New Hampshire Law Clarifies Ad Disclosure Rules

By Linda Koco

August 16, 2005 at 08:00 PM

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New Hampshire Gov John Lynch has signed Senate Bill 111, a bill that will simplify disclosure requirements for financial advisors who advertise via television commercials, radio commercials or billboards.[@@]

Enactment of the new law eliminates the need for advisors to clutter general advertising with long disclosure statements that relate to the advisors' broker-dealer relationships.

Previously, state securities officials had taken action against advisors who did not includee the broker-dealer disclosures in general advertisements, including billboard and television ads that related to the sale of insurance products.

The lead sponsor of S.B. 111 was state Sen. Robert Boyce, R-Alton, N.H. The bill drew bipartisan support, and Lynch, who signed it into law, is a Democrat.

David A. Kutcher, owner of DAK Financial Group, Alton, N.H., a marketer of equity index annuities, other insurance products and some securities, had actively backed the bill.

DAK had been cited in 2003 by the State Securities Bureau for failing to identify DAK's broker-dealer relationship in general advertisements, as was required under the state's existing securities laws. Kutcher took down the cited ads but then sought a remedy in the state legislature.

Kutcher contends that broker-dealer disclosure on general advertisements for a business dealing mostly in insurance is not helpful to consumers. The right place to explain and disclose such information is "belly to belly," or when a firm is working directly with a customer at point of sale, Kutcher says.

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