Posted April 17, 2017 by jeremy
Last week, two oil and gas financiers pleaded guilty to running a Ponzi scheme in Texas. According to court documents, the duo lied to investors — falsely telling them they were collecting money to invest in new energy ventures. In fact, they were using the money to illegally finance their luxurious lifestyles. Money Used for Personal Luxuries The two oil and gas financiers pleaded guilty to defrauding investors out of tens of millions of dollars. Robert […]
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Posted April 1, 2017 by robyn
Your brokerage account might be performing “okay” or even “well,” but that doesn’t mean the biggest Wall Street firms are behaving themselves. Indeed, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued more fines for regulatory infractions than ever in 2016. The biggest fine was for annuity switching. Last year, FINRA fined brokerage firms and their stockbrokers a total of $176 million. That figure breaks FINRA’s past record of $134 million in 2014. The new record in fines […]
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Posted March 18, 2017 by jeremy
It doesn’t matter if you’re a computer programmer, a lawyer, or a hair stylist – if you’ve got money in a brokerage account, you could become the victim of stock fraud. Nevertheless, certain traits could increase your likelihood of becoming a stock fraud victim. A recent study published by AARP revealed that some investors are more vulnerable to stock fraud than others. The AARP survey found that victims of investment fraud tend to share specific […]
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Posted February 2, 2017 by jeremy
Regulators are zeroing in on “buffer annuities.” A buffer annuity is a new kind of variable annuities that contain structured products rather than mutual funds. The fact that they contain structured products makes buffer annuities too complicated for the average mom-and-pop investor. According to the brokers who sell them, buffer annuities use structured products to balance the risk of losing money. Brokers also say that buffer annuities emphasize principal protection and conservative account growth. Regulators […]
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Posted January 24, 2017 by jeremy
Eight investment firms will soon pay $6.2 million in Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fines for legal violations. The violations relate to unsuitable L-share variable annuity sales. Five of the firms will also pay restitution totaling $6.3 to customers who purchased the annuities. The investment firms involved in the unsuitable variable annuity sales were: Voya Financial Advisors Kestra Investment Services FTB Advisors, Inc. Five affiliates of Cetera Financial Group These firms did not suffer a conviction […]
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