Broker Dealer - SIPC Fees

Attention Broker-Dealers and Their Auditors: SIPC Assessment Changes

Effective April 1, 2009, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation reinstituted an assessment rate of one-quarter of 1 percent of a member's SIPC net operating revenue, which is generally defined on SIPC assessment forms as "gross revenues from the securities business." Click here to access the SIPC's assessment forms. Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 17a-5(e)(4) requires a registered broker-dealer to file, along with its annual audited financials, a supplemental report, covered by an independent accountant's report, which includes procedures related to the broker-dealers' SIPC annual general assessment reconciliation or exclusion from membership forms. An example of an independent accountant's report on applying agreed-upon procedures related to the entity's SIPC assessment reconciliation will be included in the 2009 AICPA Audit and Accounting Guide Brokers and Dealers in Securities and posted on the AICPA Web site. The AICPA Stockbrokerage and Investment Banking Expert Panel is in the process of developing an independent accountant's illustrative report that covers a broker-dealers' exclusion from SIPC membership.