How We Calculate CrossChecks
Every point of your CrossCheck, where it comes from, and how to earn more. Nothing you pay changes it.
How to raise your CrossCheck5 factors
from your public record
up to 5
Profile Boost
0–100
your CrossCheck
If you are not currently registered, Fiduciary Alignment is left out and the other four factors share its weight.
Your CrossCheck at a glance
Five factors from your public record share 100 points by weight. Claimed advisors can add up to 5 more with the Profile Boost. The total is capped at 100. If you are not currently registered, Fiduciary Alignment is left out and the other four factors share its weight.
Grade bands
Your score also gets a letter grade.
- F0–39
- D40–54
- C55–69
- B70–84
- A85–100
A "Not currently registered" note may appear next to a score: registration history is on file, but none of it is current. It explains the context; your score and grade are still shown. In a few defined cases the grade is replaced by a label or capped at a ceiling — see "When a grade doesn't apply", below.
When a grade doesn't apply
Most records get a letter grade. In a few defined cases the grade is replaced by a label, or capped at a ceiling. These rules only ever lower or replace a grade — they never raise one.
| Situation | What shows |
|---|---|
| Barred | A bar on record, and not currently registered: the letter grade is replaced by "Barred". A bar on its own, while still registered, does not trigger this. |
| New advisor | Registered under 2 years, measured from the earliest dated registration on record: the letter grade is replaced by "New advisor". Missing or undated registration history is not treated as new — it shows as a data-coverage gap, never as this label. |
| Grade capped at D | A felony conviction or a final regulatory action dated within the last 5 years. |
| Grade capped at C | The same matters dated within the last 10 years, but more than 5. |
| Grade capped at B | Two or more customer disputes settled or awarded within the last 10 years. |
Separately, for an advisor with no current employment on record, Fiduciary Alignment is left out of the composite and its 15% weight is shared proportionally by the other four factors — the grade is still computed, just without a placeholder value for that one factor.
A CrossCheck is a number from 0 to 100 built from public regulatory records (FINRA BrokerCheck, SEC IAPD), your registration history, and designations listed in the issuing body's public directory (CFP® status is checked with CFP Board) — plus, for a claimed advisor, up to 5 points from your own verified profile activity and from visits to shares of your profile (the Profile Boost, below). Nothing you pay changes it.
Method version 3.1.0, effective October 1, 2026.
What changed in version 3.1.0
- Designations now earn points by how demanding they are: 15 points for CFA®, CPWA® or CIMA®, 10 for ChFC® or CLU®, and 5 for AIF®, instead of a flat 10 each. The cap on designation points stays at 30.
- The CFA® designation now counts toward Credentials. Before, it was not counted.
- A dual-registered advisor now shows "Yes, for advisory accounts" on the fiduciary check, instead of a plain "Yes".
What changed in version 3.0.0
- A bar on record, with the advisor not currently registered, now shows as "Barred" instead of a letter grade.
- Registration under 2 years now shows as "New advisor" instead of a letter grade.
- A felony conviction or a final regulatory action, if recent, now caps the grade — at D within 5 years, at C within 10.
- Two or more customer disputes settled or awarded within 10 years now cap the grade at B.
- A repeat pattern of disclosures within 10 years now counts more than a single isolated one.
- Supervisory exam credentials (Series 24, 9 or 10) now count for 5 Credentials points, previously 10.
- An advisor who is not currently registered no longer receives a placeholder Fiduciary Alignment score — that factor is left out and its weight is shared by the other four.
- Every profile now shows a data-coverage note when part of the record could not be evidenced.
The five factors
| Factor | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Conduct Record | 35% | Disclosures on your regulatory record, weighted by severity, age and outcome. |
| Credentials | 20% | Your CFP® status, other recognized designations, and FINRA exams passed. |
| Experience & Stability | 20% | Years registered, how often you changed firms, and gaps in registration. |
| Fiduciary Alignment | 15% | Your registration type, adjusted by your current firm's Form ADV conflicts. |
| Firm Quality | 10% | Your current firm's Firm CrossCheck, pulled halfway toward neutral. |
The formula
Each factor is scored 0–100. Your CrossCheck = 35% × Conduct + 20% × Credentials + 20% × Experience & Stability + 15% × Fiduciary Alignment + 10% × Firm Quality, plus the Profile Boost (up to 5 points, below), capped at 100 and rounded to the nearest whole number (halves round up) — rounded once, at the end. When there is no current firm, or it has no Firm CrossCheck, Firm Quality uses a neutral 50. If you are not currently registered, Fiduciary Alignment is left out and its 15% weight is shared proportionally by the other four factors. Credentials and years registered count only what is on record, so nothing on record scores 0 there.
