The White Law Group, LLC, a South Florida securities fraud, broker fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection and Chapter 7 bankruptcy law firm based in Boca Raton, Florida.

Posts tagged ‘Edward Jones’

Chicago Securities Fraud / Investment Fraud Lawyer

Chicago Securities Fraud / Investment Fraud Attorney

Are you seeking to recover investment losses incurred as a result of the fraud or negligence of your financial professional or brokerage firm?  The White Law Group may be able to help.

The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida. With over 30 years of securities law experience, including experience working at FINRA (f/k/a the NASD) and the SEC, The White Law Group has the expertise to help investors defrauded in securities, investment and financial business transactions.

The White Law Group exclusively represents investors seeking to recover investment losses incurred as a result of the fraud or negligence of their financial professional or broker-dealer.  We review investment fraud cases involving all FINRA registered broker-dealers and have handled cases against most of the major broker-dealers, including Morgan Stanley, Wachovia, Wells Fargo, Banc of America, Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney, UBS, Edward Jones, Raymond James, Securities America, Royal Alliance, RBC Capital and Ameriprise.

The securities cases we review often involve some form of the following type of securities fraud:  unsuitability, churning (or excessive trading), unauthorized trading, failure to execute, improper use of margin, and overconcentration (holding off an inordinately large position of one investment).

We review tons of securities cases per year involving all manner and scope of securities frauds, but it seems that many of the cases that we review often involve the same general types of investment products.  Interestingly, these investment products are also the same products that pay financial advisors the highest commission.  The investment products that we most see being abused in reviewing securities fraud cases are cases involving REITs, variable annuities and variable universal life policies, Promissory Notes, Tenants-In-Common (TICs), and mutual funds (particularly proprietary mutual funds – when a brokerage firm pushes its own mutual funds (i.e. a UBS financial advisor recommending UBS mutual funds)).

To speak to an experienced securities attorney, please call The White Law Group at 312-238-9650.  For more information on the firm, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.

Securities Fraud Investigation Involving CIT InterNotes

The White Law Group is investigating securities fraud claims on behalf of investors involving CIT InterNotes.

The sale of CIT InterNotes to individual retail clients resulted from institutional investors growing reluctance to lend to CIT Group Inc. as they became increasingly aware of CIT’s deteriorating financial condition. By selling to individual retail clients, CIT was able to effectively offload risk to individual investors.

CIT Group issued these debt instruments and they were marketed by brokerage firms to the general public as low risk and conservative. A key selling point of the CIT InterNotes was the “death put” feature (also known as the “survivor’s option”).  This provision allowed the heirs of a bondholder to sell the bond back to the issuer at face value when the bondholder died. However, this “benefit” is contingent upon CIT’s continued financial health which, given CIT’s collapse, may have rendered the death put valueless.

While these investments appealed to many elderly and retired investors (because of the alleged safety and the “survivor’s option”), the investments were not suitable for retired investors and many investors have suffered catastrophic losses.

The sales of the CIT InterNotes by brokerage firms are now under scrutiny by FINRA. Specifically, FINRA is examining the sales practices of brokerage firms who sold CIT Internotes to their customers to determine whether the proper risk disclosures were made.

Various brokerage firms marketed and sold CIT InterNotes to investors including Banc of America, Incapital, Wachovia Securities, Wells Fargo Advisors, Edward Jones, UBS, RBC Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and Raymond James.

If you have questions regarding CIT InterNote investments you made, or if you believe that you have been the victim of a securities fraud, The White Law Group may be able to help. The White Law Group is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration and investor protection law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida. The firm has over 30 years of experience reviewing securities fraud claims throughout the country. To contact the firm, please call 312-238-9650.

For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.

Investigation Into Possible Securities Fraud Involving Former Raymond James Financial Advisor Denis Johnson Of Naples, Florida.

The White Law Group is investigating a possible securities fraud claim on behalf an investor involving former Raymond James financial advisor Denis Johnson.

Specifically, we are investigating whether Mr. Johnson improperly recommended that the retired investor invest a significant portion of her life savings in a Jackson National variable annuity. Not only did the variable annuity lock up the investor’s money (because of the high surrender charges), but it paid a substantial commission to the broker – which was likely his motivation in recommending it.

According to his FINRA Broker Reports (CRD), Denis Johnson is currently a registered representative with Lincoln Financial Services Corporation. In addition to working at Lincoln Financial and Raymond James, he has also worked as a stockbroker at Edward Jones and ING Financial Partners, all in the Naples, Florida area.

If you have any information that may assist The White Law Group in its investigation, please contact the firm’s Chicago, Illinois office at 312-238-9650.

The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida. With over 30 years of securities law experience, including experience working at FINRA (f/k/a the NASD) and the SEC, The White Law Group has the expertise to help investors defrauded in securities, investment and financial business transactions. The firm reviews securities fraud cases throughout the country and Florida, including reviewing securities fraud cases in Naples, Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, Cape Coral, Marco Island, Sanibel, Captiva, Punta Gorda, and Port Charlotte.

For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.

Investigation Into Possible Securities Fraud Involving Sub-Prime Issues Such As American Home Mortgage, New Century Financial Corp., and Novastar

The White Law Group is investigating the appropriateness of financial advisor’s recommendations that investors purchase sub-prime issues like American Home Mortgage, New Century Financial Corp., Novastar and other similar companies.

In many cases, these investments were pitched by stockbrokers and financial advisors at Merrill Lynch, Wachovia (n/k/a Wells Fargo), Smith Barney, AG Edwards, Edward Jones, and Morgan Stanley as safe and secure investments. Unfortunately, these representations proved to be false and clients suffered significant and sometimes complete investment losses.

American Home Mortgage has even been the subject of a class action which alleges that the company, contrary to its public posture as a prime mortgage lender, abandoned its underwriting guidelines to drive growth by issuing high-risk loans to borrowers with poor credit.

Furthermore, the class action alleges that mortgage loans that American Home sold on the secondary market and which the Company was then forced to repurchase due to their low quality were held by the Company for full value in its investment portfolio, rather than being sold at a loss or marked down.

The White Law Group is investigating whether broker-dealers’ recommendations that retail investors invest in these sub-prime companies were appropriate in light of the extraordinary risk involved, and whether these firms failed to perform the necessary due diligence to determine the risk involved in investing in such companies prior to recommending that their clients invest.

If you have any information that may assist us in our investigation into possible securities fraud involving the sale of sub-prime issues such as American Home Mortgage, New Century Financial Corp., and Novastar by financial advisors, please contact The White Law Group at 312-238-9650.

The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida. With over 30 years of securities law experience, including experience working at FINRA (f/k/a the NASD) and the SEC, The White Law Group has the expertise to help investors defrauded in securities, investment and financial business transactions. For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.