The sudden resignation last week of John Sykes, chairman of GunnAllen Holdings Inc., has raised questions about the future of the company and its broker-dealer, GunnAllen Financial Inc.
In an apparent first, a registered representative and his individual practice have been sued in a potential class action stemming from oil-and-gas private placements that the SEC claims were fraudulent.
The real estate boom and bust is hanging over many independent broker-dealers and their financial advisers as the market for non-traded REITs soured this year.
Financial advisers with Securities America Inc. continued to sell offerings of allegedly faulty private placements after an executive at the firm sounded the alarm bell about the deals last year, according to a recently filed lawsuit.
They used to ride desks and flog stocks, but now some Wall Street refugees are choosing to walk a beat and chase bad guys.
At the same time that LPL Holdings Inc. and the three broker-dealers it bought from Pacific Life Insurance Co. were filing suit against the insurer, LPL was reaching out to its advisers to reassure them that the dispute wouldn't affect their businesses.
They used to ride desks and flog stocks, but now some Wall Street refugees are choosing to walk a beat and chase bad guys.
The dispute between LPL Investment Holdings Inc. and Pacific Life Insurance Co. over liability for rogue brokers is a reminder that unseen risks can be part of any acquisition, no matter how well-vetted, according to lawyers and investment bankers.
<a href= http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=Topic&keywordid=261&keywordname=LPL%20Financial>LPL Investment Holdings Inc. </a>and Pacific Life Insurance Co. are staring each other down over which firm will have to pony up the potentially millions of dollars in claims stemming from fraud suits against a rogue broker from one of the three independent-contractor firms LPL acquired from Pac Life two years ago.
A former GunnAllen Financial Inc. and Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. broker pleaded guilty this month to two federal charges, one of mail fraud and the other of filing a false tax return, and he faces up to 23 years in prison when he is sentenced in September.
