Investment Litigation Blog

FINRA’s 2015 Exam Priorities Kudos to FINRA (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) for issuing its 2015 “exam priorities” letter on January 6, 2015. FINRA is the self-regulatory organization of the financial services industry that oversees the conduct of securities brokerage firms and their licensed stock brokers. Part of FINRA’s job is to examine brokerage firms…

On December 12, 2014, NASAA presented an amicus brief supporting the Respondents in the Texas Supreme Court case Arnold v. Life Partners, Inc. The brief argued that that life insurance contracts sold as life settlement contracts to third parties as investments during an insured’s lifetime should be classified as investment contracts under Texas law, and…

FINRA is investigating SWS Financial Services for failure to properly supervise sales of variable annuities. Variable Annuities are complicated investments and should only be purchased after careful scrutiny. If you’ve purchased a variable annuity with SWS Financial Services or on the advice of any financial professional please contact us with your concerns. We might be…

A recent FINRA Alert was released warning investors about the risks inherent with municipal bond purchases. It has come to our attention that certain people were advised to purchase these bonds without understanding the risks involved.  If you purchased municipal bonds on the advice of a financial advisor, broker, accountant, or attorney, and were not advised of…

We represent 17 clients seeking to recover losses from this fund. Please contact our office immediately if you have losses.

NASAA recently posted an alert for investors about energy investments. We have the full alert posted here. The information below comes directly from their report. We share NASAA’s mission to protect investors nationwide. With energy demands and a desire for energy independence increasing globally, investments in traditional and alternative energy resources are being promoted more often…

The sellers of structured CDs categorize them as “fixed income” although they are dependent on the performance of underlying equities or baskets of equities, raising questions (to begin with) about their suitability for retired investors and the role of structured CDs in any portfolio that is properly asset-allocated. FDIC protection of the principal is a…

On October 29, the Wall Street Journal reported that American Realty Capital Properties Inc., is in hot water. The Securities and Exchange Commission will open an inquiry into ARCP  and two top executives have resigned. It has already been reported that,  “some inaccuracies were the result of intentional errors and some intentionally weren’t corrected.“ Banks Law Office has…

REITs are financial products with underlying real-estate assets expected to appreciate, assets that might include, for instance, apartment buildings, developments, mortgages, etc. Non-traded REITs are not freely traded on any exchange. Investors must rely on the issuing company for evaluations, which are difficult if not impossible to independently verify. As a category, the reputation of…

These notes are one example of a product with complex yield calculations based on the performance of a single traded equity, Apple stock in this case, which is piling risk on risk for a start. They offer a relatively lucrative coupon rate along the way, which is attractive in the short term, but the ultimate…