5195-S

AN ACT Relating to excessive securities transactions; amending RCW 21.20.005; and adding new sections to chapter 21.20 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 21.20 RCW to read as follows:

It is unlawful for a broker-dealer, salesperson, investment adviser, or investment adviser salesperson knowingly to effect or cause to be effected, with or for a customer's account, transactions of purchase or sale (1) that are excessive in size or frequency in view of the financial resources and character of the account and (2) that are effected because the broker-dealer, salesperson, investment adviser, or investment adviser salesperson is vested with discretionary power or is able by reason of the customer's trust and confidence to influence the volume and frequency of the trades.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 21.20 RCW to read as follows:

(1) In recommending to a customer the purchase, sale, or exchange of a security, a broker-dealer, salesperson, investment adviser, or investment adviser salesperson must have reasonable grounds for believing that the recommendation is suitable for the customer upon the basis of the facts, if any, disclosed by the customer as to his or her other security holdings and as to his or her financial situation and needs.

(2) Before the execution of a transaction recommended to a noninstitutional customer, other than transactions with customers where investments are limited to money market mutual funds, a broker-dealer, salesperson, investment adviser, or investment adviser salesperson shall make reasonable efforts to obtain information concerning:

(a) The customer's financial status;

(b) The customer's tax status;

(d) Such other information used or considered to be reasonable by the broker-dealer, salesperson, investment adviser, or investment adviser salesperson or registered representative in making recommendations to the customer.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 21.20 RCW to read as follows:

(1) A broker-dealer, salesperson, investment adviser, or investment adviser salesperson who violates section 1 of this act is liable to that customer, who may sue to recover damages, costs, reasonable attorneys' fees, and all commissions paid for the sale, transfer, or purchase of any security for the account. The court may award two times the damages sustained.

(2) A person who, directly or indirectly, controls a broker-dealer, salesperson, investment adviser, or investment adviser salesperson liable under subsection (1) of this section is also liable jointly and severally with and to the same extent as the broker-dealer, salesperson, investment adviser, or investment adviser salesperson to that customer, if the person: (a) Knew or should have known that the broker-dealer, salesperson, investment adviser, or investment adviser salesperson was engaging in the violation; or (b) failed to establish, maintain, or enforce compliance procedures reasonably designed to detect the violation and that failure contributed to the violation.

(3)(a) A cause of action under this section survives the death of a customer who might have been a plaintiff or defendant.

(b) A customer may not sue under this section more than three years after a violation of section 1 of this act either was discovered by the customer or would have been discovered by the customer in the exercise of reasonable care.

(4) Remedies provided under this section do not supplant other remedies available under the common law or another statute.

Sec. 4. RCW 21.20.005 and 1989 c 391 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

The definitions set forth in this section shall apply throughout this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Director" means the director of licensing of this state.

(2) "Salesperson" means any individual other than a broker-dealer who represents a broker-dealer or issuer in effecting or attempting to effect sales of securities, but "salesperson" does not include an individual who represents an issuer in (a) effecting a transaction in a security exempted by RCW 21.20.310 (1), (2), (3), (4), (9), (10), (11), (12), or (13), as now or hereafter amended, (b) effecting transactions exempted by RCW 21.20.320, or (c) effecting transactions with existing employees, partners, or directors of the issuer if no commission or other remuneration is paid or given directly or indirectly for soliciting any person in this state.

(3) "Broker-dealer" means any person engaged in the business of effecting transactions in securities for the account of others or for that person's own account. "Broker-dealer" does not include (a) a salesperson, issuer, bank, savings institution, or trust company, (b) a person who has no place of business in this state if the person effects transactions in this state exclusively with or through the issuers of the securities involved in the transactions, other broker-dealers, or banks, savings institutions, trust companies, insurance companies, investment companies as defined in the investment company act of 1940, pension or profit-sharing trusts, or other financial institutions or institutional buyers, whether acting for themselves or as trustees, or (c) a person who has no place of business in this state if during any period of twelve consecutive months that person does not direct more than fifteen offers to sell or to buy into this state in any manner to persons other than those specified in subsection (b) above.

(4) "Guaranteed" means guaranteed as to payment of principal, interest, or dividends.

(5) "Full business day" means all calendar days, excluding therefrom Saturdays, Sundays, and all legal holidays, as defined by statute.

(6) "Investment adviser" means any person who, for compensation, engages in the business of advising others, either directly or through publications or writings, as to the value of securities or as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing, or selling securities, or who, for compensation and as a part of a regular business, issues or promulgates analyses or reports concerning securities. "Investment adviser" also includes financial planners and other persons who, as an integral component of other financially related services, (a) provide the foregoing investment advisory services to others for compensation as part of a business or (b) hold themselves out as providing the foregoing investment advisory services to others for compensation. Investment adviser shall also include any person who holds himself out as a financial planner.

