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TAG | Equity-indexed annunities

Jun/11

6

Broker-Dealers Often Keep Insurance Licenses After Being Fired

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In an article from InvestmentNews.com, May 29, 2011, Bruce Kelly writes that Neal Smalbach was fired by a broker-dealer in 2008 for selling securities while he was unregistered, an infraction that got him suspended by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) for six months, according to the organization’s BrokerCheck system. It was the second time that a securities firm had let him go. Though he no longer had a securities license, Mr. Smalbach still had a license to sell insurance, and made good use of it — at least for himself, authorities said.

Kelly writes that on April 29, Mr. Smalbach was arrested in Florida by the Pinellas County sheriff and charged with one count of insurance fraud and one count of organized fraud. Each count carries a maximum of five years in prison, along with a potential $5,000 fine. The charges of insurance fraud against Mr. Smalbach, who also has 37 pending customer disputes from his time as a broker, according to BrokerCheck, highlight a persistent problem in the investment advice business:

Registered representatives who permanently or temporarily lose their license to sell stocks, bonds and mutual funds often retain a license to sell insurance.

Although state agencies that regulate insurance agents and securities brokers try to work together to keep an eye on brokers who get fired from either side of the industry, regulators are sometimes limited in their authority because of a lack of information sharing about reps and agents, observers said.

A common criticism among registered reps is that insurance agents who lose a license to sell securities products often sell equity-indexed annuities, an insurance product that is nonetheless marketed as an investment that can compete with a mutual fund or variable annuity.

“It’s been an issue, and still is, among states,” said Joseph Borg, director of the Alabama Securities Commission. “If you’ve been kicked out of one end of the financial markets, you probably don’t need to be in another.”

According to the InvestmentNews.com article, Mr. Smalbach, 48, was selling mortgage insurance policies that promise to pay the balance of a policyholder’s mortgage in the event that he or she dies, according to Jeremy Powers, an assistant state attorney in Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit. But instead of mortgage insurance, Mr. Smalbach’s clients were, in fact, sold whole-life policies that were worth no more than $20,000.

“Somebody who’s had the level of problems that [Mr.] Smalbach appears to have had would create a risk for consumers,” Mr. Powers said. “The activities alleged in this case are pretty serious and had the potential to create multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars in victim losses.”

 Smalbach, whose sales practices were profiled last month by the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, serve as a backdrop to efforts by lawmakers in Washington and regulators across the country to create a single fiduciary standard for investment advisers, registered reps and insurance agents. This year, a law went into effect in Florida that gives the state’s Department of Financial Services the power to revoke an insurance agent’s license immediately if the agent has his or her securities license revoked.

“Fraud is fraud,” said Nina Ashley, a department spokeswoman.

Kelly reminds us that when confronted with a broker whose securities license had been pulled — but who maintained an insurance license — regulators’ hands are, at times, tied. To take actions against a broker’s insurance license, Ms. Ashley said a specific insurance violation has to be found. “That didn’t always exist,” she said.

Florida already has used the new law to revoke the insurance license of a broker who misrepresented information when selling securities to a senior citizen, Ms. Ashley said. In February, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation permanently barred Jeffrey Donner on charges that he failed to disclose to clients that their accounts would automatically be billed advisory fees of 30% annualized, according to a statement from the agency. Approximately $40,000 in management fees were deducted from clients’ accounts. While Mr. Donner neither admitted nor denied the findings, Florida regulators revoked his insurance license this month according to the InvestmentNews.com article.

THEY ARE FINDING LOOPHOLES

We’ve learned that Mr. Smalbach, however, still has a license to sell insurance products such as life and health policies, and variable annuities, according to the Florida Department of Financial Services’ website.

The broker in question exploited another loophole in the law when he sold stock in a firm called Transfer Technology International Corp., whose shares are currently listed at less than a penny a share. At least a dozen elderly investors, some in their 80s and 90s, bought nearly $1 million of the stock from Mr. Smalbach, according to the St. Petersburg Times. Although he didn’t have a securities license, Mr. Smalbach was an employee of Transfer Technology and could sell shares in the company to accredited investors legally, the newspaper reported.

THEY ARE SMOOTH OPERATORS

Bruce Kelly writes that one longtime client of Mr. Smalbach who invested in the Wesley Chapel, Fla.-based company was Bob Fox, 78, of Sebring, Fla. A client of Mr. Smalbach’s for over a decade, Mr. Fox said he has lost $100,000 in his Transfer Technology investment.

