Posts belonging to Category Investigations
Posted by J. Boyd PageonMarch 1, 2013
As the population ages and investors’ financial acumen decline, financial advisers will be forced to assume additional duties and responsibilities in order to avoid liability exposure. For example, Alzheimer’s disease will raise legal and ethical challenges for investment advisers over the next 40 years as the incidence of that dread disease is expected to nearly […]
Categories: Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Early Retirement Scams, Elder Abuses, Fairness/Just & Equitable Conduct, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Misrepresentation/Omission, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Unsuitable Recommendations
Posted by J. Boyd PageonFebruary 28, 2013
Financial advisers continue to object to a recent rule that grants securities regulators more access to potentially relevant documents under the adviser’s control. The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a rule change proposed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) that significantly increases FINRA’s ability to discover a member firm’s documents. FINRA is now […]
Categories: Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Employment Issues, Fairness/Just & Equitable Conduct, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Jobs, Regulatory Developments, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation
Posted by J. Boyd PageonFebruary 26, 2013
The financial world continues to beat the drum warning investors about the risk of bonds. When interest rates rise (or when the market believes a significant rise in interest rates is imminent) bond prices will fall, and investors in bond funds and individual bonds will suffer declines in value and/or losses. Retirees and others, who […]
Categories: Alternative Investments, Bonds, Brokerage Firms, 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, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Limited Partnerships, Misrepresentation/Omission, Mutual Funds, Nontraded REITs, Oil & Gas, Private Equity Investments, Private Investments/Reg D, Promissory Notes, 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 J. Boyd PageonFebruary 20, 2013
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 […]
Categories: Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, CDOs, Closed End Funds, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Crowd Funding, Derivatives, Elder 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, Life Policies/Viatical Settlements, Limited Partnerships, Misrepresentation/Omission, Nontraded REITs, Oil & Gas, Private Equity Investments, Private Investments/Reg D, Promissory Notes, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Structured Notes, Supervisory Failures, Unsuitable Recommendations, Variable Annuities and Equity-Indexed Annuities
Posted by J. Boyd PageonFebruary 20, 2013
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has finally joined the crowd in warning investors about the risks of bonds and bond funds in the current environment. If FINRA is worried about bonds, the end may be near. FINRA may be late in warning investors about bond and bond fund risks say financial advisers, but investors […]
Categories: Bonds, Brokerage Firms, Church Bonds, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Elder Abuses, Fairness/Just & Equitable Conduct, High Yield (Junk) Bonds, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Misrepresentation/Omission, Mutual Funds, Regulatory Developments, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Unsuitable Recommendations
Posted by J. Boyd PageonFebruary 18, 2013
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 […]
Categories: Alternative Funds, Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, Closed End Funds, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Crowd Funding, Derivatives, Disciplinary Actions, Elder 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, Life Policies/Viatical Settlements, Limited Partnerships, LPL Financial, 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, Supervisory Failures, Tenant-in-Common Interests, Unsuitable Recommendations, Variable Annuities and Equity-Indexed Annuities
Posted by J. Boyd PageonFebruary 15, 2013
Citigroup, one bank that has been accused of scamming investors in CDO transactions, appears to have been scammed by another Wall Street Bank, UBS, that engaged in similar activity. The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent lawsuit against Standard & Poor’s has identified dozens of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that were allegedly given the highest AAA […]
Categories: Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, CDOs, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Misrepresentation/Omission, Mortgage Backed Securities, Mortgage Securities & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems, Regulatory Developments, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, UBS
Posted by J. Boyd PageonFebruary 13, 2013
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 […]
Categories: Affinity Fraud, Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Early Retirement Scams, Economy, Elder 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, Life Policies/Viatical Settlements, Misrepresentation/Omission, Nontraded REITs, Private Investments/Reg D, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Structured Notes, Unsuitable Recommendations, Variable Annuities and Equity-Indexed Annuities
Posted by J. Boyd PageonJanuary 21, 2013
Leo Wells, CEO of Wells Real Estate Funds, told broker-dealers that his firm will not register any new nontraded REITs pending new guidelines that are expected to be published by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). He indicated that his firm needs “clarity” before marketing any new products (“All’s not well as Wells halts REIT […]
Categories: Alternative Investments, Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Elder Abuses, Fairness/Just & Equitable Conduct, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Misrepresentation/Omission, Nontraded REITs, REITs, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Unsuitable Recommendations
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
