b'6. Choose Your Securities Exemptionadded to current sales to determine compliance with the rule. The SEC has published an information sheet about Rule 504 offerings that can be found at: https://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/guidance/rule504-issu-er-small-entity-compliance.html.In summary, the rules for a Rule 504 exemption are:The issuer can raise up to $5 million in 12 monthsThe issuer is allowed to have an unlimited number and type of investorsno investor prequalification or counting requiredIf you wish to advertise and the state allows it, all investors must be accreditedA federal Form D filing is required; bad actors are prohibitedThe offering may require compliance with additional state rules and disclosure requirementsThe offering may require state filing or pre-approval of offering documents RULE 506THE SECRET THAT HEDGE FUNDS USE TO RAISE BILLIONSBy far, the most commonly used exemption has been the Regulation D, Rule 506 exemption. This is the exemption most private hedge funds and private equity funds are using, and the exemption you will likely use, too. Prior to the inception of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act of 2012, there was only one option for a Rule 506 offering. Its hall-mark was a prohibition of general solicitation or advertising. The JOBS Act authorized a new version of Rule 506, which allowed advertising of offerings that include only accredited investors. It requires the issuer to take reasonable steps to ensure all investors are accredited. This reversed nearly 80 years of prior regulations that disallowed advertising for exempt offerings. As a result, in 2014 and 2015 the amount of money raised via Regulation D Offerings substantially surpassed the amount raised via public offer-ings for the first time. In 2015 alone, there were 15,632 non-fund filings 53'