Articles Posted in Firm News

Banks Law Office salutes Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and ten other Senators who are pressing the SEC to finish four overdue financial reforms outlined in the Dodd -Frank. Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act . These reforms are designed to help prevent another financial crisis and to make markets safer for investors and the…

A Bloomberg article released yesterday considers the results of a three-month investigation into 401(k) rollovers for retiring employees (Retirees Suffer as $300 Billion 401(k) Rollover Boom Enriches Brokers). The article focuses on former Royal Alliance brokers Kathleen Tarr and Richard McCollam, whose clients included hundreds of retiring AT&T employees. According to FINRA’s BrokerCheck, dozens of…

On June 12, 2014, Bob Banks spoke to a group that included registered investment advisors, accountants and attorneys. His talk was entitled “A Uniform Fiduciary Standard For Brokers and RIAs: Is It Coming And Does It Matter?” In his presentation, Bob Banks discussed the differences between the suitability standard commonly applied to stockbrokers and the…

Banks Law learned this week that we prevailed on all major issues in a hotly contested 8 day JAMS (Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services) arbitration we tried in New Orleans in February. The case involved the operation and management of an investment advisory firm and a hedge fund. The total award exceeds $1.2 million, plus…

It is still going to be too easy for arbitrators to grant expungment when they only hear the broker’s unchallenged testimony and evidence Robert Banks was quoted today in Investment News Daily commenting on a proposed rule that FINRA sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The rule would prevent FINRA members who…

Investor Defender attorney Darlene Pasieczny was recognized recently at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA), in Orlando, Florida. Pasieczny was commended for her work on PIABA’s SRO Committee, which monitors FINRA and SEC arbitration rule-making proposals that are of significant interest to the PIABA membership and investing public. With…

Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass, who was instrumental in FINRA’s development of its BrokerCheck database and a proponent of investor protection, issued a letter today to FINRA’s Chairman Richard Ketchum and forwarded to SEC Chair Mary Jo White. Senator Markey’s letter criticizes improper expungement of arbitration awards from BrokerCheck records, a practice that the Public…

The high profile case featured today in an abc exclusive video shows that investors feel some sense of resolution knowing that Walter and Kelly Ng (the duo who reportedly devised a scheme that robbed investors of millions of dollars), might do time for their alleged crime. However, it remains to be seen if investors will…

Hats off to the Investment Advisory Committee for recommending a fiduciary standard for retail brokerage firms. A fiduciary standard simply requires that the fiduciary place the client’s interest first. I have yet to see a financial advisor, however they are registered or licensed, disclaim that obligation while they are giving advice and getting compensated to…