Worked example
| Factor | Factor score | Weighted points |
|---|---|---|
| Conduct Record | 100 | 35 |
| Credentials | 55 | 11 |
| Experience & Stability | 72 | 14.4 |
| Fiduciary Alignment | 70 | 10.5 |
| Firm Quality | 60 | 6 |
| Total | 76.9 → 77 (grade B) |
The example shows the five factors only. For a claimed advisor, the Profile Boost (below) is added to the weighted total before the final rounding.
How to raise your CrossCheck
Ranked by the most each action can add to your overall CrossCheck. Nothing you pay changes it.
- +8Earn CFP® certification (confirmed by CFP Board)up to +8 · Credentials
- +6Add a recognized designation (AIF®, ChFC®, CLU®, CIMA®, CPWA®)+2 each, up to +6 · Credentials
- ≈4Complete your profile, verify your contact details and credentials, and link your social accounts and websiteabout 4 of the 5 Profile Boost points · Profile Boost
- +2Pass Series 65 or 66+2 · Credentials
- +1Pass Series 24, 9 or 10+1 · Credentials
- ≈1Share your profile with the tracked link from your share dialogabout 1 Profile Boost point, in full at 20 distinct visitors in 90 days · Profile Boost
Protect the points you have
- Conduct Record
Correct an inaccurate disclosure at FINRA or the SEC — depends on the disclosure
- Experience & Stability
Avoid a gap over 6 months when you change firms — protects up to 1 per gap
Profile Boost points are for claimed advisors only, capped at 5 in total, and never paid for. The Engagement score itself is a separate number, explained on its own page.
Conduct Record
Whether your public regulatory record shows disclosures, such as customer disputes, regulatory actions or criminal matters.
What earns or costs points
- You start at 100. Each disclosure takes points off, and nothing adds them back except time.
- More serious matters weigh more: a regulatory action or a felony weighs 30; a customer dispute weighs 15, or 25 if $100,000 or more was awarded.
- Older disclosures count for less. Their impact halves every 5 years.
- Pending, denied, dismissed, closed or withdrawn matters count at only 10%.
What you can do
- You cannot remove an accurate disclosure; its impact fades with time as shown below.
- If a disclosure is wrong or out of date, have it corrected at the source (FINRA via Form U4/U5 amendment, or the SEC). The correction reaches your score at the next recalculation.
- Pending matters already count at only 10%; a final outcome in your favor (denied, dismissed, withdrawn) keeps it at 10%.
Starts at 100. Each disclosure subtracts points; nothing adds points back except time. Points removed per disclosure = severity × age factor × outcome factor × adjustments.
Severity
| Disclosure type | Severity |
|---|---|
| Regulatory action | 30 |
| Criminal — felony | 30 |
| Criminal — misdemeanor (or charge type not stated) | 10 |
| Customer dispute with $100,000 or more awarded | 25 |
| Customer dispute, other | 15 |
| Employment separation after allegations | 15 |
| Civil, civil bond, investigation | 15 |
| Judgment or lien | 8 |
| Financial (e.g. bankruptcy) | 6 |
| Any other type | 15 |
Age
Impact halves every 5 years (after 5 years 50%, after 10 years 25%, after 15 years 12.5%). A disclosure with no date never fades. These never fade below 25%: a final regulatory action, any criminal matter, and a customer dispute that ended in an award or settlement with a damages amount on record.
Outcome
| Outcome | Counts at |
|---|---|
| Final, settled, award | 100% |
| Pending, on appeal | 10% |
| Denied, dismissed, closed, withdrawn | 10% |
| Outcome not reported | 100% (10% for investigations, civil bonds, disclosures with no category, and separations recorded as "Permitted to Resign" or "Voluntary Resignation") |
| Any other stated outcome | 100% |
Adjustments
Financial and judgment/lien disclosures count at half (they often reflect personal misfortune, not conduct). A disclosure whose source system cannot be identified counts at 80%. Two records of the same event (same type, same outcome, both dated within 30 days of each other) are counted once. A repeat pattern of disclosures within the last 10 years counts 1.25 times — more than a single isolated one.
CFP® sanction
A revoked or suspended CFP® certification subtracts a further 20 points, once.
Example
One settled customer dispute (15) from 5 years ago: 15 × 0.5 × 1.0 = 7.5 points off, so Conduct is 92.5.
Credentials
Your CFP® certification, other recognized designations, and the FINRA exams you have passed.
What earns or costs points
- CFP® certification, confirmed by CFP Board: 40 points.
