I received an invitation to a steak dinner over the weekend! It happens to be at a very popular place here in Jacksonville and it is not cheap either. I told my wife when I received it that..."what do you want to bet that this person does not even have an office of his own, is not licensed as an investment adviser and probably not licensed with a broker-dealer either?" She did not want to bet me, because she knew that I was probably right.
The postcard invitation implies investment expertise. The name of the firm listed is "__________ Financial Strategies" There is a slogan for the firm that uses the word "Wealth" in it, which again implies investment expertise.
One of the bullet points on the postcard says the following:
If I can stop you from paying taxes on money in Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds and CD's by redirecting - you would keep more of your money.
The other bullet points told me that this was probably an insurance agent. Being a compliance oriented person, I know how to check people's backgrounds. First I went to the SEC site, located at http://adviserinfo.sec.gov. An investment adviser search for the firm name and the "advisor's" name (don't make me laugh) turned up nothing.
Then, I thought, surely this guy is affiliated with a broker-dealer. So, I went to the FINRA Broker Check site located at http://www.finra.org/Investors/ToolsCalculators/BrokerCheck/ and did a search for this "self annointed advisor" who is going to advise people on when to "redirect" their stocks, bonds, mutual funds and CD's. Again, I was sadly disappointed to not find any record of this advisor.
Lastly, I knew that I could look up his insurance record to see if he is insurance licensed. Sure enough, he is licensed with a boat load of insurance companies a lot of whom are in the annuity business. Now, there is nothing wrong with earning a living. However, I do not take to kindly to people who break the rules while we ethical people in the business adhere to the rules.
An insurance agent cannot advise people whether or not to sell their stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or any other investments. They are NOT LICENSED to do so. Apparently though, they have no problems implying that they are licensed to do so.
Sadly, several people will go to this seminar. This advisor will get some appointments out of it and most likely will convince some of these people to sell their stocks, bonds and mutual funds and buy the annuities that he has as his end game. In doing so, he will violate the rules around investment advice in Florida, but he will probably get away with it.
When I was the former branch manager at Charles Schwab, we used a location in the same building as our Schwab office for client seminars and meetings. Strangely, this advisor has this same address as his office. I recognized the address on the postcard right away as the same address. This office and meeting complex is one of those places that rents offices to business people for their appointments. The postcard implies that this is his office which is not true. When you go into this office and seminar complex, you will think that this is his office, unless you are like me and have been there before. Is it just me, or is this just a tad bit misleading?
Let's evaluate this, shall we? If he is misleading on his postcard about his licenses and qualifications and he is misleading on his office location, or lack thereof, then what else might he be misleading about? He has no qualms about implying investment expertise. He has no qualms about implying that he has an office in a four star office building. Can you really expect ethical objective advice from someone like this? I'll let you answer that question.
My wife was smart not to bet with me on this one. I was right on with my analysis. No investment adviser license, no affiliation with a broker-dealer and no registered representative license. Further no office! Only an insurance agent trying to sell everyone he meets annuities. This is just a wee bit of a conflict of interest, don't you think?.
Readers of this blog will know that doing business with banks, insurance agents and Wall Street firms benefits them, not you. The best choice is to use a registered investment adviser who does not work for a bank, who is an insurance agent only (not licensed to give investment advice) or who works for a Wall Street firm. Even if it is not me!
I will be able to look across the street and watch the herd go in for their steak dinners this week. The restaurant is right out my office window. If only they did a little research ahead of time, then they would have stayed away. Perhaps, they would have saved themselves a lot of headaches, too.
Until next time.
Showing posts with label FINRA Broker Check. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FINRA Broker Check. Show all posts
Monday, September 19, 2011
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Now You Can Check Out Your Unethical Broker or Insurance Agent
Go ahead. Go to FINRA Broker Check and run a check on your broker or securities licensed insurance agent. You may be very surprised at what you find. You will need to know their full name, or at least what their name starts with. It also helps to have the name of their brokerage firm. Just Google FINRA Broker Check and you will easily find the site.
