AdvisorLaw
  • Expertise
    • New Disputes
    • Expungement
    • Regulatory
    • Compliance
    • Transitions
    • On Demand
  • Team
  • Results
    • 2019 Results
    • 2018 Results
    • 2017 Results
  • Blog
  • Contact

What if Compliance Accuses You of a Firm Policy Violation?

7/9/2019

 
Picture
On Wednesday, while on vacation, an advisor got a call from his broker-dealer’s compliance department. It was from a young woman who was fairly new to the compliance team. She accused him of altering client-signed documents and cutting and pasting a client signature. In essence, the financial advisor was being accused of fraud.

The advisor got on a plane home Thursday, very concerned for his future and with good reason, as it turns out.

On Friday, after reaching out to contacts in the securities industry and receiving a referral, he engaged Michelle Atlas at AdvisorLaw. Michelle spent 10 years on compliance teams at broker-dealers and now works for individual advisors, helping them protect and defend their livelihood.

Together, over the next week, Michelle and the advisor crafted carefully-worded responses to multiple emails from compliance. Ultimately, the compliance supervisor became involved. Michelle coached the advisor on how to respond to specific questions when he was on the phone with compliance.

In the end, the following Tuesday (13 days later), the advisor was required to affirm in writing his understanding of the firm policies. The event was over—no heightened supervision, no letter of caution, no further actions by the firm.

This could have gone very differently. The compliance supervisor confided that, earlier in the year, the firm had ultimately terminated another advisor for a similar instance. Once a U5 termination is filed, FINRA often opens a regulatory inquiry, which can then lead to a FINRA enforcement action and may ultimately end in sanctions, including a fine and a suspension or even a bar from the securities industry. 

How you respond to what may seem like an innocent compliance question regarding any of your sales practices or document processing can be the difference between a few hours of inconvenience and the destruction of your hard-earned business. It only makes sense to ask a professional for help.

Defense attorneys often lament that they spend most of their time trying to reposition and reframe statements that a client has made in response to an initial question. When a person is taken off guard, because he cannot believe he is being accused of some wrongdoing, he is not at his best.

Thankfully, this financial advisor had the wisdom to reach out to an experienced professional. Now, for him, it is business as usual.  

Doc Kennedy
President and Founder
AdvisorLaw, LLC

    Doc Kennedy

    This blog is our ongoing effort to inform and educate FINRA licensed professionals about the evolving regulatory ecosystem in which we operate.

    Archives

    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    May 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017

    Categories

    All
    ARS Investments
    BrokerCheck
    Compliance
    CRD
    Customer Dispute
    Disclosures
    Disqualification
    DOL Rule
    E&O Insurance
    Expunge
    Expungement Award
    FINRA
    FINRA AWC
    FINRA Inquiry
    FINRA OTR
    IRS Letter
    Mergers & Acquisitions
    Reputation Management
    Rule 2010
    Rule 2080
    Statutory
    Succession Planning
    Transitions
    U4
    U4 Disclosures
    U5
    Vitality Curve

    RSS Feed

Picture
Free Consultation

​AdvisorLaw is not a law firm and does not provide legal services. AdvisorLaw does have the expertise to advise and assist financial professionals when it’s time to defend your good name.  We partner with attorneys who specialize in issues facing financial professionals, and can team with your own lawyers to provide the specific expertise called for.
  • Expertise
    • New Disputes
    • Expungement
    • Regulatory
    • Compliance
    • Transitions
    • On Demand
  • Team
  • Results
    • 2019 Results
    • 2018 Results
    • 2017 Results
  • Blog
  • Contact