Maxwell B. Smith, a financial advisor from New Jersey, was sentenced to seven years in prison for operating a $9 million Ponzi Scheme. Many clients lost their investments in Health Care Financial Partners. Smith sold investments as a fund that made loans to nursing homes. Smith began soliciting investors in the Ponzi Scheme as early […]

Many conservative investors were sold various gold investments by their stock brokers thinking they were investing in physical gold. Soreide Law Group is representing a group of GDX retired investors who thought they were investing in a conservative gold fund and were not told by their broker that the GDX investment, invests at least 80% […]

The Soreide Law Group is investigating the Mariner Access Fund and Mariner 2X Access Fund, sold by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. Merrill Lynch raised millions of dollars from their investors in private sales. Investors in these funds have had enormous losses, in some cases over 75%. The Mariner Access Fund and Mariner […]

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) sanctioned the following eight firms and 10 individuals, and ordered restitution totaling more than $3.2 million, for selling interests in private placement offerings without having a reasonable basis for recommending the securities. The firms and individuals sold interests in several high-risk private placements, including those issued by Provident Royalties, […]

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), May 15,2013, censured and fined VSR Financial Services, $550,000 over allegations that it failed to supervise its sales of alternative investments to its customers, specifically as it related to concentration in hedge funds, notes, REITs and private placements investments. Donald Beary, VSR’s President, received a 45-day suspension and $10,000 […]

The exchange-traded funds (ETF) that use leverage to double and triple returns on stock market moves could cause the next big market crash, according to the Federal Reserve. In an article titled "Are Leveraged and Inverse ETFs the New Portfolio Insurers?" from the central bank stirred markets into wondering what would happen if the funds […]

Last month, National Planning Corp. said that as a result of continuing due diligence it has suspended sales of American Realty Capital Trust V Inc., a fast-selling product that in June averaged sales of $10.8 million per day writes Bruce Kelly of InvestmentNews. “Due to concerns with style drift, deviations from the prospectus and growing […]

Highest Paying Broker/Dealers Ranked by average payout per rep, per year 1.Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. 2.Commonwealth Financial Network 3.VSR Financial Services Inc. 4.Geneos Wealth Management Inc. 5.Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network Largest Broker/Dealers Ranked by revenue 1.LPL Financial LLC 2.Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. 3.Raymond James Financial Services Inc. 4.Lincoln Financial Network 5.Commonwealth Financial Network Broker/Dealer […]

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently suspended and fined a broker for a social media violation involving equity index annuities writes Elizabeth Festa in a recent article for LifeHealthPro. The registered representative publicly released videos through YouTube, sending out invitations to seminars and letters regarding bonus incentives that did not comply with FINRA’s rules, […]