Effective November 30th, 2009, the SEC approved a move by FINRA to put back in the system all the brokers who have had their securities licenses revoked or suspended.
They even put old Bernie Madoff back in there. He was missing in action for a little bit, but alas he mysteriously reappeared.
For posterity purposes, you can read the Bernard Madoff FINRA Broker Check report on the man himself and his firm, Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC, by going to my site at http://www.firstcoastplanning.com/ and choosing the Madoff button.
It is a good idea to check the background of your broker or insurance agent. I have a list of web sites in my book, Keep Your Assets Take My Advice, that you can find information on just about anyone with a few caveats. My book is also available through my web site via my web address listed above.
Contact me if you need help in doing background searches. I would be happy to assist.
Effective November 30th, 2009, the SEC approved a move by FINRA to put back in the system all the brokers who have had their securities licenses revoked or suspended.
They even put old Bernie Madoff back in there. He was missing in action for a little bit, but alas he mysteriously reappeared.
For posterity purposes, you can read the Bernard Madoff FINRA Broker Check report on the man himself and his firm, Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC, by going to my site at http://www.firstcoastplanning.com/ and choosing the Madoff button.
It is a good idea to check the background of your broker or insurance agent. I have a list of web sites in my book, Keep Your Assets Take My Advice, that you can find information on just about anyone with a few caveats. My book is also available through my web site via my web address listed above.
Contact me if you need help in doing background searches. I would be happy to assist.
Monday, November 23, 2009
FINRA Comes Up Shy of the Goal Line
FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in charge of protecting investors (yea right) is going to put brokers who've had their securities licenses suspended or revoked back in the FINRA Broker Check system starting November 30th, 2009. Previously, if you were a broker who lost your securities license, then all you had to do was wait two years and FINRA would automatically remove your record from the FINRA Broker Check system. Apparently, FINRA felt a little bit of heat after the Madoff Scandal by not having these rogue brokers in their system. You tell me. Why on earth was this loophole ever allowed in the first place?
Supposedly there are approximately 15,000 of these rogue brokers running around. That means there are about 300 per state if you do the math evenly across the fifty states. Of course, you can probably surmise that states such as California, New York, Florida & Massachusetts have more than 300 of these rogue brokers running around acting unethical still today. Then, if you further imagine that most of these rogue brokers huddle where the money is, then you probably have a good chance of doing business with one of these creeps if you live in South Florida, or Southern California or similar high net worth areas.
Take heart rogue brokers, especially those with criminal convictions. You have nothing to worry about. FINRA will not let anyone know that you have a criminal record. They are actually excluding the criminal convictions of rogue brokers in the FINRA Broker Check system. FINRA does not think it is relevant apparently. If this is not ass backwards, then I do not know what is. This just goes to show you that FINRA does whatever they want to do and protecting consumers is not one of the things they do, despite what their frilly commercials say.
I know a few rogue brokers and I am anxiously awaiting November 30th to see if these unethical people show up in the FINRA Broker Check system as advertised. I will have to see it to believe it. They put Bernard L. Madoff back in the FINRA Broker Check system to my surprise. The last time that I looked, he was not in there. Now that it doesn't matter, they put him back in there. Where were they when it did matter?
Supposedly there are approximately 15,000 of these rogue brokers running around. That means there are about 300 per state if you do the math evenly across the fifty states. Of course, you can probably surmise that states such as California, New York, Florida & Massachusetts have more than 300 of these rogue brokers running around acting unethical still today. Then, if you further imagine that most of these rogue brokers huddle where the money is, then you probably have a good chance of doing business with one of these creeps if you live in South Florida, or Southern California or similar high net worth areas.
Take heart rogue brokers, especially those with criminal convictions. You have nothing to worry about. FINRA will not let anyone know that you have a criminal record. They are actually excluding the criminal convictions of rogue brokers in the FINRA Broker Check system. FINRA does not think it is relevant apparently. If this is not ass backwards, then I do not know what is. This just goes to show you that FINRA does whatever they want to do and protecting consumers is not one of the things they do, despite what their frilly commercials say.
