Posts belonging to Category Morgan Keegan



Regulators Plan Legal Actions Over Improper Sales of ETFs and ETNs

 

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced plans to file enforcement actions against certain brokerages in connection with unsuitable sales of leveraged and inverse leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as well as for failure to train their brokers who sell them (see Reuters article by Suzanne Barlyn and Jessica Toonkel entitled “FINRA to bring cases over […]

Pension Plans Victimized by Morgan Keegan Kickback Scheme

 

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has ordered Morgan Keegan to pay $633,715 to 10 pension plans that were victimized by a scheme in which Morgan Keegan received kickback payments for recommending funds of hedge funds to plan clients, according to an (See InvestmentNews article entitled “Morgan Keegan ripped by DOL over kickbacks”). Morgan Keegan’s […]

Morgan Keegan for Sale?

 

Regions Financial Corp. is trying to find a buyer for Morgan Keegan, but the clock is ticking, and the longer it takes, the greater the likelihood that its most valuable asset, the advisor reps, will leave, thereby reducing the value, and making a sale unlikely to happen at all, according to Andrew Osterand’s InvestmentNews article […]

SEC Refuses to Take Action Against Senior Executives in Structured Product Cases

 

SEC Enforcement Chief Robert Khuzami recently stated that the SEC’s decision not to charge top executives of Wall Street banks with wrongdoing in cases involving structured products was appropriate, according to Suzanne Barlyn’s Wall Street Journal article entitled “SEC: Structured-Product Cases Haven’t Reached Top Bank Officers.” According to Mr. Khuzami, top executives were not involved […]

Judge Gives Morgan Keegan a ‘Free Pass’ on Auction Rate Securities Claims

 

A U.S. district court judge granted Morgan Keegan’s motion for summary judgment, dismissing the Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that the brokerage firm misled investors in connection with its sales of $2.2 billion in auction-rate securities, according to an InvestmentNews article entitled “SEC claim that Morgan Keegan misled ARS investors is nixed,” and David Benoit’s […]

Morgan Keegan Toxic Bond Fund Cases Provide Disturbing Examples of How Industry Arbitration Fails Investors

 

In her recent New York Times article entitled “Findings That May Get Lost,” Gretchen Morgenson writes about a “disturbing paradox” presented by the following scenario: Investors who lost over $1 billion in toxic RMK bond funds may not benefit from the recent settlement with regulators that Morgan Keegan paid $200 million to obtain, despite findings […]

Investors to Receive Some Compensation from Morgan Keegan Regulatory Settlements

 

Morgan Keegan & Company and Morgan Asset Management have agreed to pay $200 million to settle fraud charges related to proprietary bond mutual funds that were both mispriced and loaded with risky subprime mortgage-backed securities. Approximately 39,000 investors lost $1.5 billion in the RMK bond funds (later renamed Helios) that were the focus of the […]

Morgan Keegan Fined $200 Million for Fraud Involving Toxic Bond Funds

 

Morgan Keegan & Company and Morgan Asset Management have agreed to pay $200 million to settle fraud charges related to bond funds that invested in subprime mortgage-backed securities. The charges were filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, state regulators from Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and South Carolina, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). […]

The Subprime Mortgage Mess: How the American Dream Turned into a Nightmare

 

Best-selling “Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led To Economic Armegeddon,” by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner, “calls out greedy guys behind mortgage mess,” according to a USA Today book review by Kathryn Caravan. See also “Home Truths,” by James Freeman of the Wall Street Journal. Both reviews provide examples of how the […]

Study: Structured Products Pose Huge Risks to Investors’ Portfolios

 

Simply stated, senior investors (in fact, all investors) should be very leery of high-risk structured products. Author John Wasik, in conjunction with Demos and The Nation Institute, has published a white paper entitled “How Safe Are Your Savings? How Complex Derivative Products Imperil Seniors’ Retirement Security.” The paper’s focus is on structured products and how […]