Friday, October 10, 2008

Wisconsin Adopts Emergency Prohibition Against Using Senior Certifications or Designations

By James Hamilton, J.D., LL.M.

Persons in the securities industry such as broker-dealers, agents, investment advisers or investment adviser representatives are prohibited from using certain professional designations that state or imply specialized knowledge of the financial needs of senior citizen investors. The use of these "senior designations" by industry persons is a dishonest, unethical practice under the Wisconsin Uniform Securities Law. Only those professional designations attained through prescribed training offered by a nationally accredited institution are approved professional designations by the Wisconsin Securities Division.

The rule-making procedures under Chapter 227 of the Wisconsin Statutes are being implemented to adopt permanent rules to be in effect upon expiration of identical emergency rules on the subject issued by the Division on September 11, 2008 (identical except for revised numbering of applicable rules and statutes referenced therein to reflect the January 1, 2009 effectiveness of the repealed and re-created Wisconsin Securities Law resulting from 2007 Wisconsin Act 196, together with revised administrative rules thereunder). The emergency rules became effective September 15, 2008 upon publication in the official state newspaper and compliance with other emergency rule-making requirements.

More information here.