Registered Investment Advisors

An investment advisor is one who manages the investments of others for a fee, typically calculated as a percentage (e.g., 1%) of assets under management on an annual basis. Investment advisors must be registered under either federal or state law depending on the amount of money under management. Common examples of investment advisors include pension fund managers, mutual fund managers, trust fund managers and also individuals granted discretionary authority by private clients to manage their personal investments.

Stock brokers (known as "registered representatives" under federal law) are not necessarily (and often are not) registered investment advisors. The vast majority of stockbrokers simply take orders for sales and purchases of stocks, bonds and other financial instruments and provide financial advice (and recommend sales and purchases) only as an incidental service to their primary brokerage service -- they usually do not have discretion to manage client investments.

In general, under U.S. law, investment advisors owe their clients an ongoing fiduciary duty to exercise their discretion in selecting investments with their clients' best interests in mind. Stock brokers on the other hand, typically do not owe a fiduciary duty to clients beyond the proper execution of buy and sell orders.

80-b-2(11) Definition of Investment Adviser in INVESTMENT ADVISERS ACT OF 1940

(11) “Investment adviser” means any person who, for compensation, engages in the business of advising others, either directly or through publications or writings, as to the value of securities or as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing, or selling securities, or who, for compensation and as part of a regular business, issues or promulgates analyses or reports concerning securities; but does not include

(A) a bank, or any bank holding company as defined in the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 [12 U.S.C. 1841 et seq.] which is not an investment company, except that the term “investment adviser” includes any bank or bank holding company to the extent that such bank or bank holding company serves or acts as an investment adviser to a registered investment company, but if, in the case of a bank, such services or actions are performed through a separately identifiable department or division, the department or division, and not the bank itself, shall be deemed to be the investment adviser;

(B) any lawyer, accountant, engineer, or teacher whose performance of such services is solely incidental to the practice of his profession;

(C) any broker or dealer whose performance of such services is solely incidental to the conduct of his business as a broker or dealer and who receives no special compensation therefor;

(D) the publisher of any bona fide newspaper, news magazine or business or financial publication of general and regular circulation;

(E) any person whose advice, analyses or reports relate to no securities other than securities which are direct obligations of or obligations guaranteed as to principal or interest by the United States, or securities issued or guaranteed by corporations in which the United States has a direct or indirect interest which shall have been designated by the Secretary of the Treasury, pursuant to section 3(a)(12) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [15 U.S.C. 78c (a)(12)], as exempted securities for the purposes of that Act [15 U.S.C. 78a et seq.];

(F) any nationally recognized statistical rating organization, as that term is defined in section 3(a)(62) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [15 U.S.C. 78c (a)(62)], unless such organization engages in issuing recommendations as to purchasing, selling, or holding securities or in managing assets, consisting in whole or in part of securities, on behalf of others; or

(G) such other persons not within the intent of this paragraph, as the Commission may designate by rules and regulations or order.





Registration process
http://www.sec.gov/divisions/investment/iard/register.shtml

INVESTMENT ADVISERS ACT OF 1940
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/ch2D.html

PART 275--RULES AND REGULATIONS, INVESTMENT ADVISERS ACT OF 1940
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/17cfr275_00.html


FAQs regarding registration
http://www.sec.gov/divisions/investment/iard/iardfaq.shtml