According to a survey issued by Morningstar Inc., financial advisers may be using the wrong benchmark when evaluating and choosing alternative investments. The research firm and Barron’s magazine questioned 301 advisers and 372 institutional investors. Right now, the most popular way that advisers assess their investments’ performance is with a…
The Securities and Exchange Commission is ordering the comptroller and principals of SignalPoint Asset Management to pay $215,000 for breach of fiduciary. The regulator claims that the Missouri-based registered investment adviser breached its fiduciary duty when it did not tell clients about certain conflicts of interest. The SEC says that…
TL Ventures Inc. has agreed to pay almost $300,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges. The regulator contends that the Pennsylvania-based private equity firm violated “pay-to-play” rules for advisory fees it continued to get from state pension funds and the city of Philadelphia even after an associate made campaign…
The SEC has submitted an order against Dennis J. Malouf accusing him of investment adviser fraud. The regulator says that he allegedly took trading commissions that he wasn’t entitled to for himself. He was in charge of UASNM’s bond trading operation between 2008 and May 2011. Malouf, who was the…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is temporarily shutting down investment adviser Scott Valente and his ELIV Group LLC. The regulator is charging both with defrauding about 80 investors of $8.8 million. The regulator says that Valente promised huge returns to customers, who are mostly from the Warwick and Albany…
The Texas State Securities Board has reprimanded Senator Ken Paxton and ordered him pay a $1,000 fine for soliciting investment clients even though he wasn’t properly registered. According to the board’s disciplinary order, Paxton, who is running for state attorney general, violated the Texas Securities Act. Under the Act’s Section…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a financial fraud case against Total Wealth Management Inc., an investment advisory firm based in Southern California. The regulator is accusing the firm of getting undisclosed kickbacks over investments recommended to clients. It is also alleging breach of fiduciary duty. According to the…
According to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority CEO Richard G. Ketchum, the regulator no longer wants to be given oversight over financial advisers. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Ketchum said the self-regulatory agency had done all it could to be granted authority over investment advisers and has decided to stop…
The Securities and Exchange Commission says that investment advisers are allowed to publish comments from the public about their services on an independent social media website but that they must include both negative and positive reviews in unedited form. Also, the adviser must not have any affiliation with the site…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has unveiled its Never-Before-Examined Initiative, which will allow it to look at registered investment advisers that have yet to be examined. The SEC shared details of its plan in a letter to these unexamined advisers, of which there are about 4,000. Some of these firms…