Corporate & Securities Law

Switching Firms Without Getting In Trouble

Posted on December 15, 2010
For brokers and advisors, switching firms can be one of the most rewarding and exciting moments in their career. Unfortunately, brokers and advisors who change firms often violate their employment agreements governing their relationships with their firms, clients, and colleagues...

Investors Should Be Wary of Equity-Indexed Annuities

Posted on December 15, 2010
Equity-indexed annuities (?EIAs?), also known as ?fixed-indexed insurance products? or ?indexed annuities? are a class of complex insurance products that have gained popularity in recent years. EIAs are in essence a combination of investment and insurance products that typically fluctuate...

Eccleston Law Investigates Bank of America Structured Products

Posted on December 15, 2010
Eccleston Law announces an investigation of certain Bank of America structured investments which were sold since 2005 and as having the ability to protect an investor?s full principal investment. Bank of America and advisers selling the Bank of America structured...

Claim Submission Deadline for USA Retirement Management Services Receiver is December 27, 2010

Posted on December 14, 2010
Following the appointment of a receiver to distribute the proceeds of the assets of USA Retirement Management Services (?USARMS?), Eccleston would like to remind investors who lost money in this Ponzi scheme to submit their claims to the court-appointed receiver...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Eccleston Law Investigates Stephen Walker in connection with the fraudulent sales oil and gas drilling projects offered by Aspen Exploration.

Posted on December 14, 2010
Eccleston Law has launched an investigation into Stephen Walker (?Walker?), a registered representative of LPL Financial Corporation (?LPL?), for his unauthorized sales of oil and gas drilling projects for Aspen Exploration, Inc. (?Aspen Exploration?)...

Fraud on the Rise in 401(k) Retirement Plans

Posted on December 14, 2010
401(k) plan participants know that they have suffered investment losses in their plans. But now, adding insult to injury, a new threat to their retirement security has arisen: fraud. Over the past few months, the Department of Labor has launched...

Advisers Should Exercise Caution When Using a Professional Designation

Posted on December 14, 2010
In recent years, professional designations and credentialing programs have not only helped advisers satisfy their continuing education requirements, but also have provided advisers with a valuable marketing tool that helps them stand out from their competitors...

Eccleston Law Launches Investigation into William Colston and Founders Financial Securities, LLC

Posted on December 13, 2010
Eccleston Law has launched an investigation into William Colston (?Colston?) in connection with the sales of certain equity-indexed annuities that were outside of the approved business activities of his firm, Founders Financial Securities, LLC (?Founders?)...

Beware of Hedged Mutual Funds

Posted on December 13, 2010
After a decade of success with high net worth institutional investors, hedge fund managers are seeking to tap into a relatively untapped market. They are creating mutual funds with alternative strategies used by hedge funds in order to attract to...

Considerations for Advisers Recommending Private Placements to Customers

Posted on December 13, 2010
A ?private placement? is an offering of securities that is not sold through an initial public offering, but rather one that is sold privately through pre-existing relationships. Although these securities are subject to the Securities Act of 1933, they do...

Eccleston Law Offices Offers New Fixed Fee Breakaway Broker / Transition Services Program for Brewer Financial Reps (And All Others)

Posted on November 12, 2010
Newly formed Eccleston Law Offices, PC (formerly the entire securities practice group at SNSFE along with Carol Grimes, Office Administrator) are alerting reps and advisers at Chicago-based, now defunct, Brewer Financial (as well as all other firms) that they are...

Offering Assistance to Victims of USA Retirement Services in Completing and Submitting SEC / Receiver Claims Forms for Recovery By December 27, 2010

Posted on November 12, 2010
We are being retained to assist defrauded investors file claim forms for recovery of investment losses / theft in the matter entitled, SEC v. Francois Durmaz, with Receiver Stephen Donell, in connection with the USA Retirement Management Services $20 million...

Alert Issued Regarding Suitability And Risk Of Risk Parity Funds As Purported Substitute For Balanced Funds

Posted on October 27, 2010
This is an alert related to a new type of fund known as a risk parity fund. It's become a substitute for balanced funds that hold stocks and bonds and form the core of many investors' portfolios. According to a...

Correlation Is Critical When Determining Asset Allocation

Posted on October 19, 2010
Prudent investors and their financial advisers have known for years that asset allocation is fundamental and that determining correlation among assets is critical to that allocation determination. Let's overview the basic concept and then discuss a new website that takes...

Investigation Of Rosand Enterprises And Robert Anderson Of Illinois Launched Following SEC Ponzi Scheme Charges

Posted on October 14, 2010
SNSFE has launched an investigation into Robert Anderson of Mt. Prospect, IL and his company Rosand Enterprises following SEC charges that a Ponzi scheme was conducted. The SEC's complaint alleges that Anderson raised approximately $12 million from at least 77...

