The average person can now take the Series 65 exam for $60 or so and, if they pass, become an accredited investor. This is a huge change. Taking the wealth requirement from 1 million dollars to $60.
EDIT: It's not $60, but $175, still a far cry from a million.
This is likely not true. You can't just sign up for FINRA exams as an individual; an eligible entity (broker-dealer or investment advisor) has to sign you up. And even if you have passed the relevant exam recently enough, you're not considered licensed unless you're working for an eligible entity who has submitted the appropriate paperwork to claim you as a registered representative.
The easiest path this opens for someone not in the securities industry is to become a state registered investment advisor. In my home state of Illinois, that would require paying $400 a year to the state and $150 a year to FINRA, as well as subject you to a number of non-trivial regulatory requirements.
You need a sponsor for most FINRA exams, but Series 65 (and the introductory SIE exam) allows self-registration with no sponsor.
I just reread the new accredited investor final rule, and as per footnote 102, people who qualify via Series 65 need to maintain in good standing a state-granted license or registration. No other requirements exist on top of that.
You don't need a sponsor for Series 65. In my home state of Oregon, you have to pass the exam, and you have to be 'affiliated with a registered investment advising business', but this business can be owned by you. Which means that, if you take the exam, and register a corporation owned by you with the state (and pay a nominal tax of a few hundred dollars), post a 10k refundable bond, and maintain books properly, you can invest in previously inaccessible vehicles.
Is this work... yes. But the capital requirements are so low that it broadens access to many more people. I'd expect companies to start forming around getting people their Series 65 and allowing them to affiliate themselves with the business for a fee. This is still significantly better in terms of accessibility than the $1million wealth requirement or income >$200k.
I completely agree with you and would like to see accredited investors go away as a concept. However, this new policy is strictly better than what we had, so it deserves praise.
EDIT: It's not $60, but $175, still a far cry from a million.