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Check the legal entity named in your account documents—not the app or brand name—then verify that entity and its representatives in the regulator’s database. Separately identify the introducing broker, clearing (carrying) firm, custodian, and bank receiving any cash sweep. Finally, confirm which investor-protection scheme applies to each entity and account.
This workflow is U.S.-focused because registration databases, custody terminology, and SIPC rules differ by country. A brokerage can use different legal entities for customers in different jurisdictions, so a familiar corporate parent or app is not proof that your particular account is regulated or protected.
What you are actually trying to verify
“Is this brokerage regulated?” is several questions, not one. You need to establish:
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- Whether that exact firm and the relevant individual are currently registered for the services they provide.
- Whether an introducing firm faces you while a separate clearing firm executes trades, keeps records, and holds custody.
- Where uninvested cash sits: at the broker, in a money-market fund, or at a named bank through a sweep program.
- Which protection scheme applies, its limits, and the situations it excludes.
Registration is a threshold check. It does not guarantee investment performance, solvency, good advice, low fees, or satisfactory service. SIPC membership is a separate check and is not a substitute for registration.
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Start with the exact legal names in your paperwork
Do not begin with a web search for the name displayed on your phone. Open the account agreement, Form CRS, trade confirmations, and recent statements. Record every legal name shown for the relationship:
- the broker-dealer or investment adviser;
- any introducing firm or representative;
- the clearing or carrying firm;
- the bank named for a cash-sweep option; and
- the country and legal entity governing the account.
A brand, parent company, affiliate, app publisher, and regulated broker can be different entities. Search each name exactly as written, including punctuation and corporate suffixes. If a result appears under a former name, merger, or successor, use the firm’s history to determine whether it is the same legal relationship.
Why the introducing and clearing distinction matters
An introducing broker is usually customer-facing: it opens the relationship, presents the platform, and may take orders. A clearing (or carrying) broker commonly executes trades, maintains the account books, and holds securities. The name on the app may therefore differ from the firm that actually has custody. Treat both entities as separate verification targets.
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How do I check if my broker is registered?
Use the SEC Investor.gov lookup first
The SEC’s free Investor.gov “Check Out Your Investment Professional” tool routes you to the appropriate official record. It can direct you to FINRA BrokerCheck for brokerage firms and brokers, or to the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) system for SEC- or state-registered investment advisers and their associated people. IAPD and BrokerCheck link to one another when a search belongs in the other system.
Search both the firm and the person
For each customer-facing firm and representative, review:
- current registration and the jurisdictions or licenses listed;
- business categories and qualifications;
- employment and firm history;
- customer complaints, disputes, and arbitration awards; and
- regulatory, disciplinary, or other reportable events.
State securities regulators may hold additional records, so check the state regulator relevant to the firm, representative, or your residence when the federal record does not answer a question.
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Use the right database for the product
Investment advisers and their associated individuals are covered in IAPD. Brokers and brokerage firms are covered in BrokerCheck. For a U.S. futures or derivatives intermediary, the SEC’s 2026 investor bulletin points readers to the National Futures Association’s BASIC system for registration and disciplinary checks. A database match must still correspond to your exact account entity and product.
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Do not treat a filing as proof by itself
The SEC’s World Investor Week 2026 guidance warns: “Do not invest with anyone who misrepresents that they’re registered with the SEC or mischaracterizes SEC filings.” A fraudster can display a real filing while pretending to be the registered firm. Compare the legal name, address, representative, and contact details in the official record with your agreement. If they do not match, contact the regulator using contact information you locate independently, not a phone number supplied by the person soliciting you.
Read the disclosures behind the search result
Form CRS and Form ADV
For a broker-dealer or investment adviser, the public record is only the starting point. Read the firm’s Form CRS (the relationship summary) for the services offered, costs, conflicts, standards of conduct, disciplinary history, and questions to ask. For an investment adviser, Form ADV Part 1 describes the business and regulatory or client problems; Part 2 is the brochure covering practices, fees, conflicts, and disciplinary information. Part 3 is Form CRS.
Use the legal name and history in these documents to explain apparent mismatches. A name change or merger can be legitimate, but it should be traceable in the official record and consistent with your account agreement.
What a clean record does—and does not—mean
Registration confirms that a firm or person appears in the relevant regulatory system under stated conditions. It does not certify that every employee is honest, that recommendations are suitable, that the firm will remain solvent, or that your investments will rise. Disclosures and disciplinary records provide context; they are not a universal safety score.
Who actually holds my brokerage assets?
Ask the custody questions in writing
Send the brokerage a written request using the contact channel in your account documents. Ask:
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- Which legal entity is my broker-dealer?
- Which entity clears my trades and carries my account?
- Where are my securities recorded?
- Where does uninvested cash sit?
- If cash is swept, which bank receives it and under what ownership and program terms?
Compare the written answers with your account agreement, statements, and trade confirmations. Keep copies. An answer that names only a brand or parent company is incomplete; you need the legal entities.
Customer-name and street-name registration
SIPC describes two common ways securities are recorded. Customer-name securities are registered directly in the customer’s name in non-negotiable form. Street-name securities are recorded on the brokerage’s books as belonging to the customer while registered in the broker’s name. Both can qualify for SIPC protection, but the recordkeeping method affects how assets are returned in a liquidation. This distinction describes custody mechanics; it is not, by itself, a legitimacy rating.
Is my brokerage account SIPC protected?
Verify membership for the precise entities
Check SIPC membership for the brokerage firm and, where applicable, its clearing firm. A SIPC-member parent does not automatically make every subsidiary a member. A foreign subsidiary is a separate legal entity and is not protected merely because its parent belongs to SIPC. Protection also depends on the account’s jurisdiction and the property held there.
