Ray Lucia, firm fined buckets of money over investment claims

San Diego financial adviser Ray Lucia, Sr., host of a nationally syndicated daily radio program and famed for his Buckets of Money investment strategy, was fined $50,000 and had his adviser registration revoked by an administrative-law judge yesterday. Mr. Lucia's firm, Raymond J. Lucia Cos. Inc., also was fined $250,000 and its registration was revoked, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. In an initial decision, administrative-law judge Cameron Elliot ruled that Mr. Lucia misrepresented for years “the validity of purported back-testing in seminars for prospective investors” interested in his Buckets of Money strategy for retirement savings. The administrative complaint the SEC filed in September 2012 said Mr. Lucia and his firm performed “scant, if any, actual back-tests.” Mr. Lucia's attorney, Wrenn Chais of Locke Lord LLP, said her client “respectfully disagrees with the majority of opinions and the penalty” that the judge issued on Monday. “The SEC acknowledges that no investor lost any money as a result of the slides that were used in the seminars,” Ms. Chais said. “No investors even complained about them.” Mr. Lucia and his firm have 21 days from the judge's initial decision to appeal and they are likely to do so, Ms. Chais said. “The Ray Lucia Show” began in 1991; it was syndicated nationwide in 2000.