What Advisor Standard is — and is not
AdvisorStandard is an independent decision-support and research platform for Canadians buying, selling or valuing a business. We publish educational resources, practical tools and transparent public-source profiles of business brokers and M&A advisors.
We are not a business broker. We are not a real estate broker. We are not a FINRA-registered intermediary, an investment bank, an attorney, or a financial advisor. We do not facilitate, broker, advise on, or participate in any transaction. Nothing on this site is legal, tax, financial, or investment advice.
Advisor Standard is currently operated by a single founder. Every commitment on this page is one that can be kept at our current scale. Where we describe future capabilities, we say so explicitly. We will not claim processes we do not yet run.
How Verified status is determined
A broker may receive Verified status when we have confirmed, to a reasonable standard, the broker's identity and operating legitimacy using a combination of publicly available primary sources. Depending on jurisdiction and business model, this may include one or more of the following:
Active legal entity
Confirmed via Secretary of State (US) or provincial registry (Canada).
Professional designation
A recognized designation — CBI, BCB, CM&AP, CM&AA, M&AMI, MCBI, CEPA, CBA, CVA, CFA, or CPA-ABV — confirmed as current against the issuing body's published public roster.
Industry association membership
Active membership in IBBA, M&A Source, AM&AA, or a recognized regional affiliate, confirmed against the body's public member directory.
Publicly available licensing
Where state or provincial real estate commission records are publicly searchable and their terms permit it, we cross-reference that the broker's license is active and not subject to a current public disciplinary action. In Ontario, RECO's terms require written permission to reuse register data or link into the register, so we link to RECO's home page instead: search this advisor's name in RECO's public register.
FINRA BrokerCheck
Where applicable, we confirm no active public disclosure events on BrokerCheck at time of verification.
Last verified date
Every Verified profile displays the date on which verification was last confirmed. Users should treat this date as the limit of our knowledge.
We aim to re-verify all Verified profiles at least annually where feasible.
Additional verification tiers may be introduced in the future. Criteria will be published before any new tier launches. No additional tier exists today.
What data we use — and where it comes from
Every piece of data on a broker profile falls into one of two categories. We are explicit about which is which on every profile.
Auto-extracted from public sources
- Corporate registration and good-standing status
- Real estate license status (state / provincial databases)
- FINRA BrokerCheck public disclosures
- Designation and membership roster status
- Public deal announcements and transaction press releases
- Active listing counts on public brokerage marketplaces
- Firm website content, stated verticals, geographic scope
Broker-submitted — not independently verified
- Profile descriptive text and biography
- Transaction history not corroborated by a public source
- Awards or recognitions not independently verifiable
- Client references
- Profile photos and firm imagery
Broker-submitted data is displayed on profiles but clearly labeled as self-reported. If a self-reported claim contradicts a public record, the public record governs.
Not pay-to-play — our editorial independence commitments
The most common failure mode in professional directories is allowing commercial relationships to influence which profiles are surfaced or how they are presented. We have structured Advisor Standard to prevent this.
✓Brokers cannot pay to receive Verified status.
✓Brokers cannot pay to remove a public regulatory record or disciplinary finding.
✓Brokers cannot pay to suppress a competitor's profile.
✓No sponsored placements appear in the directory.
✓Paid placement does not determine where an advisor appears in the directory.
Payment to Advisor Standard for any commercial product does not affect whether a broker receives Verified status or how their profile is ordered in the directory.
Data refresh — typical review cadence
We aim to keep profiles current, but we cannot guarantee real-time accuracy. The last verified date on each profile is the most reliable indicator of data freshness.
Data signalTypical review cadence
Corporate registration status
Reviewed at verification and periodically thereafter, typically annually
License and designation status
Reviewed at verification; updated on detected expiry or broker notification
FINRA BrokerCheck
Reviewed at verification and on annual re-verification cycle where feasible
Association membership
Periodically cross-referenced where public directories are reliably updated
Active listings count
Reviewed periodically via available public marketplace data
Public deal evidence
Reviewed periodically; updated as new public evidence is identified
Methodology document
Reviewed quarterly; material changes versioned and logged
Disputes and corrections
Any broker who believes their profile contains an inaccuracy may submit a correction request. We will review the submission against our primary sources and respond as promptly as practicable.
Advisor Standard will not remove accurate information from a profile on request. Disciplinary actions, license lapses, and public records that appear in primary sources will remain on the profile so long as they remain in those sources.
To submit a correction: disputes@advisorstandard.com
Disclaimer
Advisor Standard is an independent directory and research publication. We are not a business broker, real estate broker, investment bank, FINRA-registered broker-dealer, attorney, or financial advisor. Nothing on this site constitutes legal, tax, financial, investment, or transactional advice.
The Verified badge is an editorial assessment based on the methodology published on this page. It is not a recommendation, endorsement, referral, or guarantee of performance, fitness, or suitability for any particular transaction or seller.
Each broker is responsible for compliance with the licensing, registration, and disclosure requirements of the jurisdictions in which they operate. Inclusion in this directory does not represent that Advisor Standard has confirmed compliance with every applicable rule in every jurisdiction.
Users must independently verify each broker's licensing, designation status, disciplinary history, and references before engaging them. Useful resources: FINRA BrokerCheck (brokercheck.finra.org), state and provincial real estate commission databases, IBBA member directory (ibba.org), M&A Source member directory (masource.org).
Changes to this methodology
Show all changes
- Sep 30, 2026Replaced the version number with a “last updated” date and collapsed this list.
- Sep 29, 2026Version 1.3: removed the wording about paid “featured profile upgrades”; committed that no sponsored placements appear in the directory; removed LinkedIn as a data source (LinkedIn links we keep were found by public web search and checked against the advisor’s name and firm or location); explained that in Ontario we link to RECO’s home page so you can search the advisor’s name in its public register.
- Sep 15, 2026Version 1.2: removed the unpublished ranking framework, its six-category scoring and its eligibility criteria because the framework is not operating (archived internally), and updated the independence commitments, meta description and opening text.
- Apr 28, 2026Version 1.1: softened the Verified criteria from a rigid checklist to a reasonable-standard review, split the unpublished ranking framework into parts, renamed the disqualification section, described refresh timing as typical rather than fixed, removed the Premier Verified detail and added a principle line to the opening.
- Apr 28, 2026Version 1.0: first published, covering Verified status, data sources, independence commitments, disputes and an initial ranking framework.