Former LPL Broker Jason Parker Leaves Trail Of Complaints

 

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 LPL has done exactly that. Jason Parker has racked up six customer complaints in the past few years from his very short time at LPL in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Mr. Parker’s employment at LPL was brief but eventful. He was hired at the firm in 2011 from Edward Jones and he was terminated that same year after apparently violating a letter of caution he had received from the firm. The letter precluded trading in certain securities, but Mr. Parker bought them anyway. According to FINRA’s records, he is not currently registered with any securities firm.

Many of the complaints lodged against Mr. Parker allege an unsuitable concentration of assets in a foreign stock. In one such case, he invested nearly all of a risk-averse client’s assets in a company called Jinpan. Though incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, Jinpan primarily conducts business in China. The stock steadily declined, and the client who had wanted safe returns, instead lost almost everything. Four other complaints tell a very similar story.

Some of Mr. Parker’s clients may have followed him from Edward Jones to LPL. In addition, some of Mr. Parker’s clients may have allowed him to open accounts at E-Trade where he continued to trade in Jinpan, which compounded losses.

A sixth complaint, a pending claim against Mr. Parker, also alleges forgery. In that case, Mr. Parker’s clients filed an incident report with the Sheriff’s Office of Jones County, Georgia.

Though his time as a broker ended a few years ago, his clients still must deal with the losses his investments caused. Six former clients of his have already stepped forward to allege unsuitable investments and forgery. The volume of complaints against him suggests that there may be more of Mr. Parker’s clients with stories of their own to tell. Although every case is different, it is very likely that compensation would be available to offset these investment losses.

Page Perry is an Atlanta-based law firm dedicated to protecting investor rights.