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 […]

Investors who contacted Soreide Law Group regarding this product have received quotes in the secondary market for as low as $5 per share for their CNL Lifestyle Properties shares. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has reported that CNL focused on lifestyle properties including: 23 ski and mountain lifestyle properties, 51 golf facilities, 52 senior […]

William Galvin, the secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, today announced settlements with five leading independent broker/dealers to make $8.6 million in restitution to investors and pay fines totaling $975,000 for the sales of nontraded real estate investment trusts (REITs). These five firms are: Ameriprise Financial Services Inc., with $2.6 million in restitution and a […]

With mounting pressure from regulators, broker/dealers are making changes to how they sell alternative investments. VSR Financial Services Inc., Berthel Fisher & Co. Financial Services Inc. and the Cetera Financial Group Inc., which has four independent-contractor broker-dealers under its umbrella, this year have revised policies or added new guidelines and procedures for the sale of […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]