RON RAY WILLOUGHBY JR Fined and Suspended

Broker, RON RAY WILLOUGHBY JR (CRD#: 2425926), formerly with Morgan Stanley of Tempe, AZ, currently with Kestra Investment Services of Venice, CA, was fined $5,000 by FINRA and was  suspended for three months, with starting date of July 1, 2019 and ending date, September 30, 2019.
According to FINRA, allegedly, RON RAY WILLOUGHBY JR engaged in an unsuitable pattern of short-term trading of Unit Investment Trusts (UITs) in client accounts.
The FINRA report stated that Willoughby agreed to the sanctions without admitting or denying the FINRA findings. FINRA’s findings stated that allegedly Willoughby recommended his clients roll over a UIT before its maturity date in order to purchase a subsequent series of the same UIT, which generally had the same or similar investment objectives and strategies as the prior series. FINRA alleged that Willoughby's recommendations caused his clients to incur unnecessary sales charges and were unsuitable in view of the frequency and cost of the transactions. The UIT rollovers, according to FINRA, occurred from July of 2012 – December of 2014, while Ron Willoughby was at Morgan Stanley in Tempe, AZ. Willoughby was with Morgan Stanley until December of 2016.
RON RAY WILLOUGHBY JR allegedly recommended to his clients to roll over UITs more than 100 days prior to their maturity on more than 900 occasions, according to FINRA, even though Willoughby’s clients had UITs that had 15 or 24 month maturity periods. RON RAY WILLOUGHBY JR allegedly recommended the clients sell their UITs after holding them for an average of 191 days, and then use the proceeds to purchase a new UIT.
Unit Investment Trusts (UITs) are investment companies registered with the SEC that offer shares or units in a fixed income portfolio, generally of stocks and bonds, as redeemable units to investors for a specific period of time, often after 15 or 24 months, when the underlying securities are sold and the proceeds are paid to the investors.
According to FINRA’s BrokerCheck, RON RAY WILLOUGHBY JR, has 4 Disclosures on his report. Three of the Disclosures are Customer Disputes. Two of the disputes were settled, one in 2008 alleging that Willoughby “purchased volatile securities when customers requested conservative investments for their retirement,” settled for $87,500.00, and the other settled in 2017, alleging "unsuitable investments" for $33,035.29.
RON RAY WILLOUGHBY JR has been in the securities industry for 25 years and has been listed with 8 firms.  He is currently listed, since 3/7/2018, with:
KESTRA INVESTMENT SERVICES, LLC
106 Paloma
Venice, CA 90291
Willoughby was also listed with:
12/09/2016 - 04/04/2018  LPL FINANCIAL LLC - TEMPE, AZ
06/01/2009 - 12/12/2016  MORGAN STANLEY - TEMPE, AZ
If you’ve suffered losses due to the actions or recommendations of RON RAY WILLOUGHBY JR formerly with Morgan Stanley and LPL Financial of Tempe AZ, and currently with Kestra Investment Services of Venice, CA, contact Soreide Law Group and speak to a lawyer at no cost regarding the possible recovery of your investment losses through a FINRA arbitration at:  888-760-6552.
Soreide Law Group represents clients nationwide before FINRA on a contingency fee basis.