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🤝 Employee Conduct & Reportable Events · Lesson 4 of 5 · 5 min

Your Own Accounts and Events You Must Report

🏦 Want a brokerage account at a different firm? Your employer gets a say, and sometimes a copy of every statement.

💡 Key idea

3210: prior written consent before opening an outside brokerage account. 4530: firm reports within 30 calendar days; complaint statistics quarterly by the 15th.

🧠 Why it matters

FINRA RULE 3210: before opening an account at another broker-dealer or financial institution where securities can be traded, an associated person needs the EMPLOYER FIRM'S PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT and must tell the other firm in writing about the association. The employer can ask for DUPLICATE confirmations and statements. Accounts holding only mutual funds, UITs, 529 plans or variable contracts are excluded. FINRA RULE 4530: the FIRM reports to FINRA within 30 CALENDAR DAYS events such as a felony charge or conviction, a written customer complaint alleging theft or forgery, or regulatory action against it or its people. It also files quarterly statistics on written complaints by the 15TH of the month after each quarter. Reps disclose their own bankruptcies, liens and criminal charges on Form U4.

📈 In the real world

📬 Nina, a rep, has an old brokerage account at another firm from college. When she joins her new employer, she has 30 days to get its written consent and to tell the old firm about her new job. Her compliance team then receives duplicate statements each month.

📌 Takeaways

  • 3210: employer's prior written consent; notify the other firm; duplicates on request
  • 4530: firm reports specified events within 30 calendar days
  • Quarterly complaint statistics are due by the 15th of the following month

📖 Terms in this lesson

Rule 4530: FINRA's rule requiring firms to report events such as certain complaints, charges and violations, generally within 30 calendar days.

Rule 3210: An associated person needs the employing firm's prior written consent to open an account at another firm, and must tell the other firm in writing.

✅ Test yourself

Under FINRA Rule 3210, before opening a brokerage account at another firm, an associated person needs:
  1. Approval from FINRA's district office
  2. A notarized letter from a state regulator
  3. Nothing, as long as the account is small
  4. The employer firm's prior written consent

Answer: D · The employer firm's prior written consent

Rule 3210 requires the employer member's prior written consent and written notice to the executing firm. FINRA and states do not approve personal accounts, and there is no size exception.

Under FINRA Rule 4530, a firm generally must report a specified event, such as a rep's felony charge, within:
  1. 30 calendar days
  2. 90 calendar days
  3. 10 calendar days
  4. 15 business days

Answer: A · 30 calendar days

Rule 4530 requires reporting promptly and no later than 30 calendar days after the firm knows or should have known of the event. Ten days is the U4 deadline for a statutory disqualification.

Quarterly statistical reports on written customer complaints under Rule 4530 are due:
  1. Within 30 days of each complaint
  2. By the 15th of the month after the quarter
  3. Once a year, with the annual audit
  4. By the last day of the quarter

Answer: B · By the 15th of the month after the quarter

Rule 4530(d) requires statistical and summary complaint information by the 15th day of the month following each calendar quarter. Individual reportable events follow the separate 30-day rule.

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