On May 6, 2015, FINRA reported that LPL Financial had been fined $10 million and censured for failing to supervise its sales force in their sales of non-traditional exchange-traded funds, variable annuities, non-traded REITs and other nontraditional investments
According to FINRA LPL failed to devote enough resources to their compliance department to review and approve the sales of these products, to adequately train their registered representatives, and to monitor the length of time customer’s held these complex ETF products. As to the variable annuities, LPL permitted sales to occur without without disclosing surrender fees to the client. In settling this matter, LPL neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of FINRA’s findings.
LPL Financial is a registered broker dealer doing business in all fifty states. According to FINRA LPL has been the subject of 58 regulatory investigations and the firm discloses 50 arbitrations involving customers in its broker check CRD report.
The Law Office of David Liebrader practices exclusively in the field of investment loss recovery and our securities attorneys have successfully resolved over 1000 investment loss cases over the past 20 years. Recoveries for clients top $40 million. The types of claims we have successfully handled include those involving unsuitable investments (suitability claims), excessive trading or “churning”, misrepresentations and omissions, unauthorized trading, over-concentration of illiquid or overly risky investments, pump and dump scams involving “penny stocks”, direct participation programs (private placements) involving real estate investment trusts (REITS), oil and gas exploration programs, leasing equipment deals and receivable financing, promissory notes whether sold through a broker dealer or as part of the outside business activities of a registered representative, ponzi scheme losses, failure on the part of the broker dealer to perform due diligence, state securities law (blue sky) violations and failure to supervise.
FINRA’s rules require that all investment recommendations made by licensed financial advisors be suitable in light of a customer’s needs, objectives and risk tolerance. In addition, all registered representatives are required to be properly supervised, with periodic inspections and reviews by qualified supervisors, whose job it is to vigorously investigate suspicions of wrongdoing (red flags).
If you have suffered investment losses please call The Law Office of David Liebrader at (702) 380-3131 for a free, confidential consultation