8.6. The Uniform Securities Act

The Uniform Securities Act, or USA, was created to help states write their own securities laws. The USA is designed to be model legislation for use by all states in drafting their own state legislation regarding the regulatory requirements of investment advisers, broker-dealers, and issuers of securities. No matter what state you’re taking this exam in, the state securities laws you’re studying were built using the Uniform Securities Act as a template. The version of the act that you will be tested on is the Uniform Securities Act of 1956. Since the Uniform Securities Act ties together much of the legislative intent of all the laws created before it and may represent 15% to 20% or more of the entire exam, you need to memorize the details of this law as outlined in the next few chapters.

The Uniform Securities Act’s stated purpos