Exam Weight: ~2 questions (1.5% of exam)
Agents are the individuals who represent broker-dealers or issuers in securities transactions. Under the Uniform Securities Act, only natural persons can be agents, registration is tied to a specific employer, and a separate set of rules governs who must register, how they register, and what disqualifies them from doing so.
What You'll Learn
- Master the definition of an agent, the three defining elements, the natural-person-only rule, the partner/officer/director rule, and the exclusions from the agent definition (the narrow issuer-representative exclusions and the broker-dealer de minimis exclusion)
- Understand agent registration through Form U4 and the CRD system, the noon-of-the-30th-day effective-date rule, December 31 expiration, the automatic registration of a firm's partners/officers/directors, the difference between the USA's "promptly" amendment standard and FINRA's Form U4 deadlines, Form U5 termination, the 2-year exam-validity rule, dual registration with IAR, the two-prong test for denial/suspension/revocation, and Administrator authority over agents