NEW! Compliance FAQ's for Financial Services Companies

Our Ethics Check System™

All NEB members must successfully pass our annual, seven-year background checks for criminal, civil, and business violations*. They also must hold at least one of the following financial services license types: Securities, Insurance, Real Estate, Mortgage, or Accounting. Here is an overview of the checks that we perform on all NEB members.

Criminal Background Check – 7 Year
Nationwide skip-trace provided by Acxiom Information Security Services, a world leader in security information technology. This checks for any pending or confirmed felonies or disqualifying misdemeanors.

Civil Background Check – 7 Year
Nationwide investigation provided by TransUnion, a global leader in information technology. This checks the civil courts for any pending or confirmed disqualifying violations that have resulted in a judgment, fine, or award.

Professional License Check – 7 Year
NEB verifies the existence of one or more recognized state or federal regulated licenses to offer financial services. This may include securities, insurance, mortgage, real estate, accounting, or other financial-services professional license.

SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) – 7 Year
NEB performs a monthly cross-check for any disqualifying violations that result from SEC disclosure of any Administrative Law Judge initial decisions and orders, administrative proceedings, reports of investigations, and litigation releases.

Bankruptcy Check – 7 Year
NEB utilizes TransUnion to conduct a comprehensive credit check. This check verifies that, effective June 1, 2007, NEB applicants have not declared bankruptcy in the prior seven years.

Department of Insurance – 7 Year
NEB checks each resident and non-resident insurance license listed by applicants. This check verifies with state insurance departments that all licenses are up to date, that applicants have no disqualifying violations, and that they have stayed current with continuing education requirements.

FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, formerly NASD) – 7 Year
NEB reviews all CRD disclosure reports to uncover any disqualifying violations for both active and inactive licenses.

State Securities Administrators – 7 Year
NEB checks with each state securities division to uncover any ongoing investigations or disqualifying violations in addition to those discovered by other regulatory agencies.

State Mortgage License Regulators
NEB checks with state mortgage license regulators to verify that all licenses are up to date, that applicants have no disqualifying violations, and that they have stayed current with any continuing education requirements.

State Association of Realtors
NEB checks with state associations of realtors to verify that applicants have no disqualifying violations.

National Association of Realtors
NEB checks with the National Association of Realtors to verify that applicants have no disqualifying violations.

State Accounting Department
NEB checks with state accounting departments to verify that all licenses are up to date, that applicants have no disqualifying violations, and that they have stayed current with any continuing education requirements.

*NEB determines that a “disqualifying violation” occurs when a state or federal agency has found that an advisor is guilty of conduct against public trust, which may include, but is not limited to, theft, forgery, fraud, false statements, misappropriation, embezzlement, deceit, or other prohibited, illegal, or criminal sales practice.

Note: Certain clerical or administrative-type infractions, preventive orders, or settled complaints (where there is no conclusion of guilt or wrongdoing) may not automatically disqualify an advisor from NEB membership. However, NEB reserves the right to disclose such marks on the member’s public profile.

DISCLAIMER: All NEB members have successfully passed our annual seven-year background checks for criminal, civil, and business violations in order to meet our membership standards. However, NEB provides no guaranteed assurance or warranty of the character or competence of its members. Always make financial decisions on the basis of your own due diligence. Contact information for various state and federal regulatory agencies can be found at www.ethicscheck.com/regcontact. NEB is not affiliated with any state or federal government agency.

What are the limitations of the Ethics Check System™?
To the best of our knowledge, approved members have met our high standards up to the time of NEB membership approval.  Although we conduct our background checks on each member annually, we cannot guarantee that an NEB member will maintain such a record.

NEB membership approval is based on existing third-party regulatory and judicial information. Therefore, we cannot guarantee this information is complete, current, or correct.

NEB membership approval is no guarantee that a member is competent. He or she can have a clean record and still make ill-advised recommendations.

And finally, being an approved member of the NEB is no guarantee that a consumer will like or feel comfortable with an advisor.