"Investment adviser" does not include (a) a bank, savings institution, or trust company, (b) a lawyer, accountant, certified public accountant licensed under chapter 18.04 RCW, engineer, or teacher whose performance of these services is solely incidental to the practice of his or her profession, (c) a broker-dealer, (d) a publisher of any bona fide newspaper, news magazine, or business or financial publication of general, regular, and paid circulation, (e) a radio or television station, (f) a person whose advice, analyses, or reports relate only to securities exempted by RCW 21.20.310(1), (g) a person who has no place of business in this state if (i) that person's only clients in this state are other investment advisers, broker-dealers, banks, savings institutions, trust companies, insurance companies, investment companies as defined in the investment company act of 1940, pension or profit-sharing trust, or other financial institutions or institutional buyers, whether acting for themselves or as trustees, or (ii) during any period of twelve consecutive months that person does not direct business communications into this state in any manner to more than five clients other than those specified in clause (i) above, or (h) such other persons not within the intent of this paragraph as the director may by rule or order designate.

(7) "Issuer" means any person who issues or proposes to issue any security, except that with respect to certificates of deposit, voting trust certificates, or collateral-trust certificates, or with respect to certificates of interest or shares in an unincorporated investment trust not having a board of directors (or persons performing similar functions) or of the fixed, restricted management, or unit type; the term "issuer" means the person or persons performing the acts and assuming the duties of depositor or manager pursuant to the provisions of the trust or other agreement or instrument under which the security is issued.

(8) "Nonissuer" means not directly or indirectly for the benefit of the issuer.

(9) "Person" means an individual, a corporation, a partnership, an association, a joint-stock company, a trust where the interest of the beneficiaries are evidenced by a security, an unincorporated organization, a government, or a political subdivision of a government.

(10) "Sale" or "sell" includes every contract of sale of, contract to sell, or disposition of, a security or interest in a security for value. "Offer" or "offer to sell" includes every attempt or offer to dispose of, or solicitation of an offer to buy, a security or interest in a security for value.

Any security given or delivered with, or as a bonus on account of, any purchase of securities or any other thing is considered to constitute part of the subject of the purchase and to have been offered and sold for value. A purported gift of assessable stock is considered to involve an offer and sale. Every sale or offer of a warrant or right to purchase or subscribe to another security of the same or another issuer, as well as every sale or offer of a security which gives the holder a present or future right or privilege to convert into another security of the same or another issuer, is considered to include an offer of the other security.

(11) "Securities Act of 1933", "Securities Exchange Act of 1934", "Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935", and "Investment Company Act of 1940" means the federal statutes of those names as amended before or after June 10, 1959.

(12) "Security" means any note; stock; treasury stock; bond; debenture; evidence of indebtedness; certificate of interest or participation in any profit-sharing agreement; collateral-trust certificate; preorganization certificate or subscription; transferable share; investment contract; investment of money or other consideration in the risk capital of a venture with the expectation of some valuable benefit to the investor where the investor does not receive the right to exercise practical and actual control over the managerial decisions of the venture; voting-trust certificate; certificate of deposit for a security; certificate of interest or participation in an oil, gas or mining title or lease or in payments out of production under such a title or lease; charitable gift annuity; or, in general, any interest or instrument commonly known as a "security", or any certificate of interest or participation in, temporary or interim certificate for, receipt for, guarantee of, or warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase, any of the foregoing; or any sale of or indenture, bond or contract for the conveyance of land or any interest therein where such land is situated outside of the state of Washington and such sale or its offering is not conducted by a real estate broker licensed by the state of Washington. "Security" does not include any insurance or endowment policy or annuity contract under which an insurance company promises to pay money either in a lump sum or periodically for life or some other specified period.

(13) "State" means any state, territory, or possession of the United States, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

(14) "Investment adviser salesperson" means a person retained or employed by an investment adviser to solicit clients or offer the services of the investment adviser or manage the accounts of said clients.

(15) "Relatives", as used in RCW 21.20.310(11) as now or hereafter amended, shall include:

(a) A member's spouse;

(b) Parents of the member or the member's spouse;

(d) Natural or adopted children of the member or the member's spouse;

(e) Aunts and uncles of the member or the member's spouse; and

(f) First cousins of the member or the member's spouse.

(16) "Customer" means a person other than a broker-dealer or investment adviser.