- CFA®, CPWA® or CIMA®: 15 points each. ChFC® or CLU®: 10 points each. AIF®: 5 points. Designations together are capped at 30.
- Series 65 or 66: 10 points. Series 24, 9 or 10: 5 points. Series 7: 5 points.
- The most you can earn here is 90. CPA and Series 63 are not counted yet.
What you can do
- Earning CFP® certification is the largest single gain: +40 points here, which is +8 on your overall score.
- Each additional designation from the list adds 5 to 15 points here, depending on its tier, up to 30 in total.
- If you hold a designation that is not showing, make sure your listing in the issuing body's public directory is current and shows your CRD number.
- Passing Series 65/66 or a supervisory exam adds points once it appears on your FINRA record.
| Credential | Points |
|---|---|
| CFP®, confirmed "Certified" by CFP Board | 40 |
| Tier 1: CFA®, CPWA®, CIMA® | 15 each |
| Tier 2: ChFC®, CLU® | 10 each |
| Tier 3: AIF® | 5 |
| All listed designations together | up to 30 in total |
| Series 65 or Series 66 | 10 |
| Series 7 | 5 |
| Series 24, 9 or 10 (supervisory) | 5 |
The most you can earn is 90. CPA is not counted yet, and neither is Series 63. A revoked or suspended CFP® earns no points here. Lapse and revocation are checked for CFP® only, because it is the only designation with a status record. Designations are read from the issuing organization's public directory and matched to your CRD number.
Experience & Stability
How long you have been registered, and how steady your registration history is.
What earns or costs points
- You earn 3 points for each year since your first registration, up to 60 at 20 years.
- Stability starts at 40 points.
- Each firm beyond 3 in the last 10 years costs 8 points.
- Each gap of more than 6 months between registrations costs 5 points.
What you can do
- Experience accrues automatically, 3 points a year.
- Avoid registration gaps longer than 6 months when changing firms.
- Each firm beyond three in a 10-year window costs 8 points.
Two parts, added together:
- Years registered — up to 60 points: 3 points per year since your first registration, reaching the full 60 at 20 years.
- Stability — up to 40 points: starts at 40; minus 8 for each firm beyond 3 that you were registered with in the last 10 years; minus 5 for each gap of more than 6 months between registrations. Registrations with no start date on record are left out. Holding broker and adviser registrations at the same time never counts as a gap.
Example
12 years registered (36) + 5 firms in the last 10 years (40 − 16 = 24) → 60.
Fiduciary Alignment
Your registration type, adjusted for the conflicts of interest your current firm reports on its Form ADV.
What earns or costs points
- Adviser-only starts at 100, dual-registered at 70, broker-only at 40.
- Your firm's Form ADV conflicts can move that up or down by up to 15 points.
- Fee structure is not an input.
What you can do
- This factor reflects your registration type and your firm's Form ADV. Your current firm is the first firm among your current registrations that is not adviser-only and has a branch on file; otherwise (for example, if you are adviser-only) it is the first firm listed.
| Registration | Starting score |
|---|---|
| Investment adviser representative only | 100 |
| Dual-registered (adviser and broker) | 70 |
| Registered representative (broker) only | 40 |
| Registration type cannot be determined, while still currently employed | 70 |
Then adjusted by up to ±15 points for your current firm's Form ADV conflict-of-interest component (0–100, part of its Firm CrossCheck): above 50 adds points, below 50 subtracts, scaled so 100 gives +15 and 0 gives −15. If there is no current firm, or it has no Firm CrossCheck or no Form ADV conflicts component, there is no adjustment. The factor stays within 0–100. Fee structure is not an input. If you are not currently registered, this factor is left out of your composite and its 15% weight is shared proportionally by the other four factors.
Firm Quality
Your current firm's Firm CrossCheck, pulled halfway toward a neutral 50.
What earns or costs points
- A firm at 90 gives 70; a firm at 30 gives 40.
- No firm, or a firm with no Firm CrossCheck: 50.
What you can do
- This follows your current firm's record, not yours.
50 + half of the difference between your firm's Firm CrossCheck and 50. A firm at 90 gives 70; a firm at 30 gives 40. No firm, or a firm with no score: 50.
Profile Boost
Up to 5 extra points for claimed advisors, from your own verified profile and from visits to shares of your profile.
What earns or costs points
- About 4 points: a complete profile, verified contact details and credentials, linked social platforms, and a website that links back.
- About 1 point: 20 distinct visitors from your tracked share link over a rolling 90 days.
- Claimed advisors only, never paid for, and capped at 5 points in total.
What you can do
- Claim your profile — the boost is for claimed advisors only.
