State Registration Requirements (Blue-Sky Laws)

What this video covers

• Why federal registration with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) alone is never sufficient to do business, and why you must register in every state where you have clients
• What blue-sky laws are, where the name originates, and why they exist alongside federal registration rather than replacing it
• The driver-license versus car-registration analogy that separates FINRA qualification from state business authorization
• The state registration process: Form U4 through the Central Registration Depository (CRD), state fees, continuing education, and the required state exams
• How the Series 63 (Uniform Securities Agent State Law Exam), Series 65 (Uniform Investment Adviser Law Exam), and Series 66 (Uniform Combined State Law Exam) differ in purpose and content
• Why the 63, 65, and 66 are state-level exams, not FINRA top-off exams, and how exam writers trick test-takers by mixing the two categories
• Whether a state can impose stricter or lesser requirements than federal law, and the zero-exception rule that states can only raise the bar
• What authority state regulators retain to deny, suspend, or revoke registration independently of anything FINRA does