and a call to the firm's main number from the register, not from their email signature.

How do I use FINRA BrokerCheck?

FINRA BrokerCheck is a free tool that shows a broker's registration history, ten years of employment, exams and licenses, and a disclosure section covering customer disputes, disciplinary events and certain criminal and financial matters. Its data comes from the securities industry's Central Registration Depository (FINRA).

Search by name, firm or CRD number. On an individual's report, read in this order:

• Summary and registration. Is the person currently registered, with which firm, in which states? "Not currently registered" with no firm means they can't legally sell you securities as a broker.
• Employment history. Ten years of firms. Many short stints, or a departure right after a firm was fined, deserves a question.
• Disclosures. "Disclosures reported" means there's something to read. Open each one. A customer dispute that was denied is different from a regulatory action, an arbitration award, a termination for cause or a bankruptcy.
• Exams and licenses. The qualification exams passed tell you what they're allowed to sell.

BrokerCheck keeps people in the system for ten years after they leave the industry, and permanently if there was a final regulatory action, a relevant conviction or an arbitration award against them. If someone claims 20 years in the business and BrokerCheck shows nothing, ask why.

What do the SEC's IAPD and Form ADV tell me?

The SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database, reached through Investor.gov or adviserinfo.sec.gov, shows an investment adviser's registration status, employment history, disclosures and exams, and links firms to their Form ADV brochure and Form CRS. Choose "individual" or "firm" and type the name; if you're not sure which applies, the SEC suggests searching both ways. If you can't find someone at all, the SEC's advice is to treat that as a warning, because many securities frauds are committed by people who were never registered.

The document to read is Form ADV Part 2A, the firm brochure, which the SEC requires advisers to give you before or when you sign. It must follow fixed headings, so you can jump straight to:

• Item 5, Fees and Compensation: how they're paid, whether fees are negotiable, and whether anyone earns commissions on products they recommend, a conflict they must spell out.
• Item 9, Disciplinary Information: legal or disciplinary events material to your decision, with criminal and regulatory events presumed material for ten years.
• Item 10, Other Financial Industry Activities and Affiliations: related brokers, funds, insurers and banks, and the conflicts those create.
• Item 15, Custody: who actually holds your money. You should get statements from an independent custodian and be urged to compare them with the adviser's.

Is my advisor a fiduciary?

Ask directly, and ask for the answer in writing. The SEC's Form ADV instructions describe a registered investment adviser's fiduciary duty to disclose all material facts and conflicts to clients. A broker is usually paid by commission on each product sold, and the Form CRS relationship summary explains which services, fees and conflicts apply to the firm you're dealing with. If someone dodges "how are you paid?", that is your answer.

How do I know the person I'm talking to is the registered adviser?

You match the human to the record, because clone scammers use real names, real CRD or FRN numbers and copies of real websites. A clean register entry proves that a legitimate adviser with that name exists. It doesn't prove that the person emailing you is them.

1. Compare the details. The firm, office location and job title in the register should match what you've been told.
2. Find them on the firm's official website, reached by typing the address yourself, and compare the photo and bio.
3. Call the firm's main switchboard, using the number on the register or the official site, and ask to be put through. Never use the number in the email or brochure they sent you.
4. Check the email domain letter by letter, and the phone number's line type. A big-firm adviser writing from a free webmail address or calling from an internet (VoIP) number is a mismatch.

A Search A-Z business search helps with the "is this a real person" half. Enter the adviser's full name and country, choose "Business contact", and add their firm, email or phone. The report says how sure we are it's the right person, then shows their current job and company, work history, education, public social and professional profiles, news and web mentions from a live web search, and any public scam or fraud warnings. Business searches also show the work email and company registration details, including UK Companies House roles and the worldwide LEI register, and the phone and email checks tell you whether the contact details are real, the line type and the fraud risk. The person is never told you searched. It doesn't replace the regulator's register: use both.

Who else should I check: state regulators, CFP Board and insurance licenses?

Check the state securities regulator, the body behind any letters after their name, and the insurance license if they sell annuities or life insurance. All of these checks are free.

• State securities regulators. Smaller advisory firms register with their state rather than the SEC, and states handle complaints and enforcement locally. Find yours through NASAA's regulator directory. The SEC's Action Lookup for Individuals (SALI) covers people named in SEC actions even if they were never registered.
• CFP Board. If they use the CFP mark, verify it with CFP Board, which shows current and former certificants, public disciplinary history and bankruptcy disclosures. Search by last name.
• Insurance. Annuities and life insurance need a state insurance license. The NIPR lookup finds a producer's National Producer Number and their state licenses.
• CPAs and lawyers. If they're also a CPA or attorney, check those registers too. Our guide on how to verify a professional license lists every lookup.

How do I check a financial adviser in the UK?

In the UK, check the firm and the individual on the FCA's Financial Services Register (the FCA calls its consumer view the Firm Checker), then use only the contact details shown there. The FCA says almost all financial services firms in the UK must be authorized or registered, and that you should check that the firm reference number and the contact details match what you've been given, because scammers copy genuine FRNs (FCA).

1. Type the register address yourself. Never follow a link from an email or from the firm's own site.
2. Search the firm name and check its status and permissions cover the product you're being offered.
3. Open the individuals attached to the firm and find your adviser.
4. Compare phone, email and address with what you were given. If anything differs, or the firm says the register is out of date, call the FCA on 0800 111 6768. The FCA says it updates the register on average every 24 hours.
5. Check the FCA Warning List of firms the FCA believes are working without permission, and remember its caveat: a firm that isn't on the list may still be unauthorized or a scam.

