According to recent reports, the numbers are in:  apparently the UBS Puerto Rico funds lost a total of $1.66 billion in the first nine months of 2013.  That amount is staggering.

Investment News (1/13/14) reports that the losses started when the City of Detroit filed for bankruptcy protection. That’s when the market bottomed out for the UBS Puerto Rico funds, and for Puerto Rico’s municipal debt, which is apparently valued at $70 billion.  This, coupled with Puerto Rico’s own poor market climate, has resulted in substantial losses (as high as 48% in certain UBS Puerto Rico Funds).

It has also been reported that the overconcentration of assets in the securities of two Puerto Rico municipal issuers – The Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its Instrumentalities, and the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation – represented the biggest component of the losses.

The White Law Group continues to investigate the liability that UBS may have for these losses.  In various lawsuits, UBS Financial Services is accused of failing to disclose the true nature of the risk to investors. There are also allegations that products were sold to investors for whom such products made little sense financially or from a position of risk tolerance.

Specifically, The White Law Group is investigating the following UBS Puerto Rico Funds:

UBS Puerto Rico Fixed Income Fund I, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Fixed Income Fund II, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Fixed Income Fund III, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Fixed Income Fund IV, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Fixed Income Fund V, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Fixed Income Fund VI, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Investors Tax-Free Fund, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Investors Tax-Free Fund II, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Investors Tax-Free Fund III, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Investors Tax-Free Fund IV, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Investors Tax-Free Fund V, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Investors Tax-Free Fund VI, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico AAA Portfolio Bond Fund, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico AAA Portfolio Bond Fund II, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico AAA Portfolio Target Maturity Fund, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Tax-Free Target Maturity Fund I, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Tax-Free Target Maturity Fund II, Inc.

UBS Tax Free Puerto Rico Fund, Inc.

UBS Tax Free Puerto Rico Fund II, Inc.

UBS Tax Free Puerto Rico Target Maturity Fund, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico Mortgage-Backed & Government Securities Fund, Inc.

UBS Puerto Rico GNMA & US Government, Inc.

Brokerage firms and financial advisers have a fiduciary duty to perform due diligence on any investment and to insure that an investment is appropriate in light of the investor’s age, investment experience, and investment objectives. If a broker or brokerage firm fails in these responsibilities, investors may have an actionable claim to recover their investment losses in a claim through FINRA dispute resolution.

If you are concerned about your investment in a UBS Puerto Rico Fund and would like to speak to a securities attorney about whether you have a potential FINRA dispute resolution claim, please call The White Law Group’s Boca Raton, Florida office at 561-807-6804 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, please visit our website at http://whitesecuritieslaw.com.