SEC site offers adviser info

Investors looking for detailed information about money managers, financial planners and other types of investment advisers now have help from a Web site launched by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the North American Securities Administrators Association.

The Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site (www.adviserinfo.sec.gov), which was announced Sept. 26, provides access to registration documents filed by more than 9,000 registered investment advisers. The documents, filed electronically with the SEC or state securities administrators, provide information about each adviser's business, services and fees.

SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt said the new site "underscores the SEC's commitment to full public disclosure by giving investors a valuable new tool to help them compare the qualifications and services of thousands of investment advisers."

The registration documents also disclose any disciplinary problems an adviser or its employees have had during the past 10 years.

Users can search by a firm's name, identification number or SEC number.

There are currently more than 9,000 investment advisers nationwide that have filed and are updating their registration documents electronically, including all 7,300 SEC-registered advisers and more than 1,700 state-registered advisers. Additional state-registered advisers are joining the system daily.

NASAA president Joseph Borg said the site will help investors "know who they're dealing with with just a click of a mouse" and will become even more useful "as more and more state investment advisers come on the system in the months ahead."