As of July 1, 2017, some Wyoming RIAs registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission will switch to state regulation.
Wyoming was the last holdout of states that didn't require advisors to register with state regulators. The Wyoming Uniform Securities Act will change that.
The new Securities Act "significantly modifies and updates" the state's current securities law, according to a statement from the Wyoming secretary of state's office. It passed the state House with a single "nay" vote, and was voted through the Senate unanimously. It was signed into law in March.
"This rewrite of the Securities Act has been decades in the making. The current Act is over 50 years old and did not reflect many of the realities of current practice, and ignored some of the most exciting possibilities of modern financing such as crowdfunding," Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Murray said in a statement.
Under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, advisors with less than $25 million in assets under management are prohibited from registering with the SEC if their principal office is located in a state that regulates advisors – meaning any state other than Wyoming.
That gave some advisors a way to avoid SEC registration by listing Wyoming as their principal place of business.