Am I exempt?
I am currently a financial advisor (7,66,life&health) with a firm in Virginia. About a year ago my dad started a nonprofit organization that provides life enrichment/skills programs for children and young adults with special needs throughout the state. My dad and the board have recently asked me to join the organization as a financial consultant and director of the investment planning committee. My responsabilities as financial consultant would be to provide advise/direction for program members/employees/ and volunteers regarding certain benefits plans (403b and 457). I would also deliver workshops/seminars on financial planning, retirement strategies, and basic investment planning.
My responsibilities as director of the investment committe would be to help create the investment policy statement for the foundation, including determining the investment firms/banks, asset allocation range, and periodically review/update as necessary. I would also provide advise to the board members on financial related matters of the organization including cash flow analysis, budgeting, and business development.
My question is: if I decided to take off a year to do this full time, would I still be acting as a registered representative in fulfilling these duties? Would I still need to be sponsored by a registered broker/dealer or RIA to take on this position? What if I was an unpaid employee of this non-profit organization? I want to utilize my knowledge of finance to help my dad's organization but I don't want to break any laws in doing so.
I would appreciate any help with this
-Matt
If you terminate from your BD then you're no longer supervised by a BD and therefore no longer bound to any supervisory procedures and rules of FINRA however, the '34 Act still governs all citizens. While you're unassociated from a BD the only obligation you have with FINRA during those first 2 years is to update your address info with FINRA, should it change since termination. If you remained with a BD you would have to disclose this outside activity and most probably, depending on the firm's policies, need written approval before commencing the activity.
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