The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that William Galvin, the state's top securities regulator, acted within his authority in September 2020 when he established the state's investment advice rule, which imposed a fiduciary duty rule on financial advisors.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed suit against two unregistered advisors for hiding their disciplinary records from investors while engaging in a scheme that generated at least $9 million.
In the wake of the volatility in the market and other effects of the global pandemic, annuity suppliers are struggling to update their annuities – meaning make them more favorable because annuity purchasers received too good a deal the first time around. The market volatility and low treasury rate necessitate annuity repricing. In the current environment, changes are happening so fast that many insurance carriers have had to suspend the sale of annuities in order to give them enough time to make changes to the annuity policies.
Most businesses have bought a suite of policies to cover their business operations. Business interruption insurance coverage is part of that suite of policies.
As detailed in an earlier post in the Eccleston Law Blog, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management experienced a system outage on March 25. According to Morgan Stanley, the outage, which lasted roughly 4 and a half hours, was caused by a bug in third-party software. During the outage, Morgan Stanley brokers were able to place trades via a back-up system. However, the back-up system was slower than the normal system.
Over the past 18 months, regional firms like Ameriprise, Raymond James, and Stifel have been accumulating assets at levels unseen before.
Two former USAA financial advisors, Christoper Johnson and Lee Anne Przybyla, were awarded $1.8 million by a Finra on the grounds of wrongful termination. In May 2017, the two advisors were terminated from USAA in San Antonio, Texas. Besides wrongful termination, the advisors alleged defamation, breach of contract, and negligent supervision. According to Finra, each advisor received $350,000 for punitive damages while Johnson and Przybyla were awarded an additional $500,000 and $350,000 in compensatory damages, respectively.
According to an InvestmentNews article, Bank of America’s recent decision to transfer 300 Merrill Edge advisors into its Merrill Lynch Wealth Management branch offices may be a turning point in the evolution of compensation for financial advisors at major brokerage firms.
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The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) and the Public Investor Advocate Bar Association (PIABA) has consistently opposed the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA) proposal for a voluntary three-year pilot program for remote inspections.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Prime Group Holdings LLC, a private equity firm specializing in alternative real estate asset investments, with
inadequate disclosure of millions of dollars in real estate brokerage fees paid to a brokerage firm owned by its CEO.
Corey Maple, co-founder of non-traded REIT sponsor Legendary Capital, has agreed to a $100,000 civil penalty to settle charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
