Posts belonging to Category LPL Financial
Posted by Alan PerryonJuly 14, 2014
By law, a broker has to recommend suitable investments. To be considered suitable, an investment should align with the client’s investment objectives. Dumping all client funds into a single foreign stock, despite the client’s low tolerance for risk, could be considered unsuitable. As indicated by the complaints reported in FINRA’s BrokerCheck, a former broker at […]
Categories: Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Investment Malpractice, LPL Financial, Unsuitable Recommendations
Posted by Alan PerryonMay 23, 2013
On May 23, 2013, the SEC charged a former LPL Financial LLC advisor, Blake Richards, with fraud and misappropriating $2 million from at least six clients. The SEC filed the civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. According to an article by Bruce Kelly in Investment News, “when investors […]
Categories: Brokerage Firms, Investigations, Investor Alerts, LPL Financial, Regulatory Developments, Supervisory Failures
Posted by J. Boyd PageonFebruary 18, 2013
LPL Financial, the country’s largest independent broker-dealer, is encountering serious problems involving its sales of alternative investments. LPL is also (not coincidentally) one of the country’s largest sellers of alternative investment products. In 2011, LPL sold $758,435,677 of variable annuities (which are considered by most industry observers as being alternative investments) and $110,643,148 of other […]
Categories: Alternative Funds, Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, Closed End Funds, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Crowd Funding, Derivatives, Disciplinary Actions, Elder Abuses, Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs), Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), Fairness/Just & Equitable Conduct, Hedge Funds, High Yield (Junk) Bonds, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Life Policies/Viatical Settlements, Limited Partnerships, LPL Financial, Misrepresentation/Omission, Nontraded REITs, Oil & Gas, Private Equity Investments, Private Investments/Reg D, Regulatory Developments, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Structured Notes, Supervisory Failures, Tenant-in-Common Interests, Unsuitable Recommendations, Variable Annuities and Equity-Indexed Annuities
Posted by Page PerryonJanuary 8, 2013
Wall Street’s recent promotion of alternative investments should warrant serious concern among investors. It serves as an unpleasant example of history repeating itself. In the mid-1980s, Wall Street firms became enamored with limited partnerships (a form of alternative investment) that invested in so-called hard assets, paid the firms high commissions and fees, were illiquid and […]
Categories: Alternative Investments, Ameriprise, Asset Backed Securities, Bank of America, Brokerage Firms, Citigroup Hedge Funds, Closed End Funds, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs), Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), Fairness/Just & Equitable Conduct, Hedge Funds, High Yield (Junk) Bonds, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Limited Partnerships, LPL Financial, Merrill Lynch, Misrepresentation/Omission, Non-Traded Business Development Companies, Nontraded REITs, Oil & Gas, Peer to Peer Loans, Private Equity Investments, Private Investments/Reg D, Promissory Notes, REITs, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Unsuitable Recommendations, Variable Annuities and Equity-Indexed Annuities
Posted by Page PerryonDecember 19, 2012
Investors are being sold more and more alternative investments and large broker-dealers are ramping up to supply that demand, according to the Wall Street Journal (“Alternatives Get a Boost”). The trouble is that most investors do not fully understand these products and their brokerage firm advisers do not fairly explain the risks and problems associated […]
Categories: Alternative Investments, Ameriprise, Asset Backed Securities, Bank of America, Brokerage Firms, Church Bonds, Closed End Funds, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Crowd Funding, Derivatives, Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs), Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), Fairness/Just & Equitable Conduct, Hedge Funds, High Yield (Junk) Bonds, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Limited Partnerships, LPL Financial, Merrill Lynch, Misrepresentation/Omission, Mortgage Backed Securities, Mortgage Securities & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems, Non-Traded Business Development Companies, Nontraded REITs, Oil & Gas, Private Equity Investments, Private Investments/Reg D, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Structured Notes, Tenant-in-Common Interests, Unsuitable Recommendations, Variable Annuities and Equity-Indexed Annuities
Posted by Page PerryonNovember 28, 2011
LPL Financial LLC was fined $100,000 by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services for unsuitable sales of high-risk oil and gas partnerships to clients, including many who are elderly, in poor health, and incapable of making financial decisions (“LPL fined over sales of risky partnerships to seniors,” InvestmentNews).
Categories: Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Fairness/Just & Equitable Conduct, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Limited Partnerships, LPL Financial, Misrepresentation/Omission, Oil & Gas, Regulatory Developments, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Unsuitable Recommendations
Posted by Page PerryonMarch 15, 2011
Expecting licensed professionals who provide investment advice to act in their clients’ best interests “should be a basic tenet of the business,” but brokerage firms and their brokers don’t want that fiduciary yoke, says Karen Blumenthal in her InvestmentNews article, “When Your Adviser Can’t Be Trusted.” Moreover, they don’t want the public to know that […]
Categories: A General Overview, Ameriprise, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Brokerage Firms, Charles Schwab, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Fairness/Just & Equitable Conduct, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, J. P. Morgan Chase, Legg Mason, LPL Financial, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Keegan, Morgan Stanley, Oppenheimer, Raymond James, RBC Dain Raucher, Regulatory Developments, Securities America, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, SunTrust, TD Ameritrade, UBS, Wachovia, Wells Fargo
Posted by Page PerryonFebruary 16, 2011
If you are an investor who lost money in the financial crisis, your stockbroker or investment advisor may owe you money. There are a variety of legal claims that can be brought for investment malpractice, ranging from fraud and misrepresentation to making unsuitable investment recommendations. But there are also legal deadlines for bringing such claims, […]
Categories: Asset Backed Securities, Auction Rate Securities, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Barclays, Brokerage Firms, CDOs, Citigroup Hedge Funds, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Credit Default Swaps, Credit Suisse, Derivatives, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Hedge Funds, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, J. P. Morgan Chase, Legg Mason, LPL Financial, Misrepresentation/Omission, Morgan Keegan, Morgan Stanley, Mortgage Backed Securities, Mortgage Securities & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems, Oppenheimer, Preferred Stocks, Raymond James, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Structured Notes, SunTrust, UBS, Unsuitable Recommendations, Wachovia, Wells Fargo
Posted by Page PerryonFebruary 14, 2011
The new whistleblower program that pays big cash rewards for tips about investment fraud has already resulted in a large number of high quality tips to the SEC, according to a news story this week on CNBC. According to the report, the SEC expects to receive 30,000 tips this year?just one year after the program […]
Categories: Ameriprise, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Barclays, Brokerage Firms, Charles Schwab, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Employment Issues, Fidelity, Financial Industry Whistleblowers, Goldman Sachs, J. P. Morgan Chase, Legg Mason, LPL Financial, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Keegan, Morgan Stanley, Oppenheimer, Raymond James, RBC Dain Raucher, Regulatory Developments, Securities America, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, State Street, SunTrust, TD Ameritrade, UBS, Wells Fargo
Posted by Page PerryonNovember 22, 2010
Wall Street may face a wave of lawsuits under an expanded version of the Martin Act, New York’s securities anti-fraud statute, if the newly elected Governor of New York has his way, according to a Wall Street Journal Deal Journal blog entitled, “And the Next Mortal Threat to Wall Street Is’”.
Categories: Ameriprise, Bank of America, Barclays, Brokerage Firms, Charles Schwab, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, Investment Advisers, J. P. Morgan Chase, Legg Mason, LPL Financial, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Keegan, Morgan Stanley, Oppenheimer, Raymond James, RBC Dain Raucher, Regulatory Developments, Securities, Securities America, Securities Class Actions, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, State Street, SunTrust, TD Ameritrade, UBS, Wachovia, Wells Fargo