Finding a financial advisor, vetted properly, before you sign.
A consumer is choosing between three registered investment advisers. Each one has a polished website, a confident pitch, and a friend's recommendation. Before signing the advisory-fee contract that will run for years, the consumer wants the public record. Disclosable events. Disciplinary history. Fee structure transparency. The Wealth Advisor Vetting Report covers all of it from federal-record sources.
The scenario
You inherited assets, sold a business, or hit the savings threshold where the brokerage's robo-advisor is no longer enough. Three financial advisers come recommended. One was your CPA's referral. One came from a friend. One found you through their own marketing channel.
Before signing a multi-year advisory-fee agreement, you want answers to questions the adviser's own website will not tell you:
- Are they actually registered with the SEC or only a state regulator? Are they registered at all?
- Does Form ADV show any disclosable events (regulatory, criminal, civil-judgment, customer-complaint, bankruptcy)?
- What is the firm's fee schedule actually? Hourly, AUM percentage, commission, or hybrid?
- What is the firm's AUM, employee count, and how long has the principal been registered?
- Has the principal moved firms frequently? What is the pattern of their prior employers?
- Does the firm hold custody of client assets? Does it use a third-party custodian (good) or self-custody (rare and elevated risk)?
Why this matters
The retail-side financial-adviser industry has a small minority of bad actors who do real damage. SEC enforcement actions against registered investment advisers are a steady stream every year. Federal regulators publish Form ADV publicly precisely because consumer-side due diligence is the first line of defense; the regulators only catch the tail.
The compounding stakes: a $500,000 account at a 1.25% advisory fee runs $6,250 per year. Five years of advisory fees plus the trust-driven decisions you defer to the adviser dwarfs the cost of an hour spent vetting before signing. A single unflagged regulatory disclosure on Form ADV that you would have caught with one search costs more than you will spend on advice in the next decade.
What to verify on a financial advisor
- Registration status. SEC-registered, state-registered, or unregistered? Some legitimate advisers are state-registered (under $100M AUM); some unregistered "advisers" are operating illegally. The first question is which side of that line they sit on.
- Form ADV disclosable events. Item 11 of Form ADV Part 1 lists every disclosable event: regulatory actions, criminal disclosures, civil-judicial actions, customer-initiated arbitrations, bankruptcies. A clean record matters; any disclosed event matters more.
- FINRA BrokerCheck disclosures. If the adviser is dual-registered as a broker-dealer representative, BrokerCheck adds another disclosable-events surface. Customer complaints, terminations for cause, regulatory sanctions all appear here.
- Fee structure transparency. Does Form ADV Part 2 (the brochure) clearly disclose the fee schedule? Hourly, AUM percentage, commission, performance-based? Does the disclosure match what the adviser told you in the pitch?
- Conflicts of interest. Form ADV Part 2 Item 5 requires disclosure of conflicts. Selling proprietary products, receiving 12b-1 payments, dual registration as broker-dealer representative each create disclosed conflicts. The disclosure being made does not eliminate the conflict.
- Prior firm history. Has the principal moved between firms frequently? Each prior firm should be cross-referenced against any regulatory enforcement record.
- Custody arrangement. Does the firm hold custody of client assets directly, or use a qualified third-party custodian? Most legitimate RIAs use a third-party custodian (Schwab, Fidelity, Pershing). Self-custody is rare and elevates fraud risk.
How MentionFox does it
The Wealth Advisor Vetting Report is purpose-built for this use case. Form ADV is the anchor. FINRA BrokerCheck is cross-referenced when the adviser is dual-registered. Public-reputation signal supplements the federal record with a defamation-guarded news-archive read.
Wealth Advisor Vetting Report (1 per candidate)
Federal-record-anchored synthesis. Form ADV Parts 1 and 2 read, BrokerCheck cross-reference, fee structure transparency, conflicts-of-interest disclosures, prior firm history, custody arrangement. 250 credits, returns in 4-6 minutes.
Wealth Advisor Snapshot (top-of-funnel)
The fast tier for screening 5-8 candidates down to a 2-3 finalist set. Registration status, top disclosable-events count, fee tier headline, top public-reputation flags. 50 credits, returns in 60-90 seconds.
Coming Wave 2 A consumer-friendly main page at /vetting/wealth-advisor with a pricing card, sample report, and FAQ is queued for Wave 2 of the public marketing surface. The Wealth Advisor Vetter and methodology are live today.
What a consumer's hour looks like
Open the Wealth Advisor Vetter
Paste the three adviser names plus their CRD numbers if you have them (CRD is on the adviser's own website footer or in their Form ADV). The disambiguation card surfaces every same-name adviser with their firm and registration state.
Three reports queue
For SEC-registered advisers, the IAPD individual identifier auto-locks identity at the federal-record level. Each report kicks off independently.
First report returns
Read the executive summary. Note any disclosable events on Form ADV Part 1 Item 11. Cross-reference to BrokerCheck if the adviser is dual-registered. Note the fee structure disclosed in Form ADV Part 2.
All three reports complete
Compare the three across the same axes: registration, disclosable events, fee structure, custody arrangement, prior firm pattern. The candidate with three customer-initiated arbitrations on BrokerCheck is now flagged. The candidate with self-custody is now flagged. The candidate with no disclosures, third-party custody at Schwab, and a 0.85% AUM-only fee schedule looks much cleaner.
Decision conversation
Sit down with your spouse, business partner, or CPA with three sourced briefs. Each load-bearing claim links back to its IAPD or BrokerCheck source. The conversation is no longer "which one feels right" — it is "here is what the federal record actually says about each one."
Direct verification
For the finalist, click through to the IAPD page and the Form ADV Part 2 brochure directly. The Vetting Report told you what to look for; the federal source is the verification of record. Sign the contract with eyes open.
Pricing for this use case
Three Wealth Advisor Reports (one per candidate)
Standard consumer pre-hire vetting workflow.
750 credits total
3 x 250 credits. Roughly the cost of a single hour of fee-only advice from any of the candidates you are vetting.
Three Wealth Advisor Snapshots (screening)
Faster top-of-funnel screening before deeper diligence on finalists.
150 credits total
3 x 50 credits. The right tier for first-pass triage of 5-8 referrals down to a 2-3 finalist set.
Credits are platform-wide. See pricing for current plans. The full main page for Wealth Advisor vetting (with consumer-friendly pricing card, sample report, FAQ) ships in Wave 2 of the public marketing surface.
What this is not
The Wealth Advisor Vetting Report is a research synthesis based on public regulatory sources. It supplements but does not replace direct consultation with the adviser, reading Form ADV Parts 1 and 2 in full at the source, calling references the adviser provides, and where applicable consulting a fee-only fiduciary CPA or estate attorney before signing. Use the cited URLs to verify any decision-relevant claim with the source of record. The report is not legal, tax, or investment advice.
Related
Wealth Advisor Methodology → Investor Vetting Reports → Investor Methodology → Use case: VC Due Diligence → Use case: Hiring a Board Member →