Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD)

Investment Adviser Public Disclosure is the free public website, operated by the Securities and Exchange Commission at adviserinfo.sec.gov, that publishes the registration records of investment adviser firms and investment adviser representatives. The data comes from the filings advisers make with the SEC and state securities regulators — including the complete Form ADV for firms and individual registration records drawn from the industry's central licensing system — and includes registration status, qualifications, employment history, and disciplinary disclosures.

IAPD exists because adviser regulation runs on public disclosure, and disclosure only works if people can find it. The site pulls from two streams. Firm records center on Form ADV: Part 1 (a structured regulatory filing covering ownership, assets under management, client types, and disciplinary questions), Part 2 (the narrative brochure a firm must write in plain English describing services, fee schedules, and conflicts of interest), and Part 3 (the Form CRS relationship summary for SEC-registered firms serving retail investors). Individual records show each investment adviser representative's state registrations, qualifying exams (such as the Series 65), professional designations reported, ten-plus years of employment history, and disclosure events.

IAPD and FINRA's BrokerCheck are siblings — advisers in one, brokers in the other — and they cross-link, so searching either will route you to the right record for dually registered people. What IAPD can't tell you is whether an advisor is any good: it verifies legal status and surfaces recorded problems, nothing more. A clean record is a floor, not an endorsement. Conversely, the absence of any record for someone selling personalized investment advice is close to disqualifying — it means they are either exempt for a narrow reason or practicing unregistered.

Go to adviserinfo.sec.gov and search a firm name or an individual's name. A firm result shows its registration status and regulator, key facts from Form ADV Part 1, and links to the full brochure and relationship summary as filed. An individual result shows current and past registrations, the exams they've passed, prior employers, and any disclosure events, each with a detail report you can download.

A hypothetical example of a five-minute check that changes a decision: suppose "Karim" is about to hire an advisor who quoted him a $6,000 flat fee for a retirement plan. On IAPD he confirms the advisor is a registered investment adviser representative — good — but the firm's Form ADV brochure discloses that the firm also earns revenue-sharing payments from a fund family it recommends, a conflict never mentioned in the meetings. Karim doesn't have to walk away; he now knows exactly what to ask about, and what the honest answer should sound like. The filing did what marketing materials never will.

Pros

• Free, official, and comprehensive — the actual regulatory filings, not a marketing site's summary of them.
• Covers both firms and individuals, and cross-links with BrokerCheck for dually registered professionals.
• The Form ADV brochure inside each firm record is the best single document for understanding what a firm really charges and where its conflicts are.

Cons

• It verifies registration and records discipline — it says nothing about competence, planning quality, or fit.
• Disclosure events need interpretation: a decades-old dismissed complaint and a recent fraud bar both appear as "disclosures."
• Some advice-adjacent titles (coaches, insurance-only agents) fall outside adviser registration entirely, so a missing record requires knowing what the person actually sells.