Clone firms are the main threat. The FCA added 133 clone firm alerts to its Warning List in 2025 to 8 December (FCA), and UK bank customers lost £221.5 million to investment scams in 2025, up 40% (UK Finance). If you've been targeted, report it to the FCA and to Report Fraud (Police Scotland on 101 in Scotland).

How do I check an investment firm in the EU?

In the EU, check the register of the national regulator in the country where the firm says it's authorized, then check the warning lists, which are shared across Europe. Germany's BaFin, France's AMF, Italy's CONSOB, the Netherlands' AFM and their counterparts each publish a register of authorized firms and warnings about unauthorized ones. Under an ESMA agreement, each national regulator also publishes the warnings issued by every other EU regulator, so one country's list carries them all: Sweden's Finansinspektionen and Belgium's FSMA both run such pages.

Cross-check the company itself in the national business register through the e-Justice portal and its LEI on GLEIF. Our guide on how to check if a company is legit covers the company side in detail.

What are the red flags of a fake financial advisor?

The clearest red flags are the ones no register can fix: guaranteed returns, pressure to decide now, and money that goes anywhere other than a regulated custodian in your name.

• They can't be found on BrokerCheck, IAPD or the FCA register, or the record is for a different firm or city.
• "Guaranteed" or "risk-free" returns, or returns far above the market every single month.
• Pressure: a closing window, a limited allocation, a bonus for depositing this week.
• Money to a personal account, a crypto wallet, a payment app or a company you can't verify, rather than a regulated custodian in your name.
• They found you on Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp or a dating app, or call themselves a "crypto advisor" or "trading mentor" with screenshots of wins.
• Affinity pitches: "I only work with people from our church, our community, our company."

Lines that should end the conversation:

"I'm not on BrokerCheck because I work privately with select clients. The regulators just slow everything down."

"Transfer to my corporate wallet tonight and I'll allocate it to the fund. The register is out of date, it happens all the time."

If the "advisor" came through a dating app or a wrong-number text, read our guide to the pig butchering scam before you reply again.

What should I do if something doesn't check out?

Match your response to what you found, and don't send money while you investigate.

Where to report: in the US, tell your state securities regulator, the SEC, the FTC and the FBI's IC3. In the UK, call the FCA on 0800 111 6768 and report to Report Fraud. In the EU, report to your national regulator and your police; Europol lists each country's reporting site.

Beware recovery scams. After a loss, people posing as lawyers, regulators or "fund recovery" firms offer to get your money back for an upfront fee. The FCA warns about these "recovery room" scams. No regulator charges you to recover money.

The bottom line

A legitimate financial advisor is registered, their firm is authorized for what they're selling, and the person you're dealing with matches the record when you call the firm on the number the regulator lists. Check BrokerCheck and IAPD in the US or the FCA register in the UK, read the disclosures and the fee section of Form ADV, and walk away from anyone who guarantees returns or wants money sent anywhere but a custodian in your name.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check if a financial advisor is registered?

Search their name on FINRA BrokerCheck (brokers) and the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database at Investor.gov (investment advisers). If you're not sure which they are, search both. If the firm is small, it may be registered with your state securities regulator instead; NASAA's directory links to each one. In the UK, search the FCA Financial Services Register.

What does "disclosures reported" on BrokerCheck mean?

It means the record includes at least one reportable event: a customer complaint or arbitration, a regulatory action, a termination, a criminal matter, a bankruptcy or a judgment. Open each one. A single customer dispute that was denied is common; a pattern of complaints, a termination for cause or a regulatory fine is not.

Is a financial advisor who isn't on BrokerCheck a scam?

Not automatically, but it's a warning. Investment advisers who aren't brokers appear in the SEC's IAPD database rather than BrokerCheck, and insurance-only agents appear in state insurance lookups. If a person claims to manage investments and appears in none of these, the SEC says to treat that as a red flag, because many frauds are committed by unregistered people.

How do I check a financial adviser in the UK?

Type the address of the FCA Financial Services Register yourself, search the firm and the individual, check the permissions cover the product offered, and compare the phone, email and address with what you were given. Call the firm on the register's number, not theirs. Check the FCA Warning List too, and call the FCA on 0800 111 6768 if anything doesn't match.

What's the difference between a fiduciary and a broker?

A registered investment adviser has a fiduciary duty to clients, which the SEC's Form ADV instructions describe as disclosing all material facts and conflicts. A broker is usually paid by commission on each product sold. Both must give you a Form CRS relationship summary that explains their services, fees and conflicts. Ask "are you a fiduciary at all times, and how are you paid?" and get the answer in writing.

Can a scammer use a real financial advisor's name?

Yes. Clone firms and clone individuals copy real names, registration numbers and websites so the register check passes. Beat it by matching the details: the firm, location and photo on the firm's official site, and a call to the firm's main number from the register. A Search A-Z business search also shows whether the name has a real work history and public profile that fits.

What should I do if I already sent money to a fake advisor?

Call your bank or card issuer immediately and ask for a recall or chargeback, then report to the FBI's IC3 and your state securities regulator (US), the FCA and Report Fraud (UK), or your national regulator and police (EU). Keep every message and payment record. Ignore anyone who contacts you offering to recover the money for a fee; that's a second scam.

Sources

1. FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report
2. NASAA: 2025 Enforcement Report (October 2025)
3. FINRA: About BrokerCheck
4. Investor.gov: How to use the investment professional search tool
5. SEC: Form ADV Part 2 instructions (firm brochure)
6. NASAA: Contact your regulator
7. CFP Board: Verify a CFP professional
8. FCA: Clone firms and individuals
9. FCA: Warning List of unauthorised firms
10. FCA: Information on the FCA Warning List (December 2025)
11. UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2026
12. Finansinspektionen (Sweden): About investor alerts

Figures are the latest published by each source when this guide was updated. Reported fraud losses are a floor: most fraud is never reported.