The BrokerCheck link FINRA already requires is your strongest entity link
Every FINRA member firm must link to BrokerCheck on certain pages, and most do it with a generic badge that tells a machine nothing about which person the page describes.
A FINRA member's website already has to link to BrokerCheck, and that link can do double duty as the clearest statement of who a representative is. Most firms satisfy the rule with a badge that opens the BrokerCheck search page. Pointing the same link at the person's own profile, and printing the CRD number beside it, costs nothing and gives an AI system an unambiguous identifier.
This is one of the few places in AI visibility for financial advisors where compliance and visibility ask for exactly the same thing.
What the rule says
FINRA Rule 2210(d)(8) requires each of a member's websites to include "a readily apparent reference and hyperlink to BrokerCheck" on two kinds of page: the initial page the member intends retail investors to see, and any other page that includes a professional profile of one or more registered persons who conduct business with retail investors. The rule carves out firms without retail customers and a directory that is limited to names and contact information.
Read that second category closely. An advisor bio page is a professional profile. The rule already puts a BrokerCheck link on the exact page where an assistant is most likely to learn who the person is.
Why the destination matters
A link to BrokerCheck's home page satisfies a person, who can type a name into the search box. It gives a machine nothing to connect. A link to brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/ followed by the person's CRD number is different: the URL itself contains the identifier the regulator uses, so even a system that cannot render the profile page, a problem covered in BrokerCheck and IAPD for AI fetchers, has a stable key.
That key matters because names collide. Advisors share surnames, firms share cities, and a representative who has moved firms appears under more than one employer in the record. According to FINRA's description of BrokerCheck, the report covers the last 10 years of employment history, and a person stays listed for 10 years after registration ends, longer where certain final regulatory actions, convictions or injunctions exist. A CRD number is the one label that stays with the person across all of it.
Carrying the identifier in markup
Schema.org gives two properties that fit. identifier can carry a PropertyValue naming the CRD number, and sameAs is intended for a URL that unambiguously indicates the item's identity. A person's own BrokerCheck profile is a strong candidate for both, and an adviser firm's IAPD summary page plays the same role for the Organization.
Two cautions. Markup is not a shortcut around the page: Google's AI features guidance says structured data should match the visible content, so the number and link belong in the text first. And no platform has documented that it reads a CRD number from schema; this is a sound identity practice, not a measured ranking effect.
What to do
- Replace generic badges on bio pages with a link to each person's own BrokerCheck profile, in a sentence that also states the CRD number. Keep the rule's "readily apparent" standard in mind: a link buried in a footer on a bio page is a compliance question, so involve whoever reviews the site.
- Add the firm link where the firm is described, to its BrokerCheck firm page and, for a registered adviser, its IAPD page.
- Mirror both in structured data using
identifierandsameAson the Person and Organization. - Re-check after any move. When someone joins or leaves, the link and the number move with the bio, not with the firm template.
Not legal, compliance or investment advice. This describes how AI systems read an advisory practice in public; which rules bind you depends on how you are registered, and your compliance department decides what you publish.
Questions
Where does FINRA require the BrokerCheck link?
FINRA Rule 2210(d)(8) requires each of a member's websites to include a readily apparent reference and hyperlink to BrokerCheck on the initial page intended for retail investors and on any other page that includes a professional profile of registered persons who do business with retail investors. There are exceptions, including a directory limited to names and contact information.
Can I use sameAs to point at my BrokerCheck profile?
Schema.org's sameAs property is meant for a URL that unambiguously identifies the item, and a person's own BrokerCheck profile fits that description. Structured data should repeat what the page visibly says, so the visible link and the markup should point to the same profile.
More questions from financial advisors
This page is part of AI visibility for financial advisors, the AIOInsights guide to how AI systems find, read and describe this kind of practice.
- Rep, broker-dealer or RIA: which one does an AI system think you are?
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- "Is my advisor a fiduciary?": answering it without the claim the SEC flagged
- Educational content or advertisement: the line in the Marketing Rule that decides how deep an advisor can write
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- Paid rankings, top advisor awards and matching sites: what they signal and what they must disclose
- Your firm's name, your DBA and your Google Business Profile: one practitioner, three names
- You changed firms. What the record still says, and what your site must say
- CFP® marks in schema, URLs and bios: the usage rules machines see first
- Where AIO falls short for financial advisors