As a sign of just how serious FINRA considers failures by brokers to comply with their firm’s Outside Business Activity disclosure rules to be, consider this: Four of the 11 consent letters, by which a registered person agrees to a settlement with FINRA [...]

Vikram Mansharamani, a lecturer at Harvard’s John Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, pointed to several “clues” that the economy is possibly ripe for a bubble crash. [...]

For a number of reasons, seniors are some of the most likely victims of financial and securities fraud. First, given their age and the fact that many senior lives alone, seniors tend to be more trusting than younger people. [...]

Beginning July 9, 2018, FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, will search public records to determine whether registered reps who move from one firm to another disclosed any prior bankruptcies, judgments or liens. [...]

On April 30, 2018, the California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, which significantly changed the standard for determining whether workers in California should be classified as “employees” or as “independent contractors” for purposes of the wage orders adopted by California’s Industrial Welfare Commission [...]

The industry-wide crackdown on expense account improprieties continues. In recent blogs I wrote about the crackdown by FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and member firms on violations of expense reimbursement policies [...]

On April 18, 2018, the SEC voted 4 to 1 to propose the Standards of Conduct for Investment Professionals Rule making Package, a package designed to enhance the protection and decision-making of retail, or “Main Street,” investors.

In an effort to locate and identify brokers who excessively trade their clients’ accounts to benefit themselves through excessive trading commissions to the detriment of their clients, FINRA announced a new proposal to widen the net to ensnare brokers who “churn” client accounts.

Two rogue brokers made the news this week. One, a former Ameriprise broker in Los Angles, was arrested by the FBI and charged with money laundering and federal fraud...

Signaling the next chapter in the slow moving “fiduciary rule” saga, the Securities and Exchange Commission will meet next week to discuss the framework for a new, SEC-backed standard of conduct for brokers...

Dennis Stubblefield, a Partner at the firm, recently attended SEC Speaks, the Commission’s annual conference in which senior staff from all divisions and offices announce and comment upon key developments from the past year and set forth coming priorities [...]

For those entrepreneurial enough to form, own and operate a successful RIA firm, while there is great satisfaction in being the “captain of your own ship”, most RIA owners really have no idea of the market value of their firms.

For those entrepreneurial enough to form, own and operate a successful RIA firm, while there is great satisfaction in being the “captain of your own ship”, most RIA owners really have no idea of the market value of their firms.

Wells Fargo & Co. disclosed in a recent regulatory filing that its Wealth Management division, which includes FINRA member firm Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC (formerly Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC), is the subject of an SEC investigation to determine whether the firm accepted improper client referrals in violation of securities laws.

Under a FINRA proposal released this week, broker-dealers may no longer be required to supervise the activities of their registered representatives performed at unaffiliated RIA firms. The rule, if adopted, will substantially reduce the burden of B-D’s monitoring the outside business activity of the firm’s brokers performed at unrelated RIA firms.

Just months after exiting The Broker Protocol, UBS Financial Services has reportedly added a broad non-solicitation clause to bonus agreements certain advisors are required to sign before receiving their 2017 production bonuses...

On February 13, 2018, a federal district court judge denied a U.S. broker-dealer’s request for leave to compel internal regulatory documents from FINRA in an SEC enforcement action captioned SEC v. Lek Securities Corp., et al...

Each year, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) outlines its core areas of focus through its annual Regulatory and Examination Priorities Letter. This year’s letter highlights a number of longstanding areas of focus, including fraud, suitability, anti-money laundering and private placement investments, as well as several new categories. Here are FINRA’s top priorities for 2018:

On February 5, 2018, a San Diego insurance agent, Shawn Heffernan, pleaded guilty to defrauding senior citizens and others out of nearly $1.5 million by soliciting funds for “investments,” and then spending the money on personal items such as jewelry, a Maserati, and three rental properties.

The facts speak for themselves. There is a steady and growing trend for brokers to leave one of the remaining four wirehouse firms (Merrill, Morgan, Wells Fargo, UBS) and move to one of the independent broker-dealers (IBD’s), RIA firms or smaller, regional firms. In 2016, the four wirehouses had a net exit of approximately $40 billion of assets leave them for one of the IBD’s and other advisor channels. In 2017, the movement of assets from the wirehouses to the IBD network accelerated dramatically. Approximately $75 billion moved from one of the four wirehouses to one of the IBD’s, a regional broker or an RIA firm.