Alleged lack of records costs A.G. Edwards $755K in VA dispute

A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. will pay Missouri securities cops $755,000 to settle charges that the firm sold variable annuities to elderly clients without maintaining proper documentation. The firm, now part of Wells Fargo & Co., had been under investigation by the Missouri Securities Division after the regulator received a complaint from an 81-year-old investor in Blue Eye, Mo., on the liquidation of a variable annuity. Regulators then reviewed all variable annuity sales and exchanges made at A.G. Edwards between July 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007. Securities cops say they discovered that the brokerage firm couldn't come up with records showing that variable annuity sales made to elderly clients were performed in compliance with A.G. Edwards' supervisory procedures. The company did not admit or deny the allegations made by the department, but agreed to pay $350,449 to 30 investors as restitution. The firm previously had paid $31,544 to one client. A.G. Edwards was also ordered to pay another $325,000 toward the Missouri secretary of state's Investor Restitution Fund, plus $50,000 to cover the cost of the investigation. “Wells Fargo Advisors has been working with the state of Missouri to resolve these legacy issues, which date back to 2006 and 2007,” said the firm's spokeswoman Raschelle Burton. “We are pleased to have reached a resolution which ends this matter.”