According to a recent article in the New York Times, LPL Financial, has 13,300 brokers, 6,500 offices, 4.3 million customers — and a growing list of problems with regulators. LPL is now the nation’s fourth-largest brokerage firm — after Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch — and the largest in much of rural America--its […]

Securities Lawyer, Lars Soreide of Soreide Law Group, PLLC, recently announced that he is investigating claims against Linsco Private Ledger (LPL Financial) for investors who have suffered losses by former LPL broker Alberto Neira. The clients of former LPL representative Alberto Neira were solicited to invest in the now defunct Silver Oak Leasing – a […]

Last week LPL Financial Holdings agreed to pay $2.5 million in fines and restitution for improperly supervising brokers who sold non-traded real estate investment trusts. (Please note that LPL neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.) These non-traded REITs are high-yielding and very popular. These non-traded REITs have jumped about 50% since 2009, to $65 billion. They […]

In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Feb. 11, 2013, Matthew Heimer writes that ever since the Federal Reserve started pushing interest rates to new lows, it’s been a common theme for retirees and other conservative investors accepting more risk to get a decent income from their portfolios. Last week LPL Financial Holdings agreed […]

Financial regulators are confronting investor frauds that are giving retirement savers steep losses on complex products that until a few years ago were aimed only at the most sophisticated investors, writes Nathaniel Popper in a New York Times article from Feb. 11, 2013. These victims are among the millions of Americans whose mutual funds and […]

On Feb. 6th., 2013, LPL Financial, LLC, was ordered by Massachusetts Security Division to pay restitution of more than $2 million to investors who bought shares of nontraded real estate investment trusts (REITs) and a $500,000 administrative fine, which involved investors who bought shares of several different nontraded REITs in violation of state limitations, and […]

Massachusetts securities regulators sued LPL Financial, LLC, in December over sales practices of brokers regarding the REITs. Secretary of the Commonwealth, William Galvin, charged LPL Financial with a failure to supervise registered reps who sold the nontraded REITs in violation of both state limitations and the company's rules. The Securities Division also charged LPL Financial […]

Soreide Law Group, PLLC, has launched an investigation into the suspended Idaho broker, Vincenzo (Vince) Covino. Covino was employed at Legacy Wealth Management Group in Boise, and Prospera Financial Services. Covino was with LPL Financial until 2009. Vince Covino was fined and suspended by FINRA for borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a client, […]

In a February 17th., 2012, article for InvestmentNews.com, Bruce Kelly writes that a broker formally affiliated with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, Berthel Fisher & Co. Financial Services Inc. and LPL Financial LLC was arrested in Oregon this month for allegedly stealing $584,000 from three investors. The now ex-broker, James Scott McKee, was charged Feb. 9 […]