I know a few rogue brokers and I am anxiously awaiting November 30th to see if these unethical people show up in the FINRA Broker Check system as advertised. I will have to see it to believe it. They put Bernard L. Madoff back in the FINRA Broker Check system to my surprise. The last time that I looked, he was not in there. Now that it doesn't matter, they put him back in there. Where were they when it did matter?
Friday, October 2, 2009
FINRA Special Committee Report
The Special Committee that FINRA put in place to review their failures related to the Stanford and Madoff cases is now available for download. You can get it here:
http://www.finra.org/web/groups/corporate/@corp/documents/corporate/p120078.pdf
Here is a quote from the Executive Summary:
"FINRA’s examinations of the Madoff and Stanford firms did not uncover these frauds."
Lately, I have been jumping up and down over FINRA's failures. In this report, they actually claim no knowledge of Madoff being a registered investment adviser firm. Their reasoning was that Madoff claimed to have no customers, so there was nothing to examine. Madoff made FINRA examiners believe that he was only operating as a trading and market making firm.
Frankly, I find it hard to believe that everyone at FINRA can lay claim to the fact that Bernard Madoff did not have any clients as far as FINRA knew. It was common knowledge that Bernard Madoff and his wife often attended private parties of the rich and famous at which he solicited clients. Ask Donald Trump if he was ever solicited. It defies logic that FINRA examiners who were well entrenched examining multiple New York broker dealers were not aware of Bernard Madoff having clients. This simply does not compute.
Another quote from the report:
"FINRA examiners did not have direct access to the Madoff firm’s IARD entries."
Here again, FINRA is trying to bolster their position that they did not have access to Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the registered investment adviser firm. I found a FINRA Broker Check report on Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Here it is:
http://www.firstcoastplanning.com/Madoff FINRA Broker Check Report.htm
Open this report up and look at the bottom of the far left column on page 3. It says:
"This firm is a brokerage firm and an investment adviser firm. For more information about investment adviser firms, visit the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website at http://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov ."
Wait a minute. I am going crazy here or what? Did the Special Committee Report from FINRA not say that they did not know that Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC was a registered investment adviser? If what they say is true, then why does the FINRA Broker Check report on the firm, (not the person) Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC say that they know he is a registered investment adviser firm. It is right there in black and white.
Interestingly though, there is no FINRA Broker Check on Bernard Madoff the person. Normally, a record of a registered principal of a broker dealer is on the FINRA Broker Check site for two years. Where oh where did Bernie's FINRA Broker Check report go?
This brings me to another point that I reiterated before about the gaps in the FINRA Broker Check system. After two years, if you are working for a registered investment adviser firm and not a broker dealer, then there is not a record that you ever existed in the FINRA Broker Check system. Not only that, if you had your FINRA registered securities licenses suspended and it has also been more than two years, then there is no record in the FINRA Broker Check system. None.
My question is why was there ever such a huge loophole which is totally against the investing public? Supposedly, FINRA is "thinking" about correcting this gap.
Isn't it funny how a few weeks prior to the release of this Special Committee Report that FINRA is all over the airwaves with a commercial on how they are protecting investors? I know what they are doing. I have seen this public relations game plan before today used by other firms. Banks use this strategy all the time. When bad PR is coming out, then you blast the airwaves with warm and fuzzy commercials intent on softening the backlash against the firm.
The question is...do you feel better about FINRA watching out for you as an investor?
I for one do not.
http://www.finra.org/web/groups/corporate/@corp/documents/corporate/p120078.pdf
Here is a quote from the Executive Summary:
"FINRA’s examinations of the Madoff and Stanford firms did not uncover these frauds."
