To Ceritfy or not to Certify...?

Today, I spent a large portion of my time researching under what terms a company/individual is an investment advisor or an investment advisor representative. Biltmore Trust Company, the company which I have been working closely with during my project, is stationed in South Dakota but has many clients in Ohio. This client base in Ohio poses an issue for the company, in that the government comes to check up on them and see what type of services they are offering their clients outside of South Dakota. This poses an issue because the government can find different circumstances with clients that make them believe that the trust company needs certification as an investment advisor. A trust company is supposed to protect a client and their assets from being "burned" by an investment advisor with cruel intentions. The company is not actually supposed to be given direct advisory about investing interests to the client without certification as an investment advisor. An investment advisor or investment advisor representative is an individual/firm that advises others professionally, for compensation, in buying and selling, investing, or of the value of certain securities (something representing financial value). So I looked through government published orders/rules/regulations of what defines an investment advisor that NEEDS to be certified and the exclusions/exemptions to certification. In my research, I outlined all the possible exemptions to investment advisor certification because having to certify a public company in South Dakota AND Ohio would be quite a pain. I found all the exceptions and now I am spending time to just narrow down the exclusions and compare to what the trust company does in order to get the company out of certification.

In addition to this research, which reading probably sounds VERY boring, but really is interesting if you get to see the applicatio of it, I have been doing some busy jobs like filing, copying, and filing out check request forms. This is only for about an hour a day, but it is apart of working in an office and a law firm, although it is not the most glamorous. It is so important to have an efficient system of organization because with all the paperwork, it easy to loose track of things. Losing track of paperwork is not allowed because a deal/agreement from ten years ago could pop up next week because a client might want sue someone or revisit the terms of an agreement. It's really a lot like evidence in a crime.