Why does a broker care if an applicant is employed and where? They just want your money. Isn't the SSN and home address enough to validate identity? Heck, I don't even need an SSN to get a driver's license anymore where I live. I assume that they only want to know because the SEC wants to know...in order to look for insider trading perhaps? Therefore, it's highly unlikely that the broker will call your employer to check up (especially since the OP does not appear to work in the financial industry). So if I were the OP, I'd just list your real employer and be done with it.