Why is assessable stock still covered on the Series 63 FINRA exam?

October 3, 2010 9:38 PM

Why does the Series 63 FINRA exam ask questions about assessable stock, when non-assessable stock has been the only kind sold for decades?

Based on a little bit of googling, it looks like assessable stock went the way of the dodo sometime around World War I. Series 63 study materials tell you that these securities are no longer sold. And yet, there are still questions about them on the test.

The rules regarding them are not very complicated, so I'm not complaining, just genuinely curious as to why FINRA wants me to know about them at all. It does not seem to be for historical context, since the rules/questions are in the present tense (they mostly relate to whether or not a gift of assessable stock constitutes a sale—it does).

posted by hihowareyou to Law & Government (1 answer total)

Throwing this out there: companies like Lloyds of London require its members to pay into the insurance pool when funds are low.

See the Wikipedia entry for more detail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd%27s_of_London

Perhaps, given the interrelationship between America's and the UK's financial markets, the people who make the FINRA exam think that at least some of its Series 63 holders will have some exposure to structures such as that of Lloyds of London, and so would need to be cognizant of assessable stock.

(Please note this is entirely conjectural on my part.)
posted by dfriedman at 10:01 PM on October 3, 2010