Important Information You Should Know
PRIVACY STATEMENT OF GARDEN STATE SECURITIES,
INC.
The
confidentiality of client information is an important concern of Garden State
Securities, Inc. We take precautions to
safeguard client personal information at all times and we will remain vigilant
in protecting that information. The
provisions of this privacy notice will apply to former clients as well as
current clients.
Garden
State Securities, Inc. collects personal information about you that is
necessary to provide financial products or services. We may obtain this information from the following sources:
Information
we receive from you on account applications, forms and other materials that you
provide to us, whether in writing, in person, by telephone or by any other
means. This information may include
your name, address, telephone number, social security number, occupation,
assets and income.
Information
about your transactions with us or a non-affiliated third party such as account
balances, payment history and account activity.
Information
we receive from a consumer-reporting agency, such as your credit bureau reports
and other information relating to your creditworthiness.
Garden
State Securities, Inc. will only disclose certain information about you, as
permitted by law, under the following circumstances:
Where
we believe, in good faith that disclosure is required under law to cooperate
with regulators or law enforcement authorities.
To
consumer reporting agencies.
To
our service providers to help us process your application or service your
accounts. These service providers, in
turn are required to protect the confidentiality and security of any
information we give to them and may not reuse it for any other purpose.
Garden State Securities, Inc. restricts access of your personal accounts(s) and information to those employees who require access to that information in order to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with the industry standards to safeguard your nonpublic personal information. Third parties who have access to such personal information must agree to follow appropriate standards of security and confidentiality.
We
trust that this clarifies Garden State Securities, Inc. position on client
confidentiality and look forward to being of service to you in the future.
Important
Information You Need to Know About Opening a New Account
To
help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering
activities, federal law requires financial institutions to obtain, verify, and
record information that identifies each person who opens an account.
This
Notice answers some questions about your firm’s Customer Identification
Program.
What types of information will I need to provide?
When
you open an account, your firm is required to collect information such as the
following from you:
¨ Your name
¨ Date of birth
¨ Address
¨ Identification number
· US Citizen: taxpayer identification number (social security
number or employer identification number)
· Non-U.S. Citizen: taxpayer identification number, passport number, and country of issuance, alien identification card number, or government-issued identification showing nationality, residence, and a photograph of yourself.
You
may also need to show your driver’s license or other identifying documents.
A
corporation, partnership, trust or other legal entity may need to provide other
information, such as its principal place of business, local office, employer
identification number, certified articles of incorporation, government-issued
business license, a partnership agreement, or a trust agreement.
U.S.
Department of the Treasury, Securities and Exchange Commission, NASD, and the
New York Stock Exchange rules already require you to provide most of this
information. These rules also may
require you to provide additional information, such as your net worth, annual
income, occupation, employment information, investment experience and
objectives, and risk tolerance.
What
happens if I don’t provide the information requested or my identity can’t be
verified?
Your
firm may not be able to open an account or carry out transactions for you. If your firm has already opened an account
for you, they may have to close it.
We thank you for your patience and hope that you will support the financial industry’s efforts to deny terrorists and money launderers access to America’s financial system.
SETTLEMENT: All securities sold and
payment for all securities bought must be delivered by the settlement date
(typically 3 business days) indicated on the confirmation issued for each
trade. Similarly, the proceeds of any
sale will be credited to your account or remitted by check on the settlement
date per your instructions.
· DELIVERY: WHEN MAILING CHECKS OR SECURITIES PLEASE REMEMBER TO: ATTACH COPY OF YOUR CONFIRMATION & WRITE YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER ON THE UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER OF CHECK &/OR SECURITY.
· MAKE ALL CHECKS PAYABLE TO: RBC DAIN CORRESPONDENT SERVICES
· MAIL ALL CHECKS OR SECURITIES DIRECTLY TO:
1540 Route 138, Suite 303
Wall Township NJ, 07721
GOOD
‘TIL CANCELLED (GTC) BUY, SELL STOP, SELL STOP LIMIT ORDERS: All GTC (also known as an
“Open Order”) orders remain in effect until canceled or executed.
CLEARING
FIRM / GARDEN STATE SECURITIES FUNCTIONS: We would
like you to understand the different functions performed by our firm and those
of our clearing agent/firm RBC Dain. In
general, we provide front-office services and the clearing firm performs
back-officer or operation type functions.
Our front-office services include such matters as the opening and
approval of accounts, the acceptance and transmittal of orders by Garden State
Securities, personnel for execution on the various markets according to
instruction, etc. Additionally, it is
our exclusive function to supervise all personnel directly or indirectly
involved with your securities transactions and all your business handled by our
personnel in light of applicable rules and regulations, which govern the
securities industry.
The activities of RBC Dain, our clearing firm, include the
general regulation of credit extension, clearance of trades, receipt and
safeguarding of funds and securities and the preparation, on information
provided to RBC Dain of confirmation and monthly statements and the mailing of
such monthly statements and confirmations.
In some cases our clearing firm will execute orders for our clients at
our request.
Each firm maintains appropriate records in order to carry
out the respective roles in the clearance relationship. When you have inquiries or questions
concerning your account, kindly address such correspondence to our office and
the proper party will promptly reply.
