You’ve heard the commercial “Just give me the Carfax,” right? Shouldn’t there be a “brokerfax”? Rather than putting blind trust in those you pay for advice, find out if your advisor is being held to their fiduciary standard.

Go to brokercheck.finra.org and plug in the financial rep’s name and city they work in and press search. BrokerCheck is a free tool from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The report provides an overview of your advisor’s credentials, registration and employment history, and a disclosure section about customer disputes, disciplinary events and other financial-related matters.

Isn’t this something you want to know about the person managing your entire life savings? Don’t you want to know if they’ve had any client complaints or felony convictions?