FINRA is currently reviewing its rules regarding outside business activities and private securities transactions. From time to time, FINRA reviews its rules and application of those rules to see if anything needs to be tweaked. Is there any significance to FINRA looking at these particular rules?
From my experience, some bad brokers have used the
One certainty in the brokerage world is that registered representatives often switch from one member firm to another. There is nothing wrong with the switch, but there is a word of caution to be shared.
Before you leave, make sure you only have in your possession, if anything, only those things that the firm
The SEC recently announced that it charged a former broker with knowingly or recklessly trading unsuitable investment products for five customers and taking $170,000 for one of those customers. These charges follow a prior SEC Investor Alert warning about excessive trading and churning as well as another one focused on the risks associated with exchange-traded
In Notice to Members 17-13, FINRA announced changes to its sanction guidelines. In other words, FINRA has listed its new top hits that it is pursuing. Two items bear particular attention.
First, FINRA has introduced a “new principal consideration that examines whether a respondent has exercised undue influence over a customer.” This guideline reinforces
Contrary to what the title may suggest, I am not referring to students who are about to graduate from high school or college. Instead, this post is about that group of our society who all too often (based upon my years of defending broker-dealers) are claimants in FINRA arbitrations; senior investors.
As part of its
The SEC recently published its latest investor bulletin. The SEC publishes these from time to time to bring awareness to the investing public on certain issues.
The current bulletin notes that the investor.gov web page provides a number of resources for the investing public, which include:
Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed Rule Amendments to Improve Municipal Securities Disclosures. According to the SEC, these rule amendments are intended to “improve investor protection and enhance transparency in the municipal securities market”. 
Rule 15c2-12 would be amended to add two new event notices:
– Incurrence of a financial obligation of
According to a recent report of the Eversheds Sutherland firm, 2016 was a banner year for FINRA-assessed fines. FINRA collected a record $176 million in 2016. So what gives?
The increase in fines was attributable to two things. First, a significant number of fines in the $1 million plus range. Second, of those fines, a
According to Bloomberg, Trump plans to order a review of Dodd-Frank, with an eye to significantly scale back the regulations. Trump also plans to do away with the “fiduciary rule”, which requires retirement account advisers to perform in the best interests of their clients.
This confirms Trump’s goal to loosen regulations in the financial
Like it has in the past, FINRA is sharply focused on examining brokers with a disciplinary past, including the identification and examination of such brokers being placed at the top of its 2017 exam priorities. Does this mean that firms cannot hire brokers with a past?
The short answer is no, but the longer is