Meyer Wilson | Investor Claims In the News
Next Financial Group Fined by FINRA for Third Time in Three Years
Posted on Dec 02, 2010
During the month of November, FINRA fined Next Financial Group, Inc. $400,000 and ordered the firm to pay restitution of $102,000 to clients. FINRA stated the action was due to the absence of "a reasonable system for reviewing the transactions of its registered representatives for excessive trading." The regulatory action was the third significant action against the company in three years.
"Due to the lack of a reasonable supervisory system, the firm failed to detect excessive trading by a registered representative in five accounts, resulting in about $102,376 in unnecessary sales charges," said FINRA. FINRA's findings also indicate that in the instances when the firm's system did raise a red flag, Next Financial Group did nothing to address the issue. FINRA found at least 13 additional representatives, who handled another 39 client accounts, who should have been identified and investigated for potential excessive trading.
As reported by InvestmentNews, Next Financial Group, Inc. has a gross revenue of $123.6 million. With 1,027 representatives, the firm has been one of the fastest-growing, independent-contractor broker-dealers in the industry over the past ten years. Previous regulatory actions against the company were for issues related to supervisory jurisdiction and client privacy. The company has neither admitted nor denied FINRA's findings.
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