Deposits and transfers should go to the SIPC member or its SIPC-member clearing broker named in your documents—not to an individual representative or an unverified affiliate.
Know the limit and the trigger
In the SEC/SIPC investor bulletin issued in 2023, the maximum SIPC advance is $500,000 per separate customer capacity, including a $250,000 limit for cash claims. Accounts held in the same capacity at the same firm are combined; opening several accounts in the same capacity does not automatically multiply the limit. The advance applies in a qualifying member-firm failure or liquidation. It is not a promise that your account will always be worth $500,000, and it does not insure market performance.
What SIPC generally covers
Subject to the applicable rules, the SEC/SIPC guidance lists stocks, bonds, U.S. Treasuries, certificates of deposit, options on securities, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and money-market funds among covered securities. Coverage is for eligible customer property that is missing in a qualifying failure, not for every loss associated with an investment account.
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What SIPC does not cover
- Losses caused by a decline in the market value of an investment.
- Poor investment recommendations or ordinary investment risk.
- Many claims involving fraud or misrepresentation that did not result from missing custody property.
- Commodities and futures contracts.
- Unregistered investment contracts and fixed annuities.
- Most crypto assets.
SIPC is not a regulator and says it cannot investigate a currently operating brokerage or access its account records. Confirm regulator status and SIPC membership independently.
How is idle cash treated?
Distinguish three common locations
- Brokerage cash: cash held at the brokerage for purchasing securities may be treated as customer property under applicable rules.
- Money-market fund: a qualifying fund is a security with treatment different from a bank deposit.
- Bank sweep: cash is moved to a named bank and held outside the brokerage firm.
SIPC says bank-sweep cash is outside the brokerage firm and is not protected by SIPC. Bank-deposit insurance may apply under the bank’s rules and limits, but that is a different protection system. Identify the receiving bank, account ownership, sweep limits, and current disclosure terms before assuming cash is covered.
Questions to ask about a sweep
- Is the destination a bank deposit, a money-market fund, or brokerage cash?
- What is the bank’s exact legal name?
- Is the account held in my name, jointly, or through another ownership form?
- What happens when the sweep reaches its stated limit?
- Which protection scheme and limit apply to that ownership category?
Compare brokerages without creating a misleading safety ranking
If you are evaluating more than one firm, use the same factual checklist for each. A registration result alone cannot decide service quality, cost, investment suitability, or future financial strength.
| Check | Evidence to collect | Decision question |
|---|---|---|
| Legal identity and jurisdiction | Account agreement, Form CRS, statements, regulator record | Is this the entity and country governing my account? |
| Registration and history | Investor.gov, IAPD, BrokerCheck, and relevant state records | Are the firm and representative currently registered, and are disputes or disciplinary events disclosed? |
| Clearing and custody | Written broker response, trade confirmations, statements | Which firm executes trades and carries the account? |
| Protection membership | SIPC membership information or the local scheme’s official record | Does the exact entity—and its clearing firm where relevant—belong to the applicable scheme? |
| Idle cash | Cash-sweep disclosure and bank name | Is cash at the broker, in a fund, or at a bank, and what protection applies? |
| Coverage scope | Official protection-scheme rules | What is the cap, claim trigger, and list of exclusions? |
Common traps and how to resolve them
The app name matches a regulated parent, but not your account entity
Recheck the legal name in the agreement and statements. Search that entity separately and verify the country governing the account. Ask why the app, parent, and account names differ before transferring additional money.
The broker says “SIPC protected,” but will not identify the member
Request the precise SIPC member and clearing firm in writing. Confirm both in official SIPC information and compare them with the account documents. A parent company’s membership does not extend automatically to a separate subsidiary.
A search result exists, but the representative’s contact details do not match
Stop the transaction and independently contact the regulator or firm through details in the official record. Do not rely on links, numbers, or documents supplied by the solicitor.
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Your statement and trade confirmation disagree
Raise the discrepancy promptly in writing, preserve the originals, and document any unauthorized trade. If the brokerage does not resolve the complaint, the SEC/SIPC guidance points customers to the SEC, FINRA, or their state securities regulator.
What changes outside the United States?
Do not transplant U.S. terms or limits to another country. Replace Investor.gov, IAPD, BrokerCheck, and SIPC with the current regulator and investor-compensation scheme for the entity serving your account. The SEC’s 2026 guidance points Canadian investors to the Canadian Securities Administrators’ National Registration Search. That pointer does not determine which Canadian scheme, account type, or province applies; you must identify the governing entity and local rules.
For any cross-border account, verify the country in the customer agreement, the legal entity receiving your money, the clearing or custodian relationship, and the local protection limit. A U.S. parent, Canadian affiliate, or overseas subsidiary can each be a different legal person with different registration and coverage.
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- Save the account agreement and every current Form CRS or Form ADV.
- Record legal names, registration numbers, jurisdictions, and the date you checked them.
- Save the regulator’s firm and representative records, including disciplinary history.
- Keep written answers about clearing, custody, and cash sweeps.
- Reconcile statements and trade confirmations regularly.
- Report unauthorized trades or unexplained discrepancies promptly and in writing.
- Repeat the checks after a merger, name change, new account type, or change in cash-sweep terms.
Legal names, registration status, clearing relationships, and sweep arrangements can change. Recheck the official records and current disclosures immediately before opening an account or moving a substantial balance.
Bottom line: verify the chain, not the logo
A reliable check connects four records: the exact legal firm in your agreement, its current regulator entry, the clearing or custodian named in your statements, and the protection scheme covering that entity and account. Then determine where idle cash actually sits and apply the scheme’s limits and exclusions. That process answers who is regulated, who holds the assets, and what protection exists without confusing any of those questions with a promise that your investments cannot lose value.
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