BOCA RATON, Fla., April 8 – LAWFUEL- The Law News Network — After a long and lengthy battle between Wall Street brokers and registered investment advisers dating back to the late 1990s, the Securities and Exchange Commission finally voted on
Wednesday to allow brokers to continue with the offering of fee-based accounts
without having to deal with the same legal regulations, such as the
requirement to disclose conflicts of interest and provide other information,
currently being imposed on investment advisers.
Hence, the SEC’s decision will
allow brokers to continue selling market advice without having to register
with the commission as investment advisers. However, according to the
securities arbitration law firm of Klayman & Toskes, P.A. (“K&T”)
( http://www.nasd-law.com ), major brokerage firms, such as Merrill Lynch &
Co., with brokerage customers holding more than $250 billion in fee-based
accounts and brokers who market themselves as “financial advisors,” will no
longer be able to continue to defend their claims by describing their brokers
as merely “order takers.”
“Although brokers have been exempted from registering with the SEC as
investment advisers, in actuality, the SEC decision has now made it even
clearer that brokers offering investment advice will be deemed to have
breached their fiduciary duties owed to their customers if that advice is
found faulty or misleading,” says Lawrence L. Klayman, principal partner of
K&T. Consequently, according to K&T, this recent admission that brokers are
indeed selling advice supports the notion that brokers can be held accountable
for sales practice violations when that advice proves to be both faulty or
misleading. Accordingly, despite the SEC ruling, K&T firmly believes that it
will continue to prevail in the successful representation of aggrieved
investors who have filed claims against major brokerage firms as a result of
sales practice violations by their licensed brokers.
K&T, a nationally known securities litigation and arbitration law firm,
represents numerous investors who have sustained severe monetary damages due
to sales practice violations by their licensed brokers. Presently, K&T is
pursuing securities arbitration lawsuits before the New York Stock Exchange
and the National Association of Securities Dealers for securities violations,
including the misuse of margin, the misuse of stock option plans, failure to
supervise, unsuitability claims, misrepresentation and material omissions of
fact and excessive trading/churning of customers’ accounts. If you are a fee-
based account holder who has lost a significant amount of money due to the
sales practice violations of your licensed broker, or wish to discuss this
announcement, please call Lawrence L. Klayman, Esquire of Klayman & Toskes,
P.A., at 888-997-9956 or visit us on the web at http://nasd-law.com .
Web Site: http://www.nasd-law.com
