Regulation and Compliance issues for Wealth Professionals can be challenging to navigate especially when the SEC is involved. Catch the latest news and analysis on compliance updates that impact financial advisors.
The charges against Michael and David Sztrom were filed late last week and are one of two complaints against advisors related to a California-based RIA.
As chair of Maryland's Financial Consumer Protection Commission, Gary Gensler advocated for a client-first fiduciary standard for broker/dealers as well as 'anyone who holds themselves out as an advisor.'
Justin Robert King was offering interests in his company, Elevate Investment Fund, when there was no such legal entity, leading to nearly $4 million in investor losses, according to SEC allegations.
According to the commission, the duo claimed a "spiritual revelation" had yielded an algorithm for a high-yielding trading platform, but they were just two con men who met in prison.
The agency has continued to push back the resumption of physical arbitration and mediation proceedings because of COVID-19, though hearings can be held via teleconferencing or Zoom.
The lapses in record retention, fingerprinting and failing to oversee the drafting of consolidated reports led to 1.5 million costumer communications being deleted and a former rep running a Ponzi scheme, FINRA claimed.
The former TDAI executive spent the last days of 2020 studying for his CFP exam and taking a hard look at the regulatory landscape that faces financial planners in 2021.
The settlement is the first action coming from the regulatory agency's 2019 self-reporting initiative for failures to oversee 529 plan share class recommendations.
