Posts belonging to Category Private Investments/Reg D



Alternative Investments – Often Tainted by Sales Practice Abuses

 

Investors in search of fixed income have poured money into a variety of alternative investments, including nontraded real estate investment trusts (REITs).  Alternative investments encompass most investments other than traditional stocks and bonds and mutual funds that hold stocks and/or bonds.  There are three basic clusters of problems that investors who are considering these products […]

Alternative Investments Begin to Haunt LPL Financial

 

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 […]

Victims of Elder Investment Fraud – A Growing Problem

 

Investment scams targeting senior citizens continue to proliferate in Georgia and across the country. In fact, the Atlanta Journal Constitution recently published an article dealing with financial fraud perpetrated against seniors.  The article (“Financial fraud scams target Georgia seniors”) focused on an 81 year-old lady who was the victim of a ponzi scheme.  A ponzi […]

Today’s ‘Alternative Investments’ Resemble ‘Limited Partnerships’ of the Past

 

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 […]

Will Alternative Investments Fuel the Next Financial Debacle?

 

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 […]

Massachusetts’ Action Reveals the Dangers of Crowdfunding Investments

 

Massachusetts has filed fraud charges against two out-of-state companies, Prodigy Oil and Gas LLC and Synergy Oil LLC, in connection with their sale of unregistered securities to Massachusetts investors. Prodigy raised at least $464,000 from one Massachusetts investor and Synergy raised $35,000 from two investors, according to Commonwealth Secretary William Gavin’s complaint.

State Regulators Concerned that JOBS Act Regulations Facilitate More Investor Fraud

 

The organization of state securities regulators (NASAA) has published a sharply critical comment letter in response to the SEC’s proposed regulations implementing the Jump Start Our Economy (JOBS) Act. Among other things, the Act eliminates the prohibition against general solicitation of investors for certain private offerings. NASAA basically accused the SEC of total abdication of […]

Insurance Companies Raise Red Flags on Certain Alternative Investments

 

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 […]

Page Perry Partner Robert Terry Appointed Receiver of Summit Wealth Management

 

Page Perry partner Robert D. Terry has been appointed as Receiver in an enforcement action filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. The SEC requested the court to appoint Mr. Terry as Receiver for the estate of Summit Wealth Management, Inc. and other affiliated entities that are defendants […]

Investor Alert: Beware of Royalty Trusts

 

Investors who are putting money into Royalty Trusts are making a big mistake and the brokers that sell them should be ashamed of themselves. According to Jason Zweig, a noted columnist with the Wall Street Journal (“Will These Royal Yields Rule?” WSJ), these trusts own nothing except income from oil wells and the right to […]