Lately, I have been jumping up and down over FINRA's failures. In this report, they actually claim no knowledge of Madoff being a registered investment adviser firm. Their reasoning was that Madoff claimed to have no customers, so there was nothing to examine. Madoff made FINRA examiners believe that he was only operating as a trading and market making firm.
Frankly, I find it hard to believe that everyone at FINRA can lay claim to the fact that Bernard Madoff did not have any clients as far as FINRA knew. It was common knowledge that Bernard Madoff and his wife often attended private parties of the rich and famous at which he solicited clients. Ask Donald Trump if he was ever solicited. It defies logic that FINRA examiners who were well entrenched examining multiple New York broker dealers were not aware of Bernard Madoff having clients. This simply does not compute.
Another quote from the report:
"FINRA examiners did not have direct access to the Madoff firm’s IARD entries."
Here again, FINRA is trying to bolster their position that they did not have access to Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the registered investment adviser firm. I found a FINRA Broker Check report on Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Here it is:
http://www.firstcoastplanning.com/Madoff FINRA Broker Check Report.htm
Open this report up and look at the bottom of the far left column on page 3. It says:
"This firm is a brokerage firm and an investment adviser firm. For more information about investment adviser firms, visit the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website at http://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov ."
Wait a minute. I am going crazy here or what? Did the Special Committee Report from FINRA not say that they did not know that Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC was a registered investment adviser? If what they say is true, then why does the FINRA Broker Check report on the firm, (not the person) Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC say that they know he is a registered investment adviser firm. It is right there in black and white.
Interestingly though, there is no FINRA Broker Check on Bernard Madoff the person. Normally, a record of a registered principal of a broker dealer is on the FINRA Broker Check site for two years. Where oh where did Bernie's FINRA Broker Check report go?
This brings me to another point that I reiterated before about the gaps in the FINRA Broker Check system. After two years, if you are working for a registered investment adviser firm and not a broker dealer, then there is not a record that you ever existed in the FINRA Broker Check system. Not only that, if you had your FINRA registered securities licenses suspended and it has also been more than two years, then there is no record in the FINRA Broker Check system. None.
My question is why was there ever such a huge loophole which is totally against the investing public? Supposedly, FINRA is "thinking" about correcting this gap.
Isn't it funny how a few weeks prior to the release of this Special Committee Report that FINRA is all over the airwaves with a commercial on how they are protecting investors? I know what they are doing. I have seen this public relations game plan before today used by other firms. Banks use this strategy all the time. When bad PR is coming out, then you blast the airwaves with warm and fuzzy commercials intent on softening the backlash against the firm.
The question is...do you feel better about FINRA watching out for you as an investor?
I for one do not.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Bernard Madoff is Missing from FINRA Broker Check
I wonder why after going to Saveandinvest.org (see prior post) and following through to the FINRA Broker Check site, I simply cannot find any information on Bernard L. Madoff. There is no information available. I know his name. I know his firm CRD # 2625. I know his individual CRD # 316687. I know the name of his brokerage firm, Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, LLC. However, for some strange reason, I cannot find a FINRA Broker Check report on Mr. Bernard L. Madoff.
This points out a gaping problem in the FINRA Broker Check site in my opinion. Anyone and everyone who has ever had disciplinary actions while a FINRA registered representative and after they leave FINRA firms, should have their backgrounds disclosed. Just because he is in prison, makes no difference. Think about the people who maybe were just barred from the industry. All they have to do is wait for FINRA to drop their disciplinary history from the FINRA Broker Check site after two years, then they can go back to stealing money from investors.
Please tell me where I am wrong.
This points out a gaping problem in the FINRA Broker Check site in my opinion. Anyone and everyone who has ever had disciplinary actions while a FINRA registered representative and after they leave FINRA firms, should have their backgrounds disclosed. Just because he is in prison, makes no difference. Think about the people who maybe were just barred from the industry. All they have to do is wait for FINRA to drop their disciplinary history from the FINRA Broker Check site after two years, then they can go back to stealing money from investors.
Please tell me where I am wrong.
