Investor protection
Check first. Then decide.
Before you commit to any private offering, verify who you are dealing with, research the issuer, and run the checklist. This center points you to the official sources — and shows you what to look at, and why.
Verify & research
Free, official lookups. We link you to the source and explain what you will find.
Verify a broker or adviser
Check registration, licenses, employment history, and any disciplinary record on FINRA BrokerCheck.
Open BrokerCheck →Research an issuer
Read a company’s own filings and disclosures straight from the SEC’s EDGAR database.
Search EDGAR →Read Form CRS & ADV
Understand a firm’s services, fees, and conflicts in its own words, via SEC IAPD.
Open IAPD →Check enforcement actions
See whether a person or firm has been the subject of SEC or state regulatory action.
View SEC actions →Contact your state regulator
Many private offerings are overseen at the state level. Find and contact your regulator via NASAA.
Find your regulator →Investor.gov basics
The regulator’s own plain-language education on fees, risk, diversification, and avoiding fraud.
Visit Investor.gov →Before you invest — ten things to confirm
- Verify the people on an official source
- Read the full offering documents, not just a deck
- Understand every fee, and to whom it is paid
- Know the liquidity — assume you cannot exit until proven otherwise
- Check how and how often the investment is valued
- Weigh how much of your portfolio this one position would be
- Identify who benefits from your investment, and how
- Confirm which tax forms you will get, and when
- Be alert to urgency, guarantees, and “act now” pressure
- Get independent advice about your own situation
Common fraud patterns
Guaranteed or “risk-free” returns, artificial urgency, unregistered sellers, and requests to pay a name that is not the fund — especially to crypto or a personal account — are stop signs. Verify statements and confirmations through the custodian or transfer agent directly, not a link the seller sends.
If something is wrong
Stop and document everything, then report to the SEC, FINRA, or your state securities regulator. If it involves anything you saw on InvestNow, contact us and see our Fraud & scams guidance.
Access to official sources and investor education — not an endorsement. Listing these tools does not imply that InvestNow, any offering, or any professional is approved, reviewed, or endorsed by the SEC, FINRA, NASAA, or any regulator. No government agency approves or endorses any private investment.