Getting information on a broker before investing.

Like most people you probably work very hard for your money and want to know your money is in good hands. Well, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority also known as FINRA requires all of their registered brokers to be licensed before they can solicit your business  Interestingly enough, FINRA is a strong believer in transparency and disclosing any important information to you, the customer, to decide.

You can go to www/finra.org/brokercheck to access this information online. Just follow the instructions online to search for information regarding a specific broker or firm. For specific brokers you will find information on their licensing, whether their current status is active or not (if not then you should see more specifically whether the status is inactive or suspended), their employment history whether in the financial industry or not for the past ten years, if they have had any customer complaints, if they have faced disciplinary action and some other important information.

Of course, as with all information it is important to place it into context. If you search for your current broker and you discover that during the past ten years they have been in the industry and had one customer complaint you might well decide that given that amount of time in the industry that is quite good. On the other hand if you see they have had numerous complaints and have faced disciplinary action several times you may want to think hard and investigate further before making any decisions.