PAYMENT
FOR ORDER FLOW DISCLOSURE: Garden State Securities does
receive payment for order flow.
The Securities and Exchange Commission requires that all
registered broker-dealers disclose their policies regarding receipt of “payment
for order flow”. The Commission defines
“payment for order flow” as “any monetary payments, services, property, or
other benefits that result in remuneration, compensation, or consideration to a
broker or dealer from any broker or dealer, national securities exchange,
registered securities association, or exchange member for execution, including
but not limited to research, clearance, custody, products or services,
reciprocal agreements for the provision of order flow adjustment of a broker or
dealer’s unfavorable trading errors, effort to participate as underwriter in
public offerings; stock loans or shared interest accrued thereon; discounts,
rebates, or any other reduction of or credits against any fee to, or expense or
other financial obligation of, the broker or dealer routing a customer order
that exceeds that fee, expense or financial obligation”.
INVESTMENT
OBJECTIVES DEFINITIONS
Below please find a general description of ‘Investment
Objective Definitions’ related to the Investment Objective(s) you choose on the
“Account Application”.
q Preservation
of Principal/Income – Focus is on preservation of principal and
income. Very Conservative.
q Balanced/Conservative
Growth – Focus is on generating current income and/or long-term
growth.
q Growth – Focus
is on generating long-term growth of capital.
Moderate.
q Aggressive
Growth – Focus is on generating growth and/or income with a willingness
to assume a high level of risk.
Aggressive.
q Speculation
– Focus is on generating highest potential growth and/or income with a
willingness to assume highest level of risk.
Very Aggressive.
q Other
__________________________________________
MARGIN DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
Garden State Securities is furnishing this information to
you to provide some basic facts about purchasing securities on margin, and to
alert you to the risks involved with trading securities in a margin
account. Before trading stocks in a
margin account, you should carefully review the margin agreement we have
provided you. Please consult your
investment executive or the firm management regarding any question or concerns
you may have with your margin account(s).
When you purchase securities, you may pay for the
securities in full or you may borrow part of the purchase price from your
brokerage firm. If you choose to borrow
funds from your firm, you will open a margin account with the firm. The securities purchased are the firms collateral
for the loan to you. If the securities
in your account decline in value, so does the value of the collateral
supporting your loan, and, as a result, the firm can take action, such as issue
a margin call and/or sell securities in your account, in order to maintain the
required equity in the account.
It is important that you fully understand the risks
involved in trading securities on margin.
These risks include the following:
You
can lose more funds than you deposit in the margin account. A decline in the value of securities that are
purchased on margin may require you to provide additional funds to the firm
that has made the loan to avoid the forced sale of those securities or other
securities in your account.
The
firm can force the sale of securities in your account. If the equity in your account falls below
the maintenance margin requirement under the law, or the firm’s higher “house”
requirements, the firm can sell the securities in your account to cover the
margin deficiency. You will also be
responsible for any shortfall in the account after such a sale.
The
firm can sell your securities without contacting you. Some investors mistakenly believe that a firm
must contact them for a margin call to be valid, and that the firm cannot
liquidate securities in their accounts to meet the call unless the firm has
contacted them first. This is not the
case. Most firms will attempt to notify
their customers of margin calls, but they are not required to do so. However, even if a firm has contacted a customer
and provided a specific date by which the customer can meet a margin call, the
firm can still take necessary steps to protect its financial interests,
including immediately selling the securities without notice to the customer.
You
are not entitled to choose which security in your margin account is liquidated
or sold to meet a margin call.
Because the securities are collateral for the margin loan, the firm has
the right to decide which security to sell in order to protect its interests.
The
firm can increase its “house” maintenance margin requirements at any time and
is not required to provide you with advance written notice. These changes in firm policy often take
effect immediately and may result in the issuance of a maintenance margin
call. Your failure to satisfy the call
may cause the member to liquidate or sell securities in your account.
You
are not entitled to an extension of time on a margin call. While an extension of time to meet margin
requirements may be available to customers under certain conditions, a customer
does not have a right to the extension.
TRADING
HALTS / CIRCUIT-BREAKERS
Significant problems may arise when market-wide
“circuit-breakers” halt trading on exchanges.
Broker-dealers and their customers are confronted with trading halts,
thereby obviating trading for a period of time. When “circuit-breakers” halt trading, we make every effort to
post a timely notice on our website.
The SEC provided the following guidelines concerning order
handling:
1.
During market-wide trading halts resulting from the
triggering of circuit-breakers, customer orders should be handled in the same
manner as they would have been handled during other regulatory trading halts
concerning only individual stocks.
2.
During market-wide trading halts of durations that will
allow trading to resume on that same trading day, pending and new customer
orders should be forwarded to the appropriate market for execution upon the
resumption of trading. This should be
done unless the member receives contrary instructions from the customer during
the halt.
3.
During market-wide trading halts with durations that will
close the market for the remainder of the trading day, pending and new customer
orders should be treated as follows:
Absent customer instructions to
the contrary, orders that are pending at the time of the halt, and new orders
received after the halt has commenced, should be treated as “Good Til
Cancelled” orders and be held by the member for execution at the reopening of
the next trading session.
