RESIDENTS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

The Jolly Contrarian’s Glossary The snippy guide to financial services lingo.™ →Go uptown Index — Click the ᐅ to expand: Glossary Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

An untutored foreigner, glancing at a few prospectuses, might be forgiven for concluding there is something wrong with the average resident of New Hampshire, for it seems they are uncommonly in need of being shouted at, at least whenever they come into contemplation in the course of a securities offering.

It isn’t, obviously, that New Hampshire residents are dense — or any denser than the rest of us, at any rate — for what they are being shouted at about seems complicated, convoluted and, in honesty, not the sort of thing that calls for such easy exasperation. It seems you would need to be quite some scholar in the local securities regulations for it to make much sense to you at all. Perhaps, by contrast, unnatural adeptness with securities offerings laws characterises the New Hampshireman, so much so that an offeror feels justified shouting at those who don’t quickly grasp the minutiae.

Or it might be the misconception that important stuffjust needs to be said conspicuously, and that means in capitals. But query how important is the usual New Hampshire residents disclaimer:

NOTICE TO NEW HAMPSHIRE RESIDENTS ONLY: NEITHER THE FACT THAT A REGISTRATION STATEMENT OR AN APPLICATION FOR A LICENSE UNDER THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN FILED WITH THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE NOR THE FACT THAT A SECURITY IS EFFECTIVELY REGISTERED OR A PERSON IS LICENSED IN THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE CONSTITUTES A FINDING BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE THAT ANY DOCUMENT FILED UNDER RSA 421-B IS TRUE, COMPLETE AND NOT MISLEADING. NEITHER ANY SUCH FACT NOR THE FACT THAT AN EXEMPTION OR EXCEPTION IS AVAILABLE FOR A SECURITY OR A TRANSACTION MEANS THAT THE SECRETARY OF STATE HAS PASSED IN ANY WAY UPON THE MERITS OR QUALIFICATIONS OF, OR RECOMMENDED OR GIVEN APPROVAL TO, ANY PERSON, SECURITY, OR TRANSACTION. IT IS UNLAWFUL TO MAKE, OR CAUSE TO BE MADE, TO ANY PROSPECTIVE PURCHASER, CUSTOMER, OR CLIENT ANY REPRESENTATION INCONSISTENT WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THIS PARAGRAPH.