Alan Wolper

Alan focuses his practice exclusively on defending regulatory investigations and enforcement actions brought by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), and state securities commissioners against brokers, broker-dealers, and investment auditors. He was previously Director of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) Atlanta District Office, where he oversaw nearly 600 member firms and thousands of branch offices. Alan also served as a member of the NASD's Department of Enforcement, where he had the primary responsibility for prosecuting hundreds of formal disciplinary actions.

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Most securities regulations, by design, create a gray world where compliance is not crystal-clear, but, rather, subject to interpretation.  After all, what you think constitutes “reasonable” supervision and what FINRA or the SEC think is reasonable may very well be two extremely different things.  Indeed, it is the existence of subjective standards of conduct like…

FINRA Enforcement has often been accused (again, admittedly, by me, and not too infrequently) of going after the “low-hanging fruit,” that is, taking the easy case when it presents itself.  Putting aside the question whether this observation is accurate or not – for what it’s worth, I think the answer is that it is often,…

So I spent last week – the whole week – doing an arbitration with JAMS.  It involved some of the typical elements of a FINRA claim, e.g., allegations of the sale of an unregistered security, of an “investment” gone bad, of misrepresentations and omissions in connection with the “sale” of that “investment,” but for reasons…

I am writing this while flying home from my first business trip in over 15 months.  I have to tell you, it is more than a bit of a strange feeling to be out and among people again.  While my face is sore from wearing this N95 mask nearly non-stop for three days, my hands…

For many years, FINRA has attempted in several settings to substitute objective criteria for subjective ones, to try and make things easier for itself, and to make things more consistent from district to district and from firm to firm.  For instance, FINRA used to – and may still today – identify firms whose exam cycles…

FINRA is often accused (mostly rightfully, and certainly by me) of being a horse-is-already-out-of-the-barn sort of regulator, jumping on an issue only after the problem has already arisen and made it to the front page of the Wall Street Journal.  But, that’s not always the case.  Indeed, there are occasions when FINRA is out ahead…

I have always operated with the understanding that, per FINRA rules, one cannot supervise him- or herself.  Hardly an outrageous proposition.  Today, however, that fundamental, bedrock understanding was so shaken, it has left me wondering whether anything is what it seems (especially when coupled with Loyola’s win this weekend over Illinois, which, really, can only…