“At-the-Close” orders (including
“Market-at-Close” orders) pending at the time trading is halted should be
treated as cancelled orders. Members
should not accept, or forward to a market, any new orders related to closing prices
received during a trading halt.
TRADING
/ VOLATILITY / RISKS
** Recent events show that the way some stocks are traded
is changing dramatically, and the change in trading methods may affect price
volatility and cause increased trading volume.
The price volatility and increased volume present new hazards to
investors, regardless of whether trading occurs on-line or otherwise. Please be advised that market orders in
highly volatile stocks may be subject to wide price variation and late
reporting. Given this enormous
volatility, the buy or sale execution price may vary widely from the quote
reflected to you at the time of your order.
You may wish to consider placing limit orders during these periods to
help protect you against these fast and unpredictable variations in price. Quotes given on these issue are “subject
quotes” and may not accurately reflect the current price as the market is
changing so violently. If you do not
fully understand the current market in any of these securities you are urged to
call your broker for clarification. Further
please note that if you have a margin account, these volatile stocks currently
require 50% maintenance. Please check
often with our Operations department to determine if there are any changes to
the margin requirement for any issues in your account.
EXCESS
SECURITIES INVESTOR PROTECTION CORP INSURANCE COVERAGE
Garden State Securities is a member of SIPC, which protects
securities of customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $100,000 for
claims of cash). Both SIPC and the
additional coverage provides protection in the event of a member firm failure
and do not insure against market decline.
RBC Dain Rauscher has purchased an additional policy with
coverage on additional securities and cash protection up to $99.5 million per
client, of which $900,000 may be in cash.
A $400 million aggregate applies to the additional coverage. See www.sipc.org. Explanatory brochure available upon request
or at www.sipc.org.
OPTIONS
ON MARGIN REQUIREMENTS
Minimum-equity is $50,000.
Depending on your positions, the minimum equity requirement may even be
higher. Further, there is a minimum
liquid net worth requirement. Please
check with your account executive for details.
E-MAIL
DISCLOSURE
Garden State Securities archives and reviews outgoing and incoming
e-mails. It may be produced at the
request of regulators or in connection with civil litigation.
ACCESSING
YOUR ACCOUNT ONLINE
We strongly urge you to request access to your account
online. Go to www.investa-connect.com. Ask your account executive.
Garden
State has developed a Business Continuity Plan on how we will respond to events
that significantly disrupt our business.
Since the timing and impact of disasters and disruptions is
unpredictable, we will have to be flexible in responding to actual events as
they occur. With that in mind, we are
providing you with this information on our business continuity plan.
Contacting Us – If after a significant business disruption you cannot contact us as you
usually do at 732-280-6886, you should call our alternative number 848-218-2904
or 848-218-2897 or go to our web site at www.gardenstatesecurities.com.
If you cannot access us through either of those means, you should contact our
clearing firm, RBC Dain Correspondent Services, at 612-607-8903 for
instructions on how it may provide access to funds and securities, enter orders
and process other trade related, cash, and security transfer transactions for
our customers.
Our Business Continuity Plan – We plan to quickly recover and resume
business operations after a significant business disruption and respond by
safeguarding our employees and property, making a financial and operational
assessment, protecting the firm’s books and records, and most importantly allowing our customers to
transact business. In short, our
business continuity plan is designed to permit our firm to resume operations as
quickly as possible, given the scope and severity of the significant business
disruption.
Our
business continuity plan addresses: data back up and recovery; all mission
critical systems; financial and operational assessments; alternative
communications with customers, employees, and regulators; alternate physical
location of employees; critical supplier, contractor, bank and counter-party
impact; regulatory reporting; and assuring our customers prompt access to their
funds and securities if we are unable to continue our business.
Our
clearing firm backs up our important records in a geographically separate area.
While every emergency situation poses unique problems based on external
factors, such as time of day and the severity of the disruption, we have been
advised by our clearing firm that its objective is to restore its own
operations and be able to complete existing transactions and accept new transactions and payments. Your orders and
requests for funds and securities could be delayed during this period.
Varying
Disruptions –
Significant business disruptions can vary in their scope, such as only our
firm, a single building housing our firm, the business district where our firm
is located, the city where we are located, or the whole region. Within each of these areas, the severity of
the disruption can also vary from minimal to severe. In a disruption to only our firm or a building housing our firm,
we will transfer our operations to a local site when needed and expect to
recover and resume business as soon as possible. In a disruption affecting our business district, city, or region,
we will transfer our operations to a site outside of the affected area, and
recover and resume business as soon as possible. In either situation, we plan to continue in business, transfer
operations to our clearing firm if necessary, and notify you through our web
site or our customer emergency number, how to contact us. If the significant business disruption is so
severe that it prevents us from remaining in business, we will assure our
customer’s prompt access to their funds and securities.
For
more information-If you have any questions about our business continuity
planning, you can contact us at 732-280-6886
TRADE
RESTRICTIONS
Partners, officers and/or employees and related accounts
may not trade in any security in which the firm is a market maker, is
recommending and or has a current research report available.