Agent: Difference between revisions

1,610 bytes added ,  2 December 2022
no edit summary
No edit summary
No edit summary
 
(13 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
A source of far more angst than you would expect amongst the professional classes. An {{tag|agent}} is one fellow who represents ''another'' fellow. When it comes to entering a {{tag|contract}}, an {{tag|agent}} enters legal relations on behalf of {{sex|his}} {{tag|principal}}, and does not take on any legal responsibility {{sex|himself}}. These seems straightforward enough, but you soon encounter a thicket of confusion from which you may never emerge and into which you will almost certainly regret ever entering.
{{a|contract|}}
''For the wonderful world of {{tag|MiFID}} categorisation, and for a convoluted answer to the question “who’s client”? see [[Client - COBS Provision]]''


An agent must, of course, be duly [[capacity and authority|authorised]] by the principal, but how will the contracting counterpart know this, without the principal being there to confirm it? An agent has a special relationship with a {{tag|principal}}
A source of far more angst than you would expect amongst the professional classes. An agent is one fellow who represents ''another'' fellow.
===Don’t shoot the messenger===
When it comes to entering a {{tag|contract}}, an agent enters legal relations on behalf of {{sex|his}} {{tag|principal}} and, in general terms, tries not to take on any personal responsibility {{sex|himself}}. The contract remains between the principal and the third party.
 
But you soon encounter a thicket of confusion from which you may never emerge and which you will almost certainly regret ever entering. What if the agent doesn't tell the third party who the [[principal]] is? What if the agent doesn't even let on that she’s an agent?
 
===It takes three to tango===
The problem is that a contract, by well-trodden legal theory, depends upon the state of mind of two people, whereas where an agency exists, the necessary parts of that consensus can live variously between the minds of ''three''. A may have appointed B, without C knowing. B may have represented to C without A knowing. C and A might not know about each other at all.
 
In this way it resembles playing {{tag|cricket}} with a [[runner]]. Anyone who has ever done that will know the boundless possibilities for confusion and acrimony it presents.
 
===At least ''two''===
From time to time resourceful structurers might try to overcome an accounting problem, or a booking issue between two desks, by interposing an agency arrangement in the middle of a transaction which, otherwise, has the same entity at either end of it. Won’t work. It won’t work even if the agent is a third party — legally, it just vanishes — and it ''certainly'' won’t work if the agent is the same entity as the principal. ''[[Nemo agens in causa sua]]'', as the  [[JC]] likes to say.
 
===[[Capacity and authority]]===
An agent must, of course, be duly [[capacity and authority|authorised]] by the [[principal]], but how will the [[third party]] know this, without the [[principal]] being there to confirm it? You will hear much talk of [[ostensible authority]].
 
An agent has a special relationship with a {{tag|principal}}


===[[Broker dealer]]s===
===[[Broker dealer]]s===
Line 13: Line 31:


===Asset managers and [[unallocated trades]]===
===Asset managers and [[unallocated trades]]===
{{unallocatedtrades}}.
{{unallocatedtrades}}
 
{{Agent representations}}


{{Seealsoagent}}
{{Seealsoagent}}
*{{tag|executing broker}}
*{{tag|executing broker}}
{{ref}}
{{c|brokerage}}