Registration of Persons

The Series 65/66 exam usually asks several questions about registration issues for broker-dealers, investment advisers, and their agents/IARs. It helps to keep a little flow chart in your head, like the ones we published at http://www.passthe66.com/updates/.

For now, let's work through it with words. When you get a question about registration issues for "persons" in the securities business, the first question to ask is, "Do they have a place of business in the state?" If the answer is "yes," then the broker-dealer, agent, or investment adviser representative has to register in that state.
Period.
If the investment adviser has a place of business in the state, the adviser has to register with that state, unless they can claim eligibility for federal registration. If the adviser has $25 million or more under direct management, or if they manage investment company portfolios, or if they can click another of about a dozen reasons, they will register with the SEC. The state(s) where they have a place of business or more than 5 non-institutional clients will receive copies of the SEC paperwork, called "notice filings."
So, the first question is, "Do they have a place of business in the state?" If the answer is "no," the next question is, "Do they have non-institutional investors in that state?" If not, the agent, broker-dealer, investment adviser and investment adviser representative are excused from registration. If they want to start soliciting clients in the other state, they have to register, but if their only clients in the other states are institutional investors--pension funds, mutual funds, banks, insurance companies, advisers, broker-dealers--then they do not have to register in the other state. However, if the agent or broker-dealer have any non-institutional clients in the state, they have to register in that state, even if they don't have a place of business there. The adviser or IAR, on the other hand, can have up to 5 non-institutional clients in the other state without registering, as long as they're not soliciting new clients or "holding themselves out to the public as investment advisers."

Believe it or not, that's about as simple as we can make it. Although a picture may be clearer. Click that link above and check out the three Word Documents.