- Complete your profile, verify your contact details and credentials, link your social platforms, and link a website that links back (about 4 of the 5 points).
- Share your profile with the tracked link from your share dialog: 20 distinct visitors over a rolling 90 days earn the full share point (about 1 of the 5).
A claimed advisor can add up to 5 points on top of the five factors. The boost = 5 × (80% × your published data-quality index ÷ 100 + 20% × your published share reach). In practice about 4 of the 5 points come from your verified profile activity — completeness, verification, linked accounts and website, the same inputs as the data-quality index on the Engagement side — and about 1 point comes from profile shares.
The four profile points
The data-quality index measures how complete, verified and linked your record is: profile completeness, verified contact and credentials, linked social platforms, and a website that links back. It is computed for the Engagement score and reused here, never re-derived — the same published value feeds both.
The one share point
When you share your profile with the tracked link from your share dialog, we count distinct visitors the link brings over a rolling 90-day window; 20 distinct visitors earn the full share point. Automated traffic and your own visits never count, and a visitor is stored only as a one-way hash — we do not store IP addresses or browser fingerprints for this.
The rules that keep it honest
- Claimed advisors only. An unclaimed record has no boost, and unclaiming removes it.
- Never paid. No subscription, plan or payment changes any boost input.
- Follows are never scored — following us or anyone else earns nothing.
- Only published values count. If a change to your data-quality index or share reach is being reviewed, the last published value is used until the review completes.
- The website check is pending: the crawl that verifies a site links back is not running yet, so that part of the data-quality index currently contributes less than its full weight.
- Capped at 5 points in total, and the cap is part of the published method.
The three checks shown with your score
Explanatory only; they do not change the number.
Licensed and registered
Yes when you hold a current registration.
No when you have a registration history but no current registration.
No recent disclosures
Yes when no disclosure dated in the last 10 years.
No when any disclosure in the last 10 years, or any undated disclosure.
Acts as a fiduciary
Yes when adviser-only; dual-registered shows "yes, for advisory accounts".
No when broker-only.
When the record cannot answer a check, it shows as "not available" rather than yes or no: no registration record at all (Licensed and registered), a disclosure record we could not fully load (No recent disclosures), or no current registration type (Acts as a fiduciary).
What never affects your CrossCheck
- Payments or subscriptions to AdvisorCheck.
- Following anyone on social media, or being followed — follows are never scored.
- Reviews on AdvisorCheck.
- Posting cadence and follower counts (Social Activity and Community Following are not measured).
- Fees or how you are paid.
- CPA designations.
- Client assets or performance.
How often it updates
Every 14 days, using the latest public records we hold. A score whose inputs have not changed is carried forward within the same calendar quarter; every score is fully recalculated at least once a quarter so time-based effects (disclosures fading, years registered) stay current. Corrections made at the source appear at the next recalculation.
Where the information comes from
CrossChecks are built from public regulatory filings, credential status confirmed with the issuing body, and the registration record itself — plus, for claimed advisors, up to 5 points from the advisor's own verified profile activity and visits to tracked profile shares (the Profile Boost, above). Every figure behind a score traces back to a specific filing or measured input, with the date it was reported. Scores are recalculated as those records change. Where we add a new category of information in future, it will be listed here before it affects any published score.
What a CrossCheck is, and is not
A CrossCheck is a summary of what public filings show about an advisor's regulatory record, plus up to 5 points from the advisor's own verified profile activity and profile shares, as of the date shown with the score. It is not a recommendation, not investment advice, and not a statement about an advisor's competence, character, or the quality of their advice. It is not a background check, and it may not be used to make employment, credit, insurance, or housing decisions.
Something looks wrong?
A claimed advisor can ask AdvisorCheck to review any input to their own score. Staff review each request; the published score stays visible during review unless a data error is confirmed. Errors in the underlying public record must be corrected with the source (FINRA, the SEC, or the issuing organization).
Showing your CrossCheck on your website
If you have a CrossCheck, you can embed a small badge on your own website that shows your current grade and score. The badge always carries, next to the number: the date the rating was issued, the as-of date of the records behind it, who issued it (AdvisorCheck), the method version, a statement that you did not pay AdvisorCheck for the rating, and a notice that it is not investment advice. The SEC Marketing Rule (Rule 206(4)-1) requires disclosures like these when an adviser promotes a third-party rating, so they are part of the badge itself and cannot be switched off.
Do not show the grade without those disclosures — embed the badge as provided rather than copying the number into your own layout. While a grade is withheld (it shows as "Barred" or "New advisor"), no badge is available at all.
