News arrived recently that LPL Financial has once again run afoul of the agency that regulates the US securities industry, FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority). This time, LPL was slapped with a whopping $950,000 fine for allegedly failing adequately to supervise sales of alternative investment products like non-traded REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts), oil and gas partnerships, business development companies (BDCs), hedge funds, and managed futures.
Alternative Investments Have Concentration Limits
FINRA found that from January 1, 2008 to July 1, 2012, LPL Financial was deficient in its supervision and review of especially the concentration limits for investors set forth by the alternative investments themselves, as well as limits that LPL internally set for itself. In their offering documents, many alt investments like REITs will describe concentration and suitability recommendations/requirements for investors. Unfortunately, according to FINRA, LPL’s manual process, its automated system, and its supervisory staff all failed to properly take into consideration suitability standards when evaluating alternative investments.
In addition to the $950,000 penalty, FINRA has directed LPL to conduct a complete review of its policies and procedures, oversight, supervision, and training related to alt investments.
As FINRA pointed out it in its press release about the disciplinary action against LPL Financial, broker-dealers who sell alt investments to customers must evolve a supervisory system to ensure that these customers are not exposed to undue risk in their accounts. They must also meet the suitability requirements obtaining in each state, for each product, and for their own company.
Lack of supervision of this kind is a very common form of broker misconduct. If you or anyone you know has suffered losses due to unsupervised alternative investments such as REITs, you may be able to recover through the FINRA arbitration process. Please contact us immediately for a free consultation at 1-877-462-3330 or via email by clicking here and sending us a note.