AdvisorCheck, a platform that tracks the records of financial advisors, has named a chief executive. Adriel Tam was appointed to helm operations from Los Angeles for the startup. 

AdvisorCheck, which was launched by parent company AIMR Analytics Inc., is developing a database on which consumers can find, compare and monitor profiles of financial advisors. Tam joins as a veteran in the wealth management space.  

“That is something I don’t love about these companies that are pretending to be independent, pretending to be advocates for consumers,” Tam said. “They’re not really. They’re being advocates for the firms that employ them, and they’re paying their solicitation fees.”

AIMR Analytics is based in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Tam said that consumers should be able to vet and monitor advisors on a third-party platform. 

The company’s site acts as a search engine for advisor profiles and histories and is able to display a professional’s licenses and client ratios. Users can even see past bankruptcies. 

Tam co-founded the registered investment advisor firm Viridian Advisors out of Bothell, Washington. It was purchased by Edelman Financial Engines LLC in 2021; at the time it managed $1 billion in assets. 

AdvisorCheck, which was launched in January, is logging more that 2,000 users daily. Hoping to garner more traffic and subsequently more user data, the company said it would keep its basic services free as it fundraises for a series A round.

“What we’re looking for in our Series A is really that partnership to help us define the best avenue for revenue generation,” Tam said. “There’s so much information we have about consumers, about advisors.”

According to Tam, the company is currently weighing multiple revenue routes from the information it aggregates about the industry.

A database aggregating financial advisor profiles can implement machine learning to identify trends for portfolio management and compile customer preferences between different markets and wealth brackets. These can be incredibly valuable datapoints for registered investment advising firms.