Articles Tagged with advisor hub

Bull BearFINRA’s ongoing campaign to rein in alleged sales abuses involving short-term trading of unit investment trusts in customer accounts has led a 23-year veteran advisor to accept a $10,000 fine and three-month suspension.

Miller Stern Lawyers – 410-Law-Firm is currently investigating clients of Stifel Nicolaus and all firms and broker dealers who may be victims of, and suffered damages and losses, due to abuses such as short-term trading of unit investment trusts, breach of fiduciary duty, overcharging , and unauthorized trading.

cropped-High-Res-TA-2018-2019-284x300FINRA fined a small independent broker-dealer in California $35,000 for failing to adequately conduct background investigations on registered reps and for failing to obtain regulatory pre-approval for a seven-month growth spurt, according to Advisor Hub.

Infinity Financial Services, an Oakland, CA-based firm founded 13 years ago by a former Merrill Lynch broker, failed to contact former employers and had no procedures for conducting searches of public records, according to an “acceptance, waiver and consent letter” it signed with Finra.

It hired as many as 16 registered reps over three years through April 2017 without searching their Central Registration Depository records, including five who had pending bankruptcies, judgments and tax liens that Infinity failed to detect, Finra said.

Bull Bear Miller Stern Lawyers – 410-Law-Firm is currently investigating clients of Merrill Lynch and Charles Kenahan and Dermond Cavanaugh who are may be victims of, and suffered damages and losses, due to abuses such as churning, beach of fiduciary duty, overcharging , and unauthorized trading.

According to CNBC and other new outlets, the State of New Hampshire “is ordering Merrill Lynch to pay $26.25 million in fines and restitution to the state and to an investor, the former Governor of New Hampshire, who claimed he suffered losses at the hands of a former Boston-based broker, to settle allegations including unauthorized and excessive trading”, or what is commonly known as Churning.

This is the largest monetary sanction in New Hampshire history and proportedly the second largest FINRA settlement in at least a decade.

cropped-High-Res-TA-2018-2019-284x300Morgan Stanley terminated around ten brokers following a nationwide probe of alleged abuses in its inherited account program, according to lawyers, firm sources and former managers per advisor Hub.  Miller Stern Lawyers – 410-Law-Firm is currently investigating clients of Morgan Stanley who are victims of, and suffered damages and losses, due to these abuses.

The investigation was prompted by complaints about underpayments from at least one retired broker who entered the Former Advisor Program (FAP), a so-called sunsetting plan that Morgan Stanley and other large firms have promoted heavily in an attempt to keep older brokers from joining other firms and taking clients with them.

according the the article, the programs allow older brokers to receive a split of fees and commissions paid by former clients for several years if the brokers let their practices lapse after they leave.

Miller Stern Lawyers – 410-Law-Firm is currently investigating clients of Wells Fargo Advisors who are victims of, and suffered damages and losses, due to the failure to supervise.  It has been reported that Wells Fargo Advisors has agreed to pay more than $550,000 in fines and restitution for failing to follow up on warnings it received about two now-barred California brokers who piled their customers into speculative energy stocks, according to FINRA.  Miller Stern Lawyers recently won a $1.5 Million award against Stifel for similar actions of piling their customers into biotechnology and health care stocks.

According to FINRA, the firm failed to investigate trading across customer accounts managed by the brokers. Red flags were raised about overconcentration in the accounts of four customers in a single, low-priced energy stock (ranging from 35.2% to 87.0%), according to a consent letter signed on Thursday by Wells Fargo Advisors CEO Jim Hays.

cropped-High-Res-TA-2018-2019-284x300According to Advisor Hub, “Joseph Woitkoski, who was terminated by Raymond James Associates in 2018 after 20 years as a registered rep, was suspended for 30 days and fined $7,500 for allegedly making discretionary trades for 12 customers without their written authorizations, according to an acceptance, waiver and consent letter that Finra accepted on August 20.” Miller Stern Lawyers, LLC – 410-Law-Firm is currently investigating claims and allegations of brokers making discretionary non-authorized trades in clients accounts at brokerages such as Stifel, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and others.  If you or someone you know are victims of losses in your accounts because of unauthorized discretionary trades, please call for a free evaluation.

Finra has imposed the sanctions even though “over the course of longstanding relationships, the customers gave authorization to Woitkoski to exercise discretion in their accounts,” according to the letter that the Massachusetts-based former broker signed without admitting or denying the findings. This often occurs in elderly clients, with issues such as elder abuse.  Eight of the 12 customers were “seniors,” according to Finra.

“In addition to failing to get permission from customers in writing, Woitkoski never requested or obtained approval from Raymond James. The firm maintained inaccurate books and records because the broker attested in a 2017 compliance questionnaire that he did not exercise discretion in non-fee based accounts, according to the consent letter.” according to Advisor Hub

Bull BearAccording to Advisor Hub customer complaints and litigation against brokerages will be heating up with the market turmoil.  Most of the industry will likely conclude that coronavirus pandemic fears and oil wars between Russia and Saudi Arabia are the cause of the market drop and are totally out of anyone one person or companies control, however there can be broker misconduct involved in the level of losses because of things such as over-concentration and other individual account irregularities.

“The extent of losses may not be apparent to investors for three to six months, they said, and plaintiffs’ lawyers will then have to analyze portfolios and underlying claims of unsuitability to triage the ones most appropriate for litigation.”

The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite are in bear market territory down 20% from their February highs.

Miller Law Group – Miller Stern Lawyers, LLC successfully litigated against Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated and current financial advisor Kenneth Blumberg  (CRD# 1585520) pertaining to a multitude of allegations including taking discretion in customer accounts without authority, over-concentration in sectors and individual securities, breach of fiduciary duty, unsuitable investments and other securities violations.  Blumberg was registered with Stifel during the time of the events, located in the downtown Baltimore office of Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated.

A FINRA arbitration panel has ordered Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated to pay more than $1.5 million to four customers who claimed that their Financial Advisor, Kenneth Blumberg  (CRD# 1585520) unsuitably concentrated their portfolios in biotechnology and healthcare stocks at levels exceeding 80%.  It was further alleged that while the customers’ portfolios were profitable, Mr. Blumberg failed to protect gains in the account, which was a violation of his duties as a fiduciary, after which time the value in the accounts deteriorated by approximately $1 Million. The case against Stifel asserted that it failed to properly supervise Blumberg. In the Arbitration, the customers recovered 100% of their losses plus approximately $500,000 in consequential damages reflecting what the accounts would have gained from the time they withdrew from Stifel as customers through the date of the Arbitration had the gains been protected and suitably reinvested.

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