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FINRA to Toughen Sanctions on Repeat Violators

15:44 08 May in In the News by rafferty

May 3, 2018 By Melanie Waddell, ThinkAdvisor The revised Sanction Guidelines also tell adjudicators to consider arbitration actions filed by clients against a broker. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is revising its Sanction Guidelines to instruct adjudicators in the disciplinary process to consider “customer-initiated arbitrations” that result in adverse arbitration awards or settlements when assessing sanctions. The broker-dealer self-regulator also advises adjudicators in Regulatory Notice 18-17 to impose “progressively escalating sanctions” on repeat violators to deter future misconduct. As it stands now, FINRA’s Sanction Guidelines instruct that a respondent’s disciplinary history should trigger higher sanctions when that disciplinary history: (a) is similar to the misconduct in the current disciplinary case; or (b) evidences a “reckless disregard for regulatory requirements, investor protection, or market integrity.” The newly revised guidelines adds a section instructing adjudicators to consider “customer-initiated...

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LPL Dinged Up to $26 Million Over Sales of Unregistered Securities

18:04 02 May in In the News by rafferty

May 2, 2018 By Diana Britton, WealthManagement.com An investigation by state securities regulators found the independent broker/dealer failed to prevent the sale of certain equity and fixed income securities that may not have been properly registered in their domains. LPL Financial has settled with the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) over claims it lacked proper policies and procedures to prevent the sale of unregistered, non-exempt equity and fixed-income securities over the last 12 years. ­­­­Alabama and Massachusetts state securities regulators led the investigation, which LPL's cooperation, and the settlement could be more than $26 million if all jurisdictions participate. LPL has agreed to pay $499,000 to 52 U.S. states and territories, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. California has not yet agreed to participate in the settlement. The...

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LPL Will Launch No-Transaction-Fee Mutual Fund Platform

15:36 27 April in In the News by rafferty

April 26, 2018 By Michael Thrasher, WealthManagement.com The independent broker/dealer is lowering a custody threshold so more advisors can take advantage of a flat-rate administration fee. LPL Financial said Thursday it is going to offer a flat-rate administrative fee to more advisors who use its corporate advisory platform and plans to roll out a no-transaction-fee mutual fund platform this summer. In January of 2019, the independent broker-dealer will reduce the threshold of assets custodied on its Strategic Asset Management (SAM) advisory platform needed for advisors to qualify for a flat administrative fee. Currently, LPL advisors with $50 million in assets or more custodied on the platform pay an administration fee of eight basis points but it is lowering the threshold to $25 million to qualify. Advisors with less that $25 million is assets custodied on...

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Cambridge Advisors Added to LPL’s Hit List

15:52 13 April in In the News by rafferty

April 12 , 2018 By Diana Britton, WealthManagement.com Cambridge has been added to LPL’s list of rival firms where advisors are being offered up to 50 basis points on assets to come on board. LPL Financial is now aggressively targeting advisors at Cambridge Investment Research, offering those advisors the same recruitment deal as those at Cetera Financial, Securities America and Kestra Financial, according to a source familiar with the deal. WealthManagement.com first reported on Tuesday that LPL was offering Cetera, Securities America and Kestra advisors 50 basis points on assets to join its corporate registered investment advisors and 40 basis points on assets to join hybrid offices. “Recruiting efforts across the industry seem to be very competitive, but we find that Cambridge’s written plans, structure, and resolve to be independent is very appealing to...