A South Carolina investment adviser who has custody of client funds or securities must keep a minimum net worth of $50,000 — or post a $50,000 surety bond in its place. The requirement runs through the South Carolina Uniform Securities Act of 2005 (S.C. Code Ann. § 35-1-411) and Regulation 13-406, and the Securities Division of the Attorney General's Office administers it. Ours is $750 flat, the price you see is the checkout price, and the bond issues the moment you pay. Any credit screen is a soft pull only — it never affects your score.
















Adviser bonds are among the simplest filings in surety. Here is the entire process:
Firm details, an effective date, and a term. That is the entire application — no financial statements, and any credit screen is a soft pull that never shows as a hard inquiry.
This bond is checkout-priced at $750 flat, so it issues the moment you pay — your executed bond and power of attorney generate on the spot.
Your executed bond arrives by email, ready to file with your investment adviser registration at the Attorney General's Securities Division. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
South Carolina registers investment advisers under the Uniform Securities Act of 2005, and the Act names the Attorney General as the Administrator — in practice, the Securities Division of his Legal Services Division. Section 35-1-411 lets the Administrator set financial and bonding requirements by rule, and Regulation 13-406 is where the numbers live.
The rule requires an adviser who has custody of client funds or securities to maintain a minimum net worth of $50,000 at all times. An adviser who cannot show that net worth posts a $50,000 surety bond instead, from a bonding company qualified to do business in South Carolina. (An adviser with discretionary authority but no custody sits at the $35,000 tier — that is a different bond.)
It is not insurance for you — the bond stands behind your compliance with the Act, so that a client harmed by a violation has a source of recovery. If the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety. Registrations are renewed annually through IARD, so the bond has to stay continuously on file; we track the term and send renewal notices 60 and 30 days out.
These are the actual issuing fields — firm details, an effective date, and a term. That is the entire application.
Start the application →$750 flat, issued the moment you pay, soft pull only. Free until issued.