“He was a really smooth talker,” Mr. Fox said, adding that Mr. Smalbach often hurried him through paperwork when buying an investment.

Mr. Smalbach’s former accountant, Robert Ferreira, corroborated Mr. Fox’s statement said the ex-broker often rushed clients through the process of buying investment products, including variable annuities.

“His method was to say, “Sign here, fill in this and that — I’m in a hurry and will fill in the rest at the office,’” Mr. Ferreira said.

If you or a family member have purchased policies through Neal Smalbach or other brokers and experienced a similar situation, contact an insurance fraud attorney for a free consultation on how to potentially recover your investment losses.  To speak with an attorney, call 888-760-6552, or visit stockmarketlawsuit.com. 

We stand up and fight for the rights of consumers. Soreide Law Group, PLLC, representing Insurance Fraud Victims in Federal Court, State Court and before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”).

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Feb/11

24

Big Promises but Skimpy Returns Plague Equity-Indexed Annuities.

Comments off · Posted by admin in FINRA

AARP’s website posted an article from The Kiplinger aimed at the baby-boomer investor. The article, written by Kimberly Lankford goes on to say that the pitch is compelling: Participate in the stock market’s upside and avoid the downside. That’s how sales agents who collect lucrative commissions peddle equity-indexed annuities. Their targets are baby-boomers who are trying to rebuild their nest eggs and are now fearful of the stock market and frustrated with bonds’ low interest rates.

Most equity-indexed annuity contracts promise that you will never lose money, even if the market index declines. But these costly products give you only a portion of the market’s gains, and their protection against loss is minimal. If you’re looking for principal protection, consider buying a deferred variable annuity with guaranteed benefits.

The Fuzzy math. Despite the title, equity-indexed annuities don’t actually invest in the stock market. Your returns may be loosely based on a market index, but you get a lot less than investors in the actual index would receive because of caps on returns and other limitations.

For example, if Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index returns 26% this year, as it did in 2009, investors in some of the Phoenix Companies’ equity-indexed annuities would receive just 6.5% or less — fairly typical for these products. Some equity-indexed annuities offer higher caps but reduce your returns by other means, such as restricting your participation rate to 80% of an index’s increase or subtracting a fixed percentage (a spread rate) from the index’s return. Worst of all, these limitations can change even after you’ve purchased the annuity. Plus, you may be locked in to the investment for seven to ten years and pay a penalty if you cash out early.

Indexed annuities are regulated as insurance products, not securities, so they offer few of the usual required disclosures to help you decipher their fees, calculate performance or even figure out how the money is invested. And the new financial-reform bill would keep it that way; it bars the Securities and Exchange Commission from implementing a rule to oversee them. 

Call a Securities Arbitration Lawyer for a free consultation on how to recover your losses.  To speak with an attorney, call 888-760-6552, or visit www.stockmarketlawsuit.com. Soreide Law Group, PLLC., representing investors nationwide before FINRA  the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

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Jan/11

23

FINRA Fines and Sanctions Leonard Raymond Connell

Comments off · Posted by admin in FINRA

Leonard Raymond Connell (CRD #1495240, Registered Representative, Las Vegas, Nevada)submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which he was fined $5,000 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for three months.
The fine must be paid either immediately upon Connell’s reassociation with a FINRA
member firm following his suspension, or prior to the filing of any application or request for relief from any statutory disqualification, whichever is earlier. Without admitting or denying the findings, Connell consented to the described sanctions and to the entry of findings that he engaged in outside business activities without providing prompt written notice to his member firm.

The findings stated that Connell sold equity-indexed annuities
(EIAs) to investors, which included customers of his firm, through insurance companies, with investments totaling approximately $3,490,000, and Connell received commissions of approximately $91,030.00 from these sales. The findings also stated that during the relevant period, the firm prohibited its representatives from selling EIAs as an outside business activity.
The suspension is in effect from December 20, 2010, through March 19, 2011. (FINRA Case
#2009020402601)

This information was obtained from FINRA’s website.

If you feel you have been a victim of these alleged fraudulent schemes of  Leonard Raymond Connell , call a Securities Arbitration Lawyer for a free consultation on how to recover your losses.  To speak with an attorney, call 888-760-6552, or visit www.stockmarketlawsuit.com. Soreide Law Group, PLLC., representing investors nationwide before FINRA  the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

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