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My partner and I are currently on the market looking for our first home to buy. When contacting a estate agent for a potential house they referred me to a Mortgage adviser.

When searching for details of this mortgage adviser, I found the firm has several positive reviews on google. However, I am not able to find the name of the adviser on FCA registry.

Is this a red flag? (It may be possible I am not the search right) What other checks can I perform to make sure the adviser is "suitable"?

Additional Information The adviser informed me on the phone that they have a fixed fee of £500 and they also get commission from the lender. I think this is fairly normal for UK but I am not sure.

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  • Why not ask the adviser to point you at their record in the FCA register or explain why they don't have one? (Although even then, beware of the possibility of unregistered "clone firms" fraudulently using another company's registration fca.org.uk/consumers/avoid-scams-unauthorised-firms/… )
    – timday
    Jan 3, 2020 at 10:43
  • I thought of asking the adviser, but i wasn't sure how I would be convinced they are not lying. Looking at the name of the firm, FCA has a warning about cloned firm for the firm name. I might contact the firm and ask about my adviser.
    – R.Joshi
    Jan 3, 2020 at 11:04
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    It may be worth shopping around anyway. There are reputable - and FCA approved - mortgage brokers who will operate for nothing (because they get commission from the lender), and others who operate for a fixed fee. So you may well be able to get a better deal elsewhere. Jan 3, 2020 at 15:39

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While the firm is registered on the FCA register in all instances, the only individuals listed are those that hold a management function at the firm. they will typically be CF1 status (confirming that they are a director of the company with a control function), as well as details for compliance functions and complaints handling. If the advisor you are dealing with is purely that (an advisor at the firm) then their name will not show on the register.

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