LPL to Pay $26 Million for Failure to Supervise

LPL Financial Settles Charges with State Regulators

According to a press announcement, LPL Financial has agreed to pay up to $26 million to settle charges from state regulators for alleged negligence in supervising sales of unregistered securities to thousands of investors over 12 years.

LPL Financial, the largest employer of independent brokers, agreed to pay $499,000 to each of 52 states and U.S. territories, and to repurchase the unregistered equity and fixed-income securities that have been sold since October 2006, according to regulators in Alabama and Massachusetts who led an investigation on behalf of the North American Securities Administrators Association.

The firm will repay the purchase price of the securities plus 3% interest, the regulators said. LPL also agreed to undertake a “full review” of its state securities “blue-sky” compliance obligations.

California is reportedly not participating in the settlement, but if it does, the states and territories will receive a total of $26 million, according to LPL.

According to a notice on LPL’s website, “We will work with our regulators and an independent, third-party reviewer to analyze historical equity and fixed income purchases dating back to October 2006 to identify any that require remediation. We expect that it will take several years to complete these undertakings.”

Failure to Supervise

The White Law Group is investigating the liability that LPL Financial may have for losses sustained by their clients.  Brokerage firms are required to adequately supervise their agents to ensure they are complying with FINRA rules. If it is determined that the broker dealer failed to supervise their agents, they can be held responsible for losses in a FINRA arbitration claim.

FINRA is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity. It regulates one critical part of the securities industry – brokerage firms doing business with the public in the United States. FINRA administers a dispute resolution forum for investors and brokerage firms and their registered employees.

If you are concerned about your investments with LPL Financial, the securities attorneys at The White Law Group may be able to help you. For a free consultation with a securities attorney, please call (888) 637-5510.

The foregoing information, which is all publicly available on FINRA’s website, is being provided by The White Law Group. 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 Franklin, Tennessee.

For more information on The White Law Group, please visit www.whitesecuritieslaw.com