Web Wealth: Invest time before your money
In money matters, whom can you trust? How can you check out a broker? And if you felt cheated by a financial adviser, what could you do - other than scream? These sites provide some options.
In money matters, whom can you trust? How can you check out a broker? And if you felt cheated by a financial adviser, what could you do - other than scream? These sites provide some options.
Broker check. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is a self-regulation group for 4,700 brokerages and more than 600,000 registered securities representatives. Its FINRA Broker Check allows you to search for background information on brokers and financial advisers currently or formerly registered with the organization. A link helps sort out the scores of "professional designations" (such as Asset Protection Planner, Registered Paraplanner, and Financial Risk Manager) that advisers use to market themselves.
At the SEC. Your prospective investment-adviser firm, and individual advisers, should be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. From this site, you can check for disciplinary actions that may have been taken against firms or their personnel.
File a tip or complaint to the SEC here:
Call first. Another trade group, the North American Securities Administrators Association, says here that you should call state regulators before turning any money over to a broker or investment adviser. The site provides a series of links for checking out stockbrokers and investment advisers.
The association's site also helps locate names, phone numbers, and websites for U.S. state regulators - and for their Canadian counterparts - just by clicking on the map here:
For the Pennsylvania Securities Commission, go to this page. If you want to see if someone's been in trouble with the commission, click on the link for "enforcement action database."
The New Jersey Bureau of Securities lets you file a complaint and check out enforcement actions from this page on the state website: