SEC Announces Sweeping Examinations of Brokerage Firms
From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law Offices:
The SEC is planning to examine brokerages in 2015 with a focus on sales of expensive mutual funds as well as problem brokers.
Sales of expensive “L-share” classes of mutual funds and variable annuities, which have short surrender periods, but higher upfront costs, are on examination priority of the SEC. The SEC is interested to know whether investors were aware of the fees they would pay for different types of share classes and whether those charges were appropriate for the investors.
The second concern of the SEC is how well brokerage firms are supervising their branches. The examiners will choose branch offices based on factors such as their size, trading activities, and sales of certain products, such as risky complex securities.
Finally, SEC announced that brokerage firms can expect an examination of brokers who have a history of disciplinary violations.
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Related Attorneys: James J. Eccleston