For purposes of the Securities Act of Nebraska, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) Agent means any individual other than a broker-dealer who represents a broker-dealer or issuer in effecting or attempting to effect sales of securities, but agent does not include an individual who represents (a) an issuer in (i) effecting a transaction in a security exempted by subdivision (6), (7), or (8) of section 8-1110, (ii) effecting certain transactions exempted by section 8-1111, (iii) effecting transactions in a federal covered security as described in section 18(b)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933, or (iv) effecting transactions with existing employees, limited liability company members, partners, or directors of the issuer or any of its subsidiaries if no commission or other remuneration is paid or given directly or indirectly for soliciting any person in this state or (b) a broker-dealer in effecting transactions described in section 15(h)(2) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. A partner, limited liability company member, officer, or director of a broker-dealer is an agent only if he or she otherwise comes within this definition;

(2) Broker-dealer means any person engaged in the business of effecting transactions in securities for the account of others or for his or her own account. Broker-dealer does not include (a) an issuer-dealer, agent, bank, savings institution, or trust company, (b) an issuer effecting a transaction in its own security exempted by subdivision (5)(a), (b), (c), (d), (e), or (f) of section 8-1110 or which qualifies as a federal covered security pursuant to section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act of 1933, (c) a person who has no place of business in this state if he or she effects transactions in this state exclusively with or through the issuers of the securities involved in the transactions, other broker-dealers, or banks, savings institutions, credit unions, trust companies, insurance companies, investment companies as defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940, pension or profit-sharing trusts, or other financial institutions or institutional buyers, whether acting for themselves or as trustees, (d) a person who has no place of business in this state if during any period of twelve consecutive months he or she does not direct more than five offers to sell or to buy into this state in any manner to persons other than those specified in subdivision (2)(c) of this section, or (e) a person who is a resident of Canada and who has no office or other physical presence in Nebraska if the following conditions are satisfied: (i) The person must be registered with, or be a member of, a securities self-regulatory organization in Canada or a stock exchange in Canada; (ii) the person must maintain, in good standing, its provisional or territorial registration or membership in a securities self-regulatory organization in Canada, or stock exchange in Canada; (iii) the person effects, or attempts to effect, (A) a transaction with or for a Canadian client who is temporarily present in this state and with whom the Canadian broker-dealer had a bona fide customer relationship before the client entered this state or (B) a transaction with or for a Canadian client in a self-directed tax advantaged retirement plan in Canada of which that client is the holder or contributor; and (iv) the person complies with all provisions of the Securities Act of Nebraska relating to the disclosure of material information in connection with the transaction;

(3) Department means the Department of Banking and Finance. Director means the Director of Banking and Finance of the State of Nebraska except as further provided in section 8-1120;

(4) Federal covered adviser means a person who is registered under section 203 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940;

(5) Federal covered security means any security described as a covered security under section 18(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 or rules and regulations under the act;

(6) Guaranteed means guaranteed as to payment of principal, interest, or dividends;

(7) Investment adviser means any person who for compensation engages in the business of advising others, either directly or through publications or writings, as to the value of securities or as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing, or selling securities or who for compensation and as a part of a regular business issues or promulgates analyses or reports concerning securities. Investment adviser also includes financial planners and other persons who, as an integral component of other financially related services, provide the foregoing investment advisory services to others for compensation and as part of a business or who hold themselves out as providing the foregoing investment advisory services to others for compensation. Investment adviser does not include (a) an investment adviser representative, (b) a bank, savings institution, or trust company, (c) a lawyer, accountant, engineer, or teacher whose performance of these services is solely incidental to the practice of his or her profession, (d) a broker-dealer or its agent whose performance of these services is solely incidental to its business as a broker-dealer and who receives no special compensation for them, (e) an issuer-dealer, (f) a publisher of any bona fide newspaper, news column, newsletter, news magazine, or business or financial publication or service, whether communicated in hard copy form, by electronic means, or otherwise which does not consist of the rendering of advice on the basis of the specific investment situation of each client, (g) a person who has no place of business in this state if (i) his or her only clients in this state are other investment advisers, federal covered advisers, broker-dealers, banks, savings institutions, credit unions, trust companies, insurance companies, investment companies as defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940, pension or profit-sharing trusts, or other financial institutions or institutional buyers, whether acting for themselves or as trustees, or (ii) during the preceding twelve-month period, he or she has had five or fewer clients who are residents of this state other than those persons specified in subdivision (g)(i) of this subdivision, (h) any person that is a federal covered adviser or is excluded from the definition of investment adviser under section 202 of the Investment Adviser Act of 1940, or (i) such other persons not within the intent of this subdivision as the director may by rule and regulation or order designate;

(8) Investment adviser representative means any partner, limited liability company member, officer, or director or any person occupying a similar status or performing similar functions of a partner, limited liability company member, officer, or director or other individual, except clerical or ministerial personnel, who is employed by or associated with an investment adviser that is registered or required to be registered under the Securities Act of Nebraska or who has a place of business located in this state and is employed by or associated with a federal covered adviser, and who (a) makes any recommendations or otherwise renders advice regarding securities, (b) manages accounts or portfolios of clients, (c) determines which recommendation or advice regarding securities should be given, (d) solicits, offers, or negotiates for the sale of or sells investment advisory services, or (e) supervises employees who perform any of the foregoing;

(9) Issuer means any person who issues or proposes to issue any security, except that (a) with respect to certificates of deposit, voting-trust certificates, or collateral-trust certificates or with respect to certificates of interest or shares in an unincorporated investment trust not having a board of directors, or persons performing similar functions, or of the fixed, restricted management, or unit type, the term issuer means the person or persons performing the acts and assuming the duties of depositor or manager pursuant to the provisions of the trust or other agreement or instrument under which the security is issued and (b) with respect to a fractional or pooled interest in a viatical settlement contract, issuer means the person who creates, for the purpose of sale, the fractional or pooled interest. In the case of a viatical settlement contract that is not fractionalized or pooled, issuer means the person effecting a transaction with a purchaser of such contract;

