Articles Tagged with Master Limited Partnerships

SSEK Investigating Financial Advisor That Recommended Unsuitable MLPs To Investors 

Shepherd, Smith, Edwards & Kantas, a law firm specializing in representing wronged investors, is looking into allegations against financial advisors that concentrated their clients in Alerian MLP ETF (“AMLP”) and other oil & gas related master limited partnerships (“MLPs”) amid the significant downturn in oil prices since February.  

What Is The AMLP Fund? 

The Drop In Oil Prices Could Lead To Losses For Midstream MLP Investors 

With oil and energy stocks continuing to fall – Saudi Arabia’s threat to globally distribute millions of barrels of crude oil in order to win the oil price war over the United States and Russia has only exacerbated these declines. Investors may be wondering – what does this mean for Midstream Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs)? 

At Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas (SSEK Law Firm), our MLP investment fraud lawyers work with investors that have sustained significant losses caused by fraud or negligence. 

Last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced plans to stop oil and gas pipelines from being able to structure themselves as Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) in order to get an income tax allowance for rates that are cost-of-service. Under the existing model, MLP customers pay a price that is regulated, part of which takes care of corporate tax charges.

Master Limited Partnerships aren’t required to pay corporate taxes since they pass through entities that distribute pre-tax earnings to unitholders. The latter are the ones that pay the taxes.

Any new rule related to this matter would likely not go into effect until 2020. Still, the government agency’s news affected trading on a number of MLPs, including the Alerian MLP ETF (exchange-traded fund), Energy Transfer Partners, TC PipeLines, Williams Partners, Crossamerica Partners, and several others.

An investor who is retired and suffering from health issues is seeking $1M from Morgan Stanley (MS). The investor, a former inventor, claims that the broker-dealer did not properly supervise the financial adviser who handled his multi-million dollar account.  He filed a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority claim and is accusing the firm of breach of fiduciary, negligence, unauthorized trading, excessive trading, fraudulent inducement, and significant tax liability.

The investor believes that over-concentation in risky sectors and over trading in too many individual stocks occurred, causing significant damage to his retirement funds. Among the investments that were involved were oil and gas investments, including Master Limited Partnerships. The claimant claims that Morgan Stanley hid the risks involved, even as the financial adviser engaged in a purportedly deceptive investment strategy. The result was that the investor’s account became heavily concentrated in risky investments.

The alleged broker negligence also purportedly caused tax consequences for the investor while benefiting Morgan Stanley with transactions costs of over $1M. The unsuitable taxable gains that were created by  led to investment losses for the investor, even as the broker claimed that the investor’s account was profiting.

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