William Byrnes' Tax, Wealth, and Risk Intelligence

William Byrnes (Texas A&M) tax & compliance articles

Posts Tagged ‘Customer’

FINRA Changes the Rules on How Low-Price Equities Are Traded

Posted by William Byrnes on September 7, 2011


The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has issued a regulatory notice addressing price volatility concerns associated with low-priced equity securities in customer margin and firm proprietary accounts. The notice advises that special attention be given to low-priced equity securities; price volatility is usually associated with low-priced equities because they are inherently volatile.

But what does FINRA consider a“low-price equity,” and what is the impact for you and your clients?

FINRA advises firms to weigh the risks that come with low-priced equity securities before extending credit in strategy-based or portfolio margin accounts. FINRA cautions firms to consider “volatility and concentrated positions in a single customer account and across all customer accounts, as well as the daily volume and market capitalization of each security when imposing ‘house’ maintenance margin requirements.”

Read this complete analysis of the impact at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

For previous coverage of FINRA-issued guidance in Advisor’s Journal, see Getting Your Feet Wet in the Social Media Market (CC 11-79) & SEC Says “Not So Fast” to Advisor Social Media Marketing (CC 11-40).

Posted in Wealth Management | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Merrill Lynch Busted by SEC for Tailgating Client Trades

Posted by William Byrnes on March 16, 2011


Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay a $10 million penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle charges that Merrill used information about customer trades to trade on its own behalf—in violation of its customers’ confidences.

According to the SEC, Merrill Lynch operated a proprietary trading desk—its “Equity Strategy Desk” (ESD)—from 2003 to 2005. The desk traded solely on the firm’s account and did not have any responsibility for customer orders.

The SEC says that, although Merrill represented to customers that their trading information would be kept on a need-to-know basis, the ESD had access to and used institutional customers’ information when executing trades on Merrill’s behalf.

The activity that resulted in the SEC investigation is known as “tailgating”—related to the illegal act of “front running.” Front running is the practice of executing proprietary trades using information about pending customer trades to the broker’s advantage. Tailgating is similar to front running, except that the broker executes its own trade after executing the related customer trades.

Read the full analysis at AdvisorFX – sign up for a no obligation free subscription to all the services including AUS, ASRS, the Journal, Presentation Aids, Soft Skills. amongst others.

 

Posted in Compliance, Wealth Management | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Insurance Agents Sued for Giving Bad Tax Advice

Posted by William Byrnes on January 7, 2011


Can life insurance agents and their carriers be held responsible for adverse tax consequences resulting from their advice to customers about transactions involving the policies agents recommend and sell?  A customer who relied on agents for tax advice concerning an annuity transaction believed the agents should be held to account for recommending a transaction that turned out to carry an unexpected tax bill.   She sued the Insurance Company in federal district court, claiming its agents committed fraud against her by failing to inform her of the tax consequences of an annuity rollover.

The plaintiff owned two annuities—valued at about $80,000 and $12,000—that she received in a divorce settlement.  She contacted the insurance company to find out her options for rolling the annuities over into one policy. Read this complete article at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

We invite your questions and comments by posting them or by calling the Panel of Experts.

Posted in Insurance | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Insurance Agents Sued for Giving Bad Tax Advice

Posted by William Byrnes on December 16, 2010


Can life insurance agents and their carriers be held responsible for adverse tax consequences resulting from their advice to customers about transactions involving the policies agents recommend and sell?  A customer who relied on agents for tax advice concerning an annuity transaction believed the agents should be held to account for recommending a transaction that turned out to carry an unexpected tax bill.   She sued the Insurance Company in federal district court, claiming its agents committed fraud against her by failing to inform her of the tax consequences of an annuity rollover.

The plaintiff owned two annuities—valued at about $80,000 and $12,000—that she received in a divorce settlement.  She contacted the insurance company to find out her options for rolling the annuities over into one policy. Read this complete article at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

We invite your questions and comments by posting them or by calling the Panel of Experts.

Posted in Insurance | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

 
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