Are You Kidding Me? Saveandinvest.org
This morning while reading the newspaper, my wife pointed out that there was a commercial on television talking about protecting investors with direction to a web site call http://www.saveandinvest.org/. My first thought was... "have we finally found something good for investors?" To my dismay, it is a re-direct to FINRA's web site. FINRA is the organization behind the failure to catch Bernie Madoff, though you would not know it based on what is going on right now.
Here is the problem with FINRA and their Broker/Check site. If you were a licensed FINRA registered representative and you had your securities licensed revoked more than two years ago, then you do not have to worry about being found on the FINRA Broker Check site. FINRA gladly removes your entire corrupt licensing history automatically for you. They gladly protect their bad apples with this process.
Now, when I and everyone who has ever had a FINRA license knows this, it is incomprehensible to me that FINRA would put up a re-direct web site call http://www.saveandinvest.org/ with the pretense of protecting investors. Are you kidding me? They are not protecting investors. They are protecting their former members with bad disciplinary histories.
Bernard Madoff and FINRA
Bernard L. Madoff was the name of his NASD broker/dealer before he changed the name to Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC on January 1, 2001. Bernard Madoff broker/dealers were registered as broker dealers with the NASD/FINRA from March 25, 1960 until they closed him down on June 17th, 2009, the official closure date. What I would like to see is who from FINRA visited Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, LLC as a regulatory and enforcement person during the last 15 years. Apparently, someone from the NASD visited him. In the enclosed FINRA Broker Check report, it shows disciplinary actions initiated by the NASD(FINRA's predecessor organization) on July 6, 2005, February 26, 2007, February 27, 2007 and August 27, 2008. As you can read in this report, the issue was related to quotes. Apparently, he was not submitting quotes to the stock exchange for all of these purchases he was doing. Couldn't these FINRA gurus ask themselves the question, "maybe he is not submitting quotes to the exchange because he is not really doing any trading."
I am deeply afraid that the 400 odd page report lambasting the SEC is what was put forward to keep the limelight off of FINRA. FINRA has made overtures publicly that they want to be the self regulatory organization for investment advisers and broker/dealers. They did such a good job with Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, LLC. I guess they think they earned it.
Here is the problem with FINRA and their Broker/Check site. If you were a licensed FINRA registered representative and you had your securities licensed revoked more than two years ago, then you do not have to worry about being found on the FINRA Broker Check site. FINRA gladly removes your entire corrupt licensing history automatically for you. They gladly protect their bad apples with this process.
Now, when I and everyone who has ever had a FINRA license knows this, it is incomprehensible to me that FINRA would put up a re-direct web site call http://www.saveandinvest.org/ with the pretense of protecting investors. Are you kidding me? They are not protecting investors. They are protecting their former members with bad disciplinary histories.
Bernard Madoff and FINRA
Bernard L. Madoff was the name of his NASD broker/dealer before he changed the name to Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC on January 1, 2001. Bernard Madoff broker/dealers were registered as broker dealers with the NASD/FINRA from March 25, 1960 until they closed him down on June 17th, 2009, the official closure date. What I would like to see is who from FINRA visited Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, LLC as a regulatory and enforcement person during the last 15 years. Apparently, someone from the NASD visited him. In the enclosed FINRA Broker Check report, it shows disciplinary actions initiated by the NASD(FINRA's predecessor organization) on July 6, 2005, February 26, 2007, February 27, 2007 and August 27, 2008. As you can read in this report, the issue was related to quotes. Apparently, he was not submitting quotes to the stock exchange for all of these purchases he was doing. Couldn't these FINRA gurus ask themselves the question, "maybe he is not submitting quotes to the exchange because he is not really doing any trading."
I am deeply afraid that the 400 odd page report lambasting the SEC is what was put forward to keep the limelight off of FINRA. FINRA has made overtures publicly that they want to be the self regulatory organization for investment advisers and broker/dealers. They did such a good job with Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, LLC. I guess they think they earned it.
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