FINRA Reports A 40% Investor Win Difference Without Industry Arbitrator, Albeit From A Small Sampling

Posted on October 11, 2010
FINRA defense lawyers and claimants' counsel for investors are debating whether or not to allow the industry arbitrator to remain on FINRA arbitration panels. Today's [October 8, 2010] Wall Street Journal sheds some light on the debate. Of the 560...

An Introduction To HYIPs: Ordinary Ponzi Schemes Dressed Up For A Web 2.0 World

Posted on October 06, 2010
FINRA (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) recently issued an alert to investors regarding a sophisticated, social media-linked fraud. Those Ponzi schemes are called high Yield Investment Programs (HYIPs), and they are growing rapidly worldwide on the Internet...

ETF Model Portfolios Investigated

Posted on October 06, 2010
The SEC is examining the burgeoning business of financial advisers' selling model portfolios of exchange-traded funds according to a recent report by Investment News. Industry experts worry that many of the advisers offering these model portfolios aren't sophisticated enough to...

Morgan Stanley Sued Over STACK 2006-1 CDO Investment

Posted on October 01, 2010
Morgan Stanley was sued by Taipei-based China Development Industrial Bank for fraud to recover losses from an investment tied to residential mortgage-backed securities. The Taiwanese bank claims Morgan Stanley made an investment linked to U.S. subprime mortgage bonds in mid-2006...

Reps With Blemishes On Record Find It Hard To Move, But Negotiation, Comments And Legal Recourse May Be The Answer

Posted on September 28, 2010
Financial Advisor magazine reports that 'marked' advisers are finding it harder to move. That's because those with multiple blemishes on their records are finding it tougher to move from one broker-dealer to another these days. In fact, broker-dealers fear they'll...

Bonds Become Riskier As Hot Demand Allows Issuers To Roll Back Investor Protections By Way Of Less Restrictive Covenants

Posted on September 24, 2010
The bond markets are getting riskier according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. Bond markets are growing riskier as investors seeking steady returns bid up prices and ignore some early warning signs similar to those that flashed during the...

Investors Beware As Money Market Funds Becoming Risky Again

Posted on September 22, 2010
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that big money-market mutual funds are trying risk again. Two years after Reserve Primary fund "broke the buck," some funds are making new bets on risky securities, raising the chances for problems despite new...

SNSFE Investigates Neal Greenberg And His Hedge Funds Following SEC Complaint

Posted on September 16, 2010
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Boulder, Colorado-based investment adviser Neal Greenberg with fraud and breach of fiduciary duty in the marketing and recommendation of his firm's hedge funds to investors, including many elderly clients...

Broker Protocol Revisited; An "Industry Standard" For Employment Transitions

Posted on September 10, 2010
In early 2009, I examined the Protocol for Broker Recruiting (the "Protocol") and court opinions applying it to situations in which financial advisers had transitioned their employment from one financial services firm to another. The Protocol initially was conceived as...

UBS Securities Whacked By $81 Million Award Relating To Sale Of Auction Rate Securities

Posted on September 07, 2010
An arbitration panel has ruled that UBS Financial Services must pay kids' cell phone maker Kajeet Inc. nearly $81 million in damages. The arbitration action before FINRA related to UBS' sale of student-loan auction rate securities to the company.

Note To Ken Fisher - Risk Tolerance Is Not Baloney; It Is A Fundamental Duty Owed To Investors

Posted on August 31, 2010
Investment advisers owe their clients the highest fiduciary duty known in the law. You wouldn't expect to hear an investment adviser saying, "Throw the nonsense 'risk tolerance' baloney out the window," yet that's exactly what investment adviser Ken Fisher says...

SEC Requests Public Comment Relating To Duties And Obligations Of Broker-Dealers And Investment Advisers

Posted on August 02, 2010
The Securities and Exchange Commission has published a request for public comment to inform its study of the obligations and standards of care of broker-dealers and investment advisers providing personalized investment advice about securities to retail investors...

Arbitrators Award Auction Rate Securities (ARS) Investor $2.5 Million

Posted on August 02, 2010
An arbitration panel has ordered two units of Raymond James Financial to buy back $2.5 million in auction-rate securities from an investor. FINRA ruled in favor of an investor who filed a claim in June 2009 alleging a breach of...

SEC Approves Change To Form ADV Part 2 Which Will Require Greater Additional Disclosures And Greater Narratives

Posted on August 02, 2010
The SEC unanimously has approved changes in Form ADV Part 2. This requires advisers to disclose in a plain-English, narrative format information about their practices in 18 different business areas and to prepare supplements with biographical information on employees who...

SEC Recommends That Life Settlements Be Protected Under Securities Laws

Posted on July 30, 2010
The SEC has released a staff report recommending that life settlements be clearly defined as securities so that the investors in these transactions are protected under the federal securities laws. A life settlement is a transaction in which an individual...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.