(10) Issuer-dealer means (a) any issuer located in the State of Nebraska or (b) any issuer which registered its securities by qualification who proposes to sell to the public of the State of Nebraska the securities that it issues without the benefit of another registered broker-dealer. Such securities shall have been approved for sale in the State of Nebraska pursuant to section 8-1104;

(12) Person means an individual, a corporation, a partnership, a limited liability company, an association, a joint-stock company, a trust in which the interests of the beneficiaries are evidenced by a security, an unincorporated organization, a government, or a political subdivision of a government;

(13) Sale or sell includes every contract of sale of, contract to sell, or disposition of a security or interest in a security for value. Offer or offer to sell includes every attempt or offer to dispose of, or solicitation of an offer to buy, a security or interest in a security for value. Any security given or delivered with or as a bonus on account of any purchase of securities or any other thing is considered to constitute part of the subject of the purchase and to have been offered and sold for value. A purported gift of assessable stock shall be considered to involve an offer and sale. Every sale or offer of a warrant or right to purchase or subscribe to another security of the same or another issuer, as well as every sale or offer of a security which gives the holder a present or future right or privilege to convert into another security of the same or another issuer, shall be considered to include an offer of the other security;

(14) Securities Act of 1933, Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Investment Advisers Act of 1940, Investment Company Act of 1940, Commodity Exchange Act, and the federal Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act means the acts as they existed on January 1, 2024;

(15) Security means any note, stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture, units of beneficial interest in a real estate trust, evidence of indebtedness, certificate of interest or participation in any profit-sharing agreement, collateral-trust certificate, preorganization certificate or subscription, transferable share, investment contract, viatical settlement contract or any fractional or pooled interest in such contract, membership interest in any limited liability company organized under Nebraska law or any other jurisdiction unless otherwise excluded from this definition, voting-trust certificate, certificate of deposit for a security, certificate of interest or participation in an oil, gas, or mining title or lease or in payments out of production under such a title or lease, in general any interest or instrument commonly known as a security, or any certificate of interest or participation in, temporary or interim certificate for, guarantee of, or warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase any of the foregoing. Security does not include any insurance or endowment policy or annuity contract issued by an insurance company. Security also does not include a membership interest in a limited liability company when all of the following exist: (a) The member enters into a written commitment to be engaged actively and directly in the management of the limited liability company; and (b) all members of the limited liability company are actively engaged in the management of the limited liability company. For the limited purposes of determining professional malpractice insurance premiums, a security issued through a transaction that is exempted pursuant to subdivision (23) of section 8-1111 shall not be considered a security;

(16) State means any state, territory, or possession of the United States as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico; and

(17) Viatical settlement contract means an agreement for the purchase, sale, assignment, transfer, devise, or bequest of all or any portion of the death benefit or ownership of a life insurance policy or contract for consideration which is less than the expected death benefit of the life insurance policy or contract. Viatical settlement contract does not include (a) the assignment, transfer, sale, devise, or bequest of a death benefit of a life insurance policy or contract made by the viator to an insurance company or to a viatical settlement provider or broker licensed pursuant to the Viatical Settlements Act, (b) the assignment of a life insurance policy or contract to a bank, savings bank, savings and loan association, credit union, or other licensed lending institution as collateral for a loan, or (c) the exercise of accelerated benefits pursuant to the terms of a life insurance policy or contract and consistent with applicable law.

Source:Laws 1965, c. 549, § 1, p. 1763; Laws 1973, LB 167, § 1; Laws 1977, LB 263, § 1; Laws 1978, LB 760, § 1; Laws 1989, LB 60, § 1; Laws 1991, LB 305, § 2; Laws 1993, LB 216, § 1; Laws 1993, LB 121, § 96; Laws 1994, LB 884, § 10; Laws 1995, LB 119, § 1; Laws 1996, LB 1053, § 7; Laws 1997, LB 335, § 1; Laws 2001, LB 52, § 43; Laws 2001, LB 53, § 19; Laws 2011, LB76, § 1; Laws 2013, LB214, § 1; Laws 2017, LB148, § 1; Laws 2019, LB259, § 1; Laws 2020, LB909, § 12; Laws 2021, LB363, § 12; Laws 2022, LB707, § 20; Laws 2023, LB92, § 13; Laws 2024, LB1074, § 45.
Operative Date: April 18, 2024

Annotations

Pursuant to subsection (15) of this section, in order to constitute an "investment contract", it is not required that the profits be derived solely from the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others. State v. Irons, 254 Neb. 18, 574 N.W.2d 144 (1998).

An ordinary certificate of deposit with a fixed interest rate, issued by a heavily regulated and federally insured bank, which involves little risk of loss and virtually guaranteed payment, does not constitute a "security" as defined by subsection (12) (now subsection (15) of this section) of this section. Wrede v. Exchange Bank of Gibbon, 247 Neb. 907, 531 N.W.2d 523 (1995).

Under subsection (12) of this section (now subsection (15) of this section), "share" means a part or definite portion of a thing owned by a number of persons in common, contemplates something owned in common by two or more persons, and has reference to that part of the undivided interest which belongs to some one of them. A share is a unit of stock representing ownership in a corporation. State v. Jones, 235 Neb. 1, 453 N.W.2d 447 (1990).

In suit by customer against brokerage firm for damages from stock speculations, the questions of fraud and arrangement of credit were fact questions for the trial court. Shull v. Dain, Kalman & Quail, Inc., 561 F.2d 152 (8th Cir. 1977).