breach of fiduciary duty Tag Archives

What is Breach of Fiduciary Duty by a Stockbroker?

Published on: September 19, 2022 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

When Your Financial Advisor Fails To Act In Your Best Interests

Your registered broker-dealer owes you a fiduciary obligation to act in your best interests. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. Instead, your financial advisor might have unsuitably recommended an investment or trading strategy that was too risky for your risk tolerance level or engaged in unauthorized trading in your brokerage account without your permission. You also may have been the victim of outright broker fraud in which misappropriation or theft was involved. This is where our securities attorneys step in and help you.

Bottom line, financial advisors and their brokerage firms who breach their fiduciary duty to customers are placing them at risk of suffering significant investment losses. This is why breach of fiduciary is often what our securities lawyers hear as one of the most common claims made by investors seeking to pursue damages against a broker-dealer.

SEC Sanctions Voya Financial Advisors $23M Over Conflicts That Cost Customers

Published on: January 4, 2021 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Broker-Dealer’s RIA Accused of Violating Fiduciary Duty

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Voya Financial Advisors have arrived at a $22.9M settlement, including $13.9M in restitution and interest to customers that were harmed. Voya Financial Advisors is an independent brokerage firm that is run as both a broker-dealer and a registered investment advisor (RIA).

As a brokerage firm, Voya Financial Advisors charges commissions. As an RIA, it charges fees. The regulator contends that conflicts at Voya’s registered investment advisor arm caused the firm to violate and breach its fiduciary obligation to advisory clients. Voya’s RIA oversees nearly $16B in assets for customers.

Investor Accuses Kestra Broker Stephen Curry in $7.7M FINRA Complaint

Published on: August 19, 2020 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Breach of Fiduciary Duty Involving Retirement Fund Alleged

Stephen Fergus Curry, a longtime Kestra Advisory Services registered representative, is named in a nearly $7.8M Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) complaint accusing him of breach of fiduciary duty over services performed related to a retirement fund.

Curry has been with Kestra for 13 years. First, he was with Kestra Investment Services and now he’s with Kestra Advisory Services. He also is a registered investment adviser. Before he joined Kestra, Curry was a Waterstone Financial Group broker from 2006 to 2007. He also worked as an investment advisor with NFP Advisor Services from 2007 to 2016.