Form U4
Form U4 is the Uniform Application for Securities Industry Registration or Transfer. Firms file it through the CRD system to register individuals with FINRA, the states, and other regulators, and it carries the individual's employment history, examination record, and disclosure history.
- Who handles it
- Broker-dealers and, in many states, investment advisers, filing on behalf of registered individuals. Individuals do not file their own U4.
- Filed through
- FINRA Gateway
- Applies to
- Broker-dealer, State-registered RIA, Dually registered
What the form asks for
- General information and identifying data
- Fingerprint information
- Employment history and other business activities
- Registration requests with regulators and SROs
- Examination requests
- Disclosure questions
- Disclosure reporting pages (DRPs) for affirmative answers
- Individual and firm signatures
The work behind the filing
Trigger the filing from the hire, not from a reminder
A U4 obligation starts with a hire or a role change that is recorded in HR days before compliance hears about it. Caddi can watch the HR system and open the registration work the moment the record appears, with the known fields already assembled.
Keep outside business activities consistent across disclosures
The same outside business activity has to appear on the U4 and on the Form ADV Part 2B supplement, and the two are maintained by different people at different times. Caddi can reconcile them and flag the divergence.
Run the annual U4 attestation
Confirming that every registered person's U4 is still accurate is a chase, not an analysis. Caddi can issue the attestation, track responses, escalate non-responders, and file the results to the record.
Questions
What is Form U4?
Form U4 is the Uniform Application for Securities Industry Registration or Transfer. Firms file it through CRD to register individuals with FINRA, the states, and other regulators.
Who files Form U4, the individual or the firm?
The firm files Form U4 on behalf of the individual. The individual signs it but does not submit it.
Why is Form U4 maintenance continuous work?
Because the record has to keep matching facts that change outside compliance. Addresses change, outside business activities start and stop, registrations move between states, and disclosure events surface. Almost all of that originates in HR, payroll, or a conversation, which means compliance is usually the last to hear about it.
What is a disclosure reporting page?
A disclosure reporting page, or DRP, is the supplemental page filed for each affirmative answer to a disclosure question on the U4, giving the detail behind the event.
Does Caddi file this form for me?
No. Caddi does not submit filings to IARD, FINRA Gateway, EDGAR, or any regulator, and it is not a substitute for your compliance program or your CCO. Caddi automates the work around the filing: gathering the underlying data out of your portfolio, CRM, and document systems, reconciling it against the prior filing, flagging what changed, and evidencing delivery. A human still reviews and files.
Related forms
The filing is the easy part
Caddi does not file forms. It runs the work around them: pulling the underlying data out of your portfolio, CRM, and document systems, reconciling it against the prior filing, and evidencing delivery. See it run on your own stack.
See the compliance specialistThis page describes what the form is and the work it creates. For requirements, deadlines, and whether any of it applies to your firm, see FINRA — Form U4.