Bio

Shane Hansen is a partner and member of Warner’s Funds and Investment Services Practice Group. His 40-year law practice concentrates on financial services regulation, primarily involving federal and state securities and banking laws, and financial services regulation, including FINRA regulation of member broker-dealers and their registered professionals. He advises broker-dealers, M&A brokers, investment advisers, private fund advisers, banks, family offices and individual professionals about a wide range of business, corporate, contract, compliance and regulatory topics in the securities and banking industries. He has substantial experience involving formations, mergers, acquisitions, and sales of securities brokerage and investment advisory firms, their professional practices, banks and financial institutions. Shane serves as the lead securities counsel, architect and principal draftsman of the newly enacted statutory M&A brokers exemption from broker-dealer registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This M&A brokers registration exemption was added to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, passed by Congress, and signed by President Biden into federal law on December 29, 2022, effective on March 29, 2023. He provided oral and written testimony about this legislation and its public policy underpinnings before the Committee on Financial Services for the U.S. House of Representatives. He negotiated provisions of the legislation with legislative counsel for the House Financial Services Committee in several Congressional sessions. This legislation three times unanimously passed the U.S. House of Representatives over the course of five Congressional sessions, starting in 2013, and was included in multiple omnibus bill packages before finally passing Congress in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, as Division AA, Title V, Small Business Mergers, Acquisitions, and Sales Brokerage Simplification. Representing the leading national, state and regional associations of M&A brokers since 2006, Shane worked closely in tandem with the SEC Division of Trading and Markets staff and with state securities regulators through the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) to inform, develop and advocate for this exemptive relief from the one-size-fits-all regulatory regime applied to M&A advisors brokering the purchase and sale of privately owned businesses. In January 2014, the SEC staff issued its sweeping M&A Brokers no-action letter tracking with key terms and concepts of the then-pending legislation. The final iteration of the legislation codified the staff’s no-action letter into federal law. In 2015, NASAA adopted a model rule exempting M&A brokers from state-level broker-dealer registration based upon the then-pending federal legislation. To date, 20 states have granted similar exemptive relief by lawmaking, rulemaking, administrative order or no-action letter, several referencing the legislation. Shane frequently speaks on securities-related legal and compliance topics, including the newly enacted federal M&A broker registration exemption, and moderating the broker-dealer/investment adviser panel for the Midwest Securities Institute hosted by Michigan State University College of Law (2014-2019). He is active in the American Bar Association, including its Committee on State Regulation of Securities, and served as the Committee’s chair from 2011 to 2014. He is an active member of the ABA’s Committee on Federal Securities Regulation and its various subcommittees. He has served on the Business Law Section Council, State Bar of Michigan (2014-2020), and is an active member of its Securities Committee. Other professional associations include the National Society of Compliance Professionals (NSCP), the Investment Adviser Association (IAA), the Compliance and Legal Society of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and the Financial Planning Association (FPA). Shane graduated with honors from the University of Michigan Law School in 1982. He graduated with high honors from Albion College in 1979. Shane finds it gratifying to amplify his knowledge of the financial industry, particularly in the regulation of broker-dealers. Because federal and state securities regulation is complex, largely principles-based and fact-specific, he diligently stays updated about this ever-changing and actively enforced arena. Bringing his positive personality and great congeniality to his practice, he helps calm clients involved in serious situations by using a light and often humorous approach.