LicenseCompare

SEC / FINRA / state securities regulators

United States corporate licensing requirements

Map the entity-level application: legal entity, permissions, ownership, governance, documents, capital/resources, controls, policies, and ongoing obligations.

Corporate requirements

  • - Form ADV, disclosure brochure, compliance program, custody analysis, books and records, and annual amendments for advisers
  • - FINRA New Member Application, supervisory procedures, personnel, systems, capital, and membership standards for broker-dealers
  • - State notice filing or registration analysis where applicable
  • - Clear separation between advice, brokerage, solicitation, custody, and fund management activities

Application journey

  1. 1. Classify the model as adviser, broker-dealer, private fund adviser, platform, solicitor/marketer, or hybrid.
  2. 2. For advisers, prepare IARD access, Form ADV Part 1 and Part 2, compliance program, custody analysis, and state notice filing or registration checks.
  3. 3. For broker-dealers, prepare FINRA Gateway access, Form NMA, written supervisory procedures, personnel, capital, clearing/custody arrangements, and membership interview materials.
  4. 4. Verify firm and individual records in IAPD and BrokerCheck after filing or approval.
  5. 5. Maintain annual ADV updates, amendments, supervisory records, and state filings.

Documents and controls

  • - People and competence: Shows that named individuals can perform or supervise the regulated work.
  • - Ownership and controllers: Explains who owns, controls, funds, and benefits from the applicant.
  • - Governance and accountability: Allocates decision rights, oversight, senior responsibility, committees, and escalation.
  • - Capital and financial resources: Shows runway, prudential planning, and resource adequacy for the proposed permissions.
  • - AML/CFT and financial crime: Shows customer due diligence, sanctions, monitoring, suspicious activity, and escalation controls.
  • - Compliance framework: Turns rules into owned, scheduled, evidenced operating controls.
  • - Custody and client assets: Explains whether client assets are held, controlled, safeguarded, deducted from, or avoided.
  • - Outsourcing and vendors: Shows that outsourced work is selected, supervised, escalated, and replaceable.
  • - Cyber and technology controls: Shows platform resilience, access control, business continuity, incident response, and data protection.
  • - Complaints and conduct: Shows conduct risk ownership, customer handling, and escalation for complaints or disputes.
  • - Regulatory reporting: Shows that recurring reports, filings, amendments, attestations, and register changes are owned.
  • - Financial forecasts: Connects business plan, revenue assumptions, costs, capital, and runway to the applicant entity.
  • - Wind-down and exit planning: Shows how clients, assets, records, complaints, and obligations would be handled if the business stops.

Capital and timeline

Adviser capital rules are usually state-specific or tied to custody and other facts; broker-dealers face SEC net capital and FINRA membership expectations.

Timeline estimate: SEC adviser registration can become effective in about 45 days if complete; FINRA new member review may run up to 180 calendar days for substantially complete applications.

Common bottlenecks

  • - Broker-dealer issues hidden inside compensation, solicitation, placement, or transaction workflows
  • - Custody, private fund audit, and fee deduction arrangements not fully analysed
  • - Form ADV and brochure language that does not match real operations
  • - FINRA NMA materials that are not substantially complete or lack operational evidence