Posts belonging to Category Private Equity Investments
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 PerryonOctober 18, 2012
The recent actions of errors and omissions insurance carriers should serve as a major red flag to investors. Many of these carriers are refusing to issue coverage for sales of certain alternative investments. In other words, these carriers have determined that the risk of loss associated with the sale of certain alternative investments is too […]
Categories: Alternative Funds, Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, CDOs, Closed End Funds, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Derivatives, Early Retirement Scams, Elder Abuses, Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs), Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), Fairness/Just & Equitable Conduct, Hedge Funds, High Yield (Junk) Bonds, Insurance Products, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Limited Partnerships, Misrepresentation/Omission, Non-Traded Business Development Companies, Nontraded REITs, Oil & Gas, Private Equity Investments, Private Investments/Reg D, Promissory Notes, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Structured Notes, Supervisory Failures, Tenant-in-Common Interests, Unsuitable Recommendations, Variable Annuities and Equity-Indexed Annuities
Posted by Page PerryonJune 9, 2012
Financial advisers need to know that dangers lurk in the complex world of alternative investments and they must disclose these dangers to their clients. At present, many investment advisers are under pressure to sell alternative investments and are doing so in greater numbers than ever before. Alternative investments can include virtually any investment that is […]
Categories: Alternative Funds, Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, Closed End Funds, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Credit Default Swaps, Derivatives, Elder Abuses, Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs), 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, Misrepresentation/Omission, Non-Traded Business Development Companies, Nontraded REITs, Oil & Gas, Options, Private Equity Investments, Private Investments/Reg D, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Structured Notes, Unsuitable Recommendations, Variable Annuities and Equity-Indexed Annuities
Posted by Page PerryonMay 24, 2012
Broker-dealers’ conflicts of interest and the proliferation of complex financial products being sold by financial advisers are the top areas of concern to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), according InvestmentNews (“Ketchum: Finra’s focus on conflicts of interest compounding,” by Bruce Kelly).
Categories: Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Derivatives, Elder Abuses, Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs), Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), Fairness/Just & Equitable Conduct, Hedge Funds, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Limited Partnerships, 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, Tenant-in-Common Interests, Unsuitable Recommendations
Posted by Page PerryonMay 18, 2012
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is showing stepped-up interest in the role of broker-dealers and individuals that act as wholesalers in the sale of private (Reg D) offerings that clients and often brokers do not fully understand. (See InvestmentNews article by Bruce Kelly entitled “Finra eyes wholesalers’ role in vending.”
Categories: Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Derivatives, Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs), Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), Fairness/Just & Equitable Conduct, Hedge Funds, High Yield (Junk) Bonds, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Limited Partnerships, Misrepresentation/Omission, Mutual Funds, Nontraded REITs, Oil & Gas, Private Equity Investments, Private Investments/Reg D, Regulatory Developments, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Structured Notes, Tenant-in-Common Interests
Posted by Page PerryonMarch 27, 2012
The prospect of several more years of extremely low interest rates is causing people who depend on interest income to accept Wall Street’s recommendations to purchase relatively illiquid and opaque alternative investments like structured products, non-traded REITs, hedge funds and variable annuities. (“Itchy Investors Ramp Up the Risk,” Wall Street Journal). Regulators worry that the […]
Categories: Alternative Investments, Bonds, Brokerage Firms, Derivatives, Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs), Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), Hedge Funds, High Yield (Junk) Bonds, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Limited Partnerships, Misrepresentation/Omission, Municipal Bonds, Mutual Funds, Nontraded REITs, Oil & Gas, Private Equity Investments, Private Investments/Reg D, REITs, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Structured Notes, Unsuitable Recommendations
Posted by Page PerryonMarch 16, 2012
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) reported that fines for false advertising have more than quadrupled from $4.75 million in 2010 to $21.1 million in 2011. FINRA found that a big part of that problem involved inaccurate or fraudulent internal communications. Firms were misleading their own brokers by telling them that structured products and other […]
Categories: Brokerage Firms, Disciplinary Actions, Investment Malpractice, Misrepresentation/Omission, Private Equity Investments, Private Investments/Reg D, Regulatory Developments, Securities, Structured Notes
Posted by Page PerryonMarch 8, 2012
Could Wall Street’s role in creating the recent financial crisis boil down to something as simple as a conditioned reflex? Apparently so, according to William D. Cohan, a former investment banker. Cohen writes: Wall Street “rewards bankers and traders for the revenue they generate by constantly selling whatever comes across their desks, regardless of its […]
Categories: Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, CDOs, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Derivatives, Financial Industry Whistleblowers, Hedge Funds, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, Limited Partnerships, Mortgage Securities & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems, Nontraded REITs, Oil & Gas, Private Equity Investments, Private Investments/Reg D, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Structured Notes, Variable Annuities and Equity-Indexed Annuities
Posted by Page PerryonFebruary 17, 2012
The regulatory eye in the sky (the SEC) has apparently locked onto private equity firms, sensing valuation problems and conflicts of interest. Generally, private equity firms purchase troubled companies with mostly borrowed funds, cut costs, improve operations, and sell them for a profit, taking a management fee (typically 1.5% to 2.0%) in the interim, plus […]
Categories: Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, Private Equity Investments, Private Investments/Reg D, Regulatory Developments, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools