Yes. We are registered in California as well as many other states, probably about 22 in total. About 3% of our clients are from Ca.
Registering in a State is no problem. It takes about 4 days and about $450 per state. Given our perfectly clean record with NASD and SEc we have never been turned down from any state.
Nonetheless, as a regional firm with the majority of its clients on the Northeast Corridor, you just don't go around registering in every state. One of the things I have always done is been forthright with these threads about market operations, how firms profit,etc. Just like anybusiness, you don't just want to throw away $450 x 28 states every single year if you don't have clients in those states. Our approach is to register in a state when someone shows interest and iswilling to open an account in the unregistered state.
Many of you are thinking of the new model for discount firms, incredibly high volume, lower levels of service, no personal contact or feedback etc. Given our relatively smaller size, this is not our approach. We are full-service, discount commission. Nonetheless, with smaller size, comes some drawbacks. One is that we are not registered in all states, an easy hurdle to overcome.
Regards,
Steve |
