The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) agreed to a settlement with at least five investment advisory firms including UBS Wealth Management, Wells Fargo, LPL Financial and MML Investor Services for nearly $9.5 million regarding college savings plan sales violations.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed suit against James Couture after the Massachusetts-based advisor allegedly misappropriated $2.9 million from his clients.
A former LPL Financial and Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp. financial advisor has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud stemming from his theft of $600,000 from an elderly client.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed an emergency action against Matthew O. Clason, a former advisor with LPL Financial in Cheshire, Connecticut. According to the SEC, Clason stole more than $300,000 from a 73-year-old client.
LPL Financial is pushing its new employee affiliation model and other new channels in its continuing endeavor to add financial advisors and customer assets. LPL began marketing its “premium” channel to wirehouse reps in the fall. LPL is encouraged by the growing pipeline of interested advisors.
FINRA has suspended former LPL Financial investment adviser, James E. “Jeb” Bashaw for failing to disclose to LPL that he borrowed $200,000 from a customer in 2013.
In 2018, LPL Financial reported a record amount of assets that the firm recruited to its brokerage and advisory practices. The firm received $233.3 million of assets in 2018, a 46% increase from the year before.
According to the SEC, 79 investment firms, including LPL Financial, Raymond James, Oppenheimer, and Wells Fargo have agreed to return more than $125 million to investors for failing to report conflicts of interest in their sale of mutual funds.
As Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS Financial Services, Inc. have recently pulled back their recruiting efforts in order to focus on growing assets and revenue internally, firms such as Wells Fargo Advisors, LPL Financial and Cetera Financial Group are seeking the opportunity to gain ground by offering attractive recruiting bonuses.
LPL Financial has recently announced that it is changing the way that it pays external and internal recruiters.
Jim, Stephany and the whole team were a God send. We felt like we were put into a situation where we had no advocate. Jim’s team came in with a strong, well laid out strategy on how to get our story heard. Where our outside compliance company had no ability to help, our Broker Dealer was impenitent, and the regulators were aggressive pursuing vague rules, Jim came like a barricade against an assault we did not understand. Though you pay member dues to be affiliated with FINRA and a B/D, you have no voice. The only thing that is truly heard in this un-level playing field is a bulldog’s bark like Jim’s. I would encourage anyone to call Jim and his team to find a real ally in the tough and complicated world of securities regulation. They are truly the best.
A recent analysis by Golsan Scruggs reveals a staggering 231 percent increase in errors-and-omissions (E&O) liability claims among registered investment advisor (RIA)
insurers.
According to a recent analysis, Reg BI-related actions quickly have ascended to the top five issues for FINRA, with fines totaling $6 million in 2023.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has imposed fines and censured independent broker-dealers Osaic Wealth and Securities America for cybersecurity deficiencies that led to hackers accessing the private information of more than 32,000 customers.
