On July 28, 2015, The Investment News reported on the firm’s recent annual meeting for its advisers at which executives of the firm purportedly commented that the firm is “close to resolving significant enforcement actions.” (“LPL Financial CEO Mark Casady says Firm Close to Finish Line with Fines and Settlements”)
As noted in the article, “LPL has been in the spotlight over the past few years due to its host of problems with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. as well as state regulators. Two products that have caused LPL to pay fines or restitution to clients have been non-traded real estate investment trusts, a popular alternative investment, and variable annuities.”
Among the recent regulatory actions, cited in the article, is the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) matter in May of 2015 which ordered LPL to pay $11.7 million in fines and restitution for what it deemed “widespread supervisory failures” related to sales of complex products between 2007 and April of 2015. According to the FINRA settlement, LPL failed to properly supervise sales of certain investments, including certain exchange-traded funds, variable annuities and non-traded REITs, and also failed to properly deliver more than 14 million trade confirmations to customers.
The article also notes that, earlier this month, FINRA ordered LPL to pay $6.3 million in restitution to clients after it allegedly failed to waive sales loads for certain mutual fund shares sold between July 2009 and the end of 2014.
If you are an individual or institutional investor who has any concerns about investments having been recommended for purchase in either your retirement or non-retirement accounts by LPL Financial, please contact us for a no-cost and no-obligation evaluation of your specific facts and circumstances. You may have a viable claim for recovery of your investment losses by filing an individual securities arbitration claim with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).