In a September 7, 2011 article in InvestmentNews.com, Bruce Kelly writes that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA), living up to its warnings of this year, said today that it has fined several firms for overcharging for postage and handling. The article states that in May, Finra chief executive Richard Ketchum warned an audience of brokerage […]

 Josh Funk, a business writer for the AP wrote that  TD Ameritrade has agreed to a $10 million settlement for failing to properly supervise representatives who misled investors about the safety of a money-market mutual fund that "broke the buck" in 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. Funk writes that TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. customers who still hold […]

In an InvestmentNews.com article, Darla Mercado writes that two registered representatives with Planmember Securities Corp. could lose their securities licenses in Texas and face fines of $100,000 each for the improper sale of life settlement notes. The brokers, Jimmy Wayne Freeman Jr. and Kris Bradford Rhoden, were due to appear at the State Office of Administrative […]

Darla Mercado of InvestmentNews.com, recently wrote that Finra's variable annuity (VA) suitability rule should be old news to broker-dealers, but firms that want to avoid an arbitration land mine ought to review their procedures. Mercado writes this warning came directly from Andrew A. Favret, associate vice president and regional chief counsel at the Financial Industry Regulatory […]

Securities attorney, Lars Soreide, of Soreide Law Group, PLLC, is currently investigating the Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) for possible violations of federal securities laws after the company’s withdrawal of its sales forecasts for its prostate cancer therapy Provenge. Dendreon projected that it would earn between $350 - $400 million on sales of Provenge. The Dendreon Corporation is […]

There are large sums of money involved with life insurance and the industry needs to protect against people setting up fraudulent policies and transactions. There are three  concepts that must be understood as they relate to a senior life settlement. They are; Insurable Interest,  Rescission, and Contestability,. Insurable Interest and Life Settlements “Insurable interest” is deals with the legal legitimacy […]

Soreide Law Group, PLLC, is filing claims on behalf of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney clients that were sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stocks in 2007 and 2008.  Despite internal limitations to recommend no more than 10% of an investor's portfolio in preferred stocks, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney investors were sold Fannie Mae and Freddie […]

There are many questions about how Wall Street marketed a very complex product, sold as solid and secure, now emerging in investor arbitration cases. The product is named, incorrectly as it turns out, “100 percent principal protected  notes.” Securities regulators had warned brokerage firms that they should take special care when selling PPN's and other structured products to retail customers […]

WASHINGTON —It was announced July 20, 2011, on FINRA's website that The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has suspended William Bailey, a former NEXT Financial Group, Inc. broker of Mesa, Arizona, from the securities industry for two years for unsuitable and excessive trading of mutual funds and variable annuities. Bailey also engaged in discretionary trading without […]