The Law of the Financial Markets Tuesday, August 3, 2021
Commentary, news and links of interest to financial advisers.
Merrill Lynch Penalized $11.6 Million For Improper UIT Rollovers: The transactions forced clients to pay millions of dollars in needless fees, according to FINRA. A UIT is an investment company that offers investors shares, or “units,” in a fixed portfolio of securities in a one-time public offering that terminates […]
FINRA fines Robinhood and orders it to pay its customers 12.6 million dollars
FINRA has issued a warning to member firms of an ongoing phishing campaign that involves fraudulent emails purporting to be from FINRA and using the domain name “@gateway-finra.org.” The email asks the recipient to click a link to “view request” and provide information to “complete” that request, noting that “late […]
New York has released additional guidance on recent rule amendments prepared by the Investor Protection Bureau (IPB) and adopted in 2020. Through these new rules, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has increased transparency for the public into the investment adviser representatives and securities issuers operating in New York state. […]
There is no residency or citizenship requirement in the definition of an accredited investor. Many entities and individuals are accredited investors. Rule 501 of Regulation D defines the term. For individuals, accredited investors include: Any director, executive officer, or general partner of the issuer of the securities being offered or sold, or any director, executive officer, […]
The term Blue Sky Law refers to the laws and regulations of the individual states regarding the registration of securities, brokerage firms and investment advisers. While the most well known securities laws are the federal laws, each state has its own rules and regulations. The blue sky laws of each […]
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a New Jersey-based healthcare company and its founder with fraudulently raising nearly $4 million from over 130 investors nationwide through the sale of membership units in the company. According to the complaint, since July 2017, Premier Healthcare Solution LLC and its founder, Josiah […]
The SEC has charged James Roland Jones of Redondo Beach, California, with perpetrating a fraudulent scheme to sell what he called “insider tips” on the dark web. The dark web allows users to access the internet anonymously and, as such, has often been used to host websites and marketplaces that […]
According to a survey conducted by the personal finance website MagnifyMoney, nearly half of U.S. adults think financial advisors are expensive and only for the wealthy, even though almost all who use advisors consider them worth it, according to a new survey. The survey of 1,500 adults found that 30% […]
The authority to open SEC investigations, and therefore to issue subpoenas, was expanded under the Obama Administration to the director of Enforcement, rather than solely to the Commission itself. The Director of Enforcement then delegated that authority to various senior officials, including regional and associate directors and specialized unit chiefs. […]
