Form U4 vs Form U5: What Each Form Does, and How They Work Together When You Move

The short answer: Form U4 and Form U5 are the two ends of a securities registration. The U4, the Uniform Application for Securities Industry Registration or Transfer, registers an individual with a broker-dealer or investment adviser and carries their disclosure history. The U5, the Uniform Termination Notice, ends that registration and records why the person left. The firm files both, and each runs on a 30-day deadline.

When an advisor changes firms, the two forms meet: the old firm files the U5, the new firm files the U4, and the dates on them decide whether the advisor's registrations and exams carry over.

The two forms, side by side

FINRA, NASAA and the state securities regulators developed the two forms together, and the SEC approved them. Both are filed electronically: a firm's authorized users submit them through FINRA Gateway, and investment adviser representatives are registered with the states through a U4 filed through CRD and IARD.

What Form U4 asks

Most of the U4 is identity and history: personal details, fingerprints, the registrations sought, and ten years of residential and employment history. The part that matters most is Question 14, the disclosure questions:

• Criminal (14A and 14B): felony and certain misdemeanor charges and convictions.
• Regulatory (14C to 14G): actions by the SEC, the CFTC, other federal and state regulators and self-regulatory organizations, professional license matters, and pending proceedings.
• Civil (14H): certain investment-related civil actions.
• Customer complaints and arbitration (14I).
• Terminations (14J): being discharged or permitted to resign after allegations of certain misconduct.
• Financial (14K to 14M): a bankruptcy or compromise with creditors in the past 10 years, a denied or revoked bond, and unsatisfied judgments or liens.

FINRA's interpretive guidance closes the obvious escape routes. A customer complaint is reported even if the customer later withdraws it, a pardoned conviction is still reported, and a judgment or lien stays reportable within 30 days even if it has since been paid. Filing incomplete or inaccurate information that is misleading violates FINRA Rule 1122.

By signing, the individual also agrees to keep the form current through timely amendments and to arbitrate disputes with the firm, which is why employment disputes in this industry usually end up in FINRA arbitration instead of court.

What Form U5 records

The U5 is shorter. It records the termination date, the reason for termination (voluntary, discharged, permitted to resign, deceased or other, with an explanation required for the discharged, permitted-to-resign and other categories) and a set of disclosure questions: whether the individual was under internal review for fraud or wrongful taking of property at termination, whether they were the subject of an investigation, and whether they were discharged or permitted to resign after allegations of certain misconduct. The individual may add their own summary of up to 4,000 characters to some answers.

The firm's obligation continues after the filing: it must amend the U5 within 30 days of learning new facts, and FINRA's guidance is plain that this obligation does not lapse. What an advisor can do when the U5 language itself is the problem, including amendment, arbitration and expungement, is its own subject, covered in what a terminated advisor actually does next.

What BrokerCheck shows from each

BrokerCheck publishes information from the most recently filed U4 and U5, with specific exceptions under FINRA Rule 8312:

Former representatives stay on BrokerCheck for ten years after they were last associated with a firm, and certain events, including final regulatory actions, remain available permanently. An individual can add a comment to their own disclosures, and a person no longer registered can submit a broker comment through FINRA.

How the two forms connect when you move

A move is a U5 and a U4 in sequence, and the gap between them matters:

1. The old firm files the U5 within 30 days of the resignation date, and gives you a copy. The termination date on it is the date regulators use to decide whether you must requalify by exam.
2. The new firm files the U4. If you were registered within the prior 30 days, the U4 lets you request temporary registration while the new registration is processed, but you may not conduct business that requires registration until the CRD or IARD system confirms it.
3. The clock starts at the termination date. Stay unregistered for two years and the representative exams generally have to be retaken, and the SIE after four years. The Maintaining Qualifications Program extends the window to five years for people who were registered at least a year and complete annual continuing education.

Advisors moving from a broker-dealer to an RIA meet this clock directly, because dropping the broker-dealer registration is itself a U5. Lapsing your Series 7 when you go RIA and the dually registered advisor cover that choice, and the transition checklist puts the filings in order with everything else in a move.

The fees

FINRA's fee schedule charges the firm:

How many people this touches

FINRA counted 639,723 registered representatives at the end of 2025. Its 2026 Industry Snapshot estimates that 41,570 individuals left FINRA registration in 2025 and 46,795 entered, and every one of those departures and arrivals ran through these two forms.

Advisors planning a move who want the paperwork, the timing and the offers handled with discretion are welcome to request an introduction.