Firms have their own compliance. We don't sell AI/QIB/144a securities into any account unless the account has 2 commas in it. If the household has 7 accounts worth 300m each (2.1mm) that exceeds AI/QIB/144a, etc, but we have to have 15 damn signatures up and down the firm that verifies their status. Much better when 2 commas in the single account. Keeps MSRB/SEC/FINRA/internal auditors/external auditors/internal compliance away from me. Oh, and Wikipedia is not a good source for day to day business practices. Technically you are correct. You would be a good compliance officer that hassles us lowly traders and brokers ;)
and don't even get me started on Reg d15 SMMP regs.
...Technically you are correct. You would be a good compliance officer that hassles us lowly traders and brokers ;)... Not interested in that job. I only hassle guys who make unsolicited phone calls.
But I do know that a guy with a few rental houses in any of several areas in the country could be an AI with $200 in a brokerage account.
40 years ago I was scammed once by an unscrupulous broker. Best educational investment I ever made. Since then I will not buy anything I don't understand.