Registration of Investment Advisers
If a person or company meets the requirements of an investment adviser for their state, then registration with that state is required. The purpose of this is to both allow a state to track and examine investment advisers operating in their state, as well as to give consumers a way of accessing basic information about the advisers and the nature of their practice. Failure to register is a big deal and can result in substantial fines.
Of course, as with everything, there are exceptions to the rules about who must register, even though someone might otherwise meet their state’s definition of an investment adviser.
The two exceptions to the registration requirement for people and firms that meet the definition of an investment adviser are:
[The investment adviser] has no place of business in this state and (A) [the adviser’s] only clients in this state are investment companies as defined in the Inve