According to Investment News, on May 1, 2014, an arbitration panel for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) awarded two retired school teachers $1.17 million for a claim involving tenant-in-common (TIC) investments . The FINRA arbitrators ruled that broker-dealer, Ameriprise Financial Services, inappropriately sold three TIC investments that cost the couple $1.03 million, nearly all of their life savings. The TICs, which were purchased in 2008, included ARI-Onyx Office Plaza, Moody Springhill Suites Pittsburgh, and Moody Marriott TownePlace Suites Portland Scarborough. Investment News reported that one of the TICs was a complete failure, while the other two dropped substantially in value.

TICs are considerably high risk speculative investments. However, many investors are attracted to the potentially high returns offered by TICs, especially retired investors seeking a source of income. Unfortunately, TICs are arguably unsuitable for retired individuals since the TICs performance and ability to make distributions to investors is dependent on the underlying real estate property and the overall health of the real estate market.

Brokerage firms that sell TICs have a fiduciary duty to recommend investments that are not only in line with the client’s investment objectives and risk tolerance, but also their age, net worth, investment experience, and liquidity needs. In addition, brokerage firms are required to adequately disclose all the risks associated with any given investment, and to perform adequate due diligence to determine if the investment has a reasonable likelihood of success.

FINRA is the self-regulatory agency that oversees broker-dealer’s compliance to securities laws and industry regulations. When a broker-dealer breaks the rules, such as Ameriprise, investors may be able to recoup their losses through a FINRA dispute resolution claim.

To determine whether you may be able to recover investment losses incurred as a result of your purchase of TIC investment, please contact The White Law Group at 312-238-9650 for a free consultation.

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 Boca Raton, Florida.

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