Have you suffered losses as a result of an investment in Cole Real Estate Investments, formerly, Cole Credit Property Trust III? If so, the attorneys of The White Law Group may be able to helps.

According to their website, Cole Real Estate Investments owns over 1,000 properties throughout the US with over $7 billion in gross assets and it actively manages more than $12 billion in commercial real estate. Now, publicly traded under the ticker COLE, the company was successfully listed on the NYSE this past June.

According to Investment News, earlier this year non-traded REIT, Cole Credit Property Trust III, merged with their asset manager Cole holdings to form the publicly traded company Cole Real Estate Investments Inc. The whopping $127 million ” internalization fee” they paid themselves and founder, Christopher Cole, has sparked criticism from some shareholders and financial advisers.

This same report indicates that one of the largest networks of independent broker-dealers, Advisor Group, has terminated their selling agreement with Cole, in part due to this “internalization fee.” In an internal email to their broker-dealers Advisor Group apparently stated, “While this internalization transaction appears to have been legally permissible, we believe the failure to obtain shareholder consent was not consistent with industry standards for related party transactions of this nature and this internalization transaction failed to comply with our standards of appropriate corporate governance.”

Many investors in non-traded REITs have suffered significant losses in their investment. From what is known about non-traded REITs it appears that some broker-dealers may have over-concentrated clients portfolios in these illiquid investments and misrepresented the risks involved.

In addition, non-traded REITs are arguable inappropriate investments for retirees or individuals who were nearing retirement since investors could not access their money for unforeseen circumstances , such as medical expenses. To compound the problem, the lack of a secondary market significantly limits an investors potential to sell.

If you have concerns about your Cole III investment or another non-traded REIT and would like to discuss your litigation options with a securities attorney, please call The White Law Group at 312-238-3690 for a free consultation.

The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulatory/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago Illinois and Boca Raton, Forida.

To learn more about The White Law Group, visit www.WhiteSecuritiesLaw.com.