General information on the IARD system can be found on the IARD website.

  1. Set Up Your Account
    1. Print and review the IARD state registration entitlement packet.
    2. Fill out and send the Designating/Updating Super Account Administrator (SAA) and FINRA Entitlement Agreement (FEA) form.
    3. In several weeks you will get a Confirmation Packet back from FINRA, which, among other information, will contain your IARD Number, User ID, and Password to be able to access the system over the Internet.
  2. Fund Your Account
    Once you have received your Confirmation Packet and know your IARD Number you will need to fund your firm’s Daily Account before you can make any filings on the system.

    You will need to deposit enough funds to cover the cost of both the registration fees for the states in which your firm and its representatives will be registering and the administration fees charged by FINRA. FINRA is currently waiving its administrative fees.

    Fees can be paid via a check or wire transfer sent to FINRA or can be paid electronically. IARD's states’ fee schedules.

    To register a firm in Washington only, you will pay $160 to cover the state registration fee.

    To register a representative in Washington only, you will pay $50 to cover the state registration fee. If you are a sole proprietor, Washington does not require you to separately register as a representative, but other states may.

    Please review IARD fees and accounting webpage for a more thorough review of the fee paying and accounting process.

  3. File Online
    Before logging onto the system for the first time you may want to review the IARD filing online information.

    The forms below can be filed on the IARD system. Since the forms are quite lengthy, you may want to print them off and fill them in prior to attempting to fill them out online.

    Form Downloads

About the Forms

Form ADV Part 1: This form is filed electronically on IARD, and contains “check-the-box” and limited text fields. It requests basic information about the firm and any disciplinary history of the firm and its affiliates. Please note that Washington State requires that investment advisers provide the Securities Division with an accurate and complete list all of their custodians regardless of the percentage of their regulatory assets under management at the custodian. Most investment advisers provide this information in Section 5.K.(3) of Form ADV Part 1, Schedule D.

Form ADV Part 2: This form is required to be filed with the Division. At present you have the option of sending it directly to the Division, or uploading it to IARD. Form ADV Part 2 requests information on services and fees, other business activity, backgrounds of the principals of the firm, and conflicts of interest.

This form is also required to be given to your clients. Depending on how you answer questions on Part II, you will need to provide full narrative disclosure on Schedule F (at a minimum, questions 1 and 6 require Schedule F disclosure). Schedule F is where we usually find problems that require revisions, either due to no disclosure of required items, insufficient disclosure, or disclosure which conflicts with other documents, so please complete this schedule carefully and be thorough in your answers.

Form U4: This form is used to register investment adviser representatives.

Once the Form ADV Part 1 has been submitted online it goes into a queue for the Division of Securities to review. We set up a file and our practice is to send you an e-mail confirming that we got the filing and requesting that you send us the documents listed in the next section.

Help with Filing Online

Further guidance on filing the forms can be found on IARD filing online webpage. FINRA maintains an IARD Help Desk at 240-386-4848, which can assist you with any filing problems.