Sneak a Peek at Your Broker's Record (AB, ETFC, WFC)

Sneak a Peek at Your Broker's Record

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Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) recently got slapped with a $1 million fine, and the reason for it should make you smile: Brokerages and investment services companies have to tell you when their brokers run into trouble.

The fine came from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which oversees roughly 4,550 brokerage firms, 163,500 branch offices, and 631,110 registered securities representatives. Within 30 days of learning about something that belongs on a broker's record, such as a customer complaint, an investigation, or arbitration, a brokerage must report that by updating its records with FINRA. Wells Fargo seems to have been very late in updating many of its broker registration forms.

Do your due diligence
It can often feel as if you're floundering about on your own when you're dealing with the financial world, but you're not. There are communities of like-minded investors, such as here in Fooldom, where you can learn and discuss.

And when you're looking for a good brokerage or want to investigate a broker you might work with, you can use FINRA's BrokerCheck.

When it comes to checking up on brokers, FINRA isn't the only game in town. The Securities and Exchange Commission maintains a searchable database of information on investment advisors. And just last month, the folks at BrightScope launched a financial advisor directory that aims to eventually offer much more information than FINRA does -- including broker performance records.

That can be a big boon for investors, because while it may be comforting to know that your broker hasn't been caught doing anything illegal, he may still be lousy at his job. Right now BrightScope offers more limited information, but it's still instructive for us as investors.

Informative details
For example, BrightScope says that E*TRADE Financial's (Nasdaq: ETFC ) capital management division sports an average of $178,000 per reported customer account, according to SEC filings. That's good to know, because if you have limited assets and are signing up with a firm that focuses on the wealthy, you may be in the wrong place. The report for AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB ) , for example, reveals an estimated average account balance of $6 million. Sometimes, it's good to deal with firms that work mainly with people like yourself.

As an investor looking at financial services companies as possible investments for your portfolio, this kind of information can also help you, showing where a firm is getting -- and can get -- its money.

The bottom line, though, is to not get too excited -- yet. There seem to be some kinks in BrightScope's system, which is drawing mainly from government filings. Widespread reports of errors have led BrightScope to permit advisors to revise some of their listed information. Thus, while I'm interested in perusing the listings, I'm holding out for more, and more accurate, data in the future. It's good to know that it's on the way.

Is your brokerage the one best able to meet your needs? If you're not sure, shop around. Click here and review some great choices in our Broker Center.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

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Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian does not own shares of any companies mentioned in this article. The Fool owns shares of Wells Fargo. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Comments from our Foolish Readers

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Report this Comment On May 12, 2011, at 5:10 PM, bostonCFA wrote:

What is disturbing is that no investor will ever know if their advisor is the next Madoff because Brightscope's data is absolutely terrible and untimely. They received a data dump from FINRA and the SEC and are incapable of parsing it correctly and are not integrated for live updates. IT IS OLD AND INACCURATE. The best and most timely data available to the investor is from the source: the SEC and FINRA. In fact, check FINRA brokercheck on Mike Afred the CEO of BrightScope and what you will see will shock you.