Thanks to Chris for not only making the personal sacrifice of traveling from frigid Chicago to sunny Florida to attend the SIFMA Compliance and Legal conference last week, but for providing these helpful comments about the sessions he attended. – Alan
I attended the four-day SIFMA Compliance and Legal seminar last week, and there…
Let me say at the outset that I, myself, am an old (by most people’s definition, anyway), white man. So, selfishly, I’ve got nothing against old, white men. But, the fact is that FINRA arbitration panels are disproportionately populated by such guys. And I am not sure that’s a good thing for the arbitral process. …
Let’s talk about commissions today. Or, as they are sometimes referred to, transaction based compensation. Specifically, who can receive commissions. Actually, that’s not phrased correctly. The correct phrasing of this issue, courtesy of FINRA Rule 2040, would be: to whom a broker-dealer may legally pay commissions? According to that rule, BDs can only pay…
There are certain topics that broker-dealers have been encountering for decades, yet continue unnecessarily to wrestle with due to the absence of clear guidance from the regulators. I have written about one such topic before, and that’s the fuzzy line between most outside business activities, which RRs are obliged (at a minimum) by rule to…
Here is a very interesting piece from Chris about the fact that some customers who file arbitrations may come to learn the hard way that even when their attorney takes the case on a continency fee basis, they still have real skin the game. I also want to be clear: while the award that serves…
Motions to vacate an adverse arbitration award are rarely granted by courts. Indeed, that should come as no surprise to anyone inasmuch as the awards rendered at the conclusion of the arbitral process are explicitly designed to be “final.” As a matter of both federal and state law, there are very, very few available bases…
I am fond of saying that, at least generally speaking, the most important document in a customer arbitration alleging unsuitable recommendations is the new account form. If the NAF is in good shape, i.e., it is accurate, it is complete, it is up-to-date, it doesn’t have any changes or white-outs, then I am free to…
I continue to wade my way through a few months’ worth of cases, press releases, etc., looking for things that manage to catch my attention. I found this SEC settlement from the end of July involving Integral Financial, a BD out of California, and its founder, majority owner, President, and Chairman of the Board of…
I am still catching up on things that happened over the last couple of months, as I dig myself out of the hole created by (finally) completing a 39-day FINRA arbitration (SOC filed in 2014, hearing started in 2019). Truthfully, it seems there’s been a lot of the usual. You know, FINRA taking formal disciplinary…
Not too long ago, a single, small BD experienced a bizarre combination of regulatory overzealousness and regulatory indifference, by the SEC and FINRA, respectively. These things, sadly, happen all the time, but what happened to this unfortunate firm presents an excellent case study in regulators who simply do not wield their considerable prosecutorial discretion in…
