Definition of an Investment Adviser Representative

What this video covers

• Why an investment adviser representative (IAR) is always an individual human being, never a firm, and why the firm registers as the investment adviser
• The five qualifying activities under state law: recommending securities, managing accounts, determining which advice is given, soliciting advisory services, and supervising any of the above
• Why job title does not determine IAR status, and how a receptionist who makes a single recommendation instantly crosses into IAR territory
• The federal SEC two-pronged client-mix test: more than 5 natural person clients AND more than 10% of total clients being natural persons, with both prongs required
• How excepted qualified clients are removed from the natural-person numerator but still count in the total-client denominator, and why that fraction trap matters
• Why place of business, not client count, is the sole trigger for state registration of a federal covered adviser's IAR
• The difference between state-law activity-based analysis and federal law mathematical analysis, and which applies to which type of adviser