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Midsize wealth manager allegedly missed assistant’s fraud for 7 years

16:25 16 December in In the News by rafferty

December 15, 2021 By Tobias Salinger, FinancialPlanning.com One wealth manager had a financial advisor and a sales assistant who defrauded their clients in separate schemes while operating out of the same office, according to investigators. Midsize independent broker-dealer American Portfolios Financial Services agreed to pay $225,000 under a Dec. 10 settlement with FINRA about its supervision of the office. The Holbrook, New York-based brokerage with 892 registered representatives has paid restitution of $383,000 to clients who lost money through the conversions of the former assistant, Kimberly Sredich, as well as settlements totaling $575,000 to ex-customers of barred rep Mark L. Hopkins, according to FINRA BrokerCheck and documents filed in Michigan’s Eastern District. Sredich began her two-year federal prison sentence in late September after pleading guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. Read...

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With the rise of RIAs, recruiters must change their game

16:20 04 November in In the News by rafferty

November 2, 2021 By Bruce Kelly, Investment News As the grip of the Big Four wirehouses — Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Wells Fargo Advisors — on financial advisers has lessened over the past 10 years or so, one of the main arteries for attracting new financial advisers, recruiting, has evolved as well. Twenty years ago, around the time of the dot.com stock bubble, if a reporter naively asked a third-party recruiter who worked with wirehouses whether an adviser would consider moving to an independent contractor broker-dealer like LPL Financial or Commonwealth, the recruiter would have laughed and said, “Not in a hundred years.” OK, the payout is higher at the independent firm, but where’s the lead generation? Where’s the brand? Where’s the upfront bonus? Where are the stock options? In short, where’s...

FINRA’s New ‘Restricted Firm’ Plan is on it’s Way

14:22 10 September in In the News by cristi.barkley@gmail.com

September 8, 2021, By Melanie Waddell ThinkAdvisor Broker-dealers with a history of misconduct who have also hired a high percentage of brokers with a similar track record need to brush up on a new Financial Industry Regulatory Authority rule that seeks to expose potential risks to investors by labeling these broker-dealers as “restricted firms.” FINRA’s plan, approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in late July, adopts Rule 4111, which uses criteria to decide whether to designate BDs as “restricted firms.” The rule becomes effective within 180 days of when FINRA issues a regulatory notice, which FINRA plans to do by the end of September. As part of the SEC approval, FINRA will propose amendments to Rule 8312 (FINRA BrokerCheck Disclosure), to provide information as to whether a particular member firm or former member...