Account Opening, Screening, and Documentation

Understand CIP, KYC, confidentiality agreements, authorization documents, and private-placement account paperwork on Series 82.

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Account-opening questions on Series 82 are documentation-heavy because private placement activity depends on a lawful and well-documented investor relationship. The exam expects you to know the basic account-opening framework, but it adds private-offering documents such as subscription agreements, investor questionnaires, QIB letters, confidentiality agreements, and entity authorization materials.

The practical test is whether the firm can prove that it knows who the investor is, that the investor is authorized to act, and that the offering documents have been completed correctly. Customer identification, entity formation documents, powers of attorney, trust papers, and corporate resolutions all matter because a private offering often turns on representations that must be documented, not assumed.

Privacy and safeguarding rules also belong here. The exam may not ask for those rules as abstract policy, but it does expect the representative to know that customer information collected in the process is itself regulated.

Key Takeaways

  • Private placement account opening is a documentation problem before it is a sales problem.
  • CIP, KYC, and authorization documents help determine whether the account can be opened and used.
  • Private offerings often require supplemental investor documentation.
  • Privacy obligations still apply to information collected during the offering process.

Sample Exam Question

A corporate investor wants to subscribe to a private offering. Which concern is most important before the firm accepts the subscription?

A. Whether the investor intends to hold the securities in street name
B. Whether the account-opening and authorization documents show that the entity and signer are properly identified and empowered to act
C. Whether the investor also owns listed options at another broker-dealer
D. Whether the issuer has common stock dividends scheduled this quarter

Answer: B. Series 82 account-opening questions focus on documentation, authorization, and investor qualification. For an entity account, the firm has to confirm both the entity’s identity and the signer’s authority.

Revised on Thursday, April 23, 2026