On February 1, 2016, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2187, titled “Fair Investment Opportunities for Professional Experts Act.”[1] The bill, whose stated purpose is to direct the SEC to revise its regulations regarding the qualifications of natural persons as accredited investors, seeks to expand the definition of accredited investor. Specifically, the bill proposes to add non-financial measures of sophistication to include the following persons in the pool of accredited investors: (i) any natural person who is currently licensed or registered as a broker or investment adviser by the SEC, FINRA, or any similar self-regulatory organization, or the securities division of a state responsible for licensing or registration of individuals in connection with securities activities; and (ii) anyone the SEC determines, by regulation, to have demonstrable education or job experience to qualify such person as having professional knowledge of a subject related to a particular investment and whose education or job experience is verified by FINRA or any similar self-regulatory organization. … Read the rest