Frequently Asked Questions

UK: Can I offer shares or share options to early team members of my UK financial services firm?

When offering shares or share options to team members, you should ensure that you are not undertaking the regulated activity of promoting and issuing financial instruments to the public. While exemptions exist for such activity, care should be taken to ensure compliance with all conditions of the exemption. For example, employee share schemes are generally exempt from regulation, however, without careful structuring, if the relevant plan rules allow for non-employees, such as consultants, advisers and employer of record employees to be granted awards as well as company employees, the employee share scheme exemption may not apply.

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