The Daily Brief
FINRA

Stifel Settles With FINRA For More Than $3 Million Over UITs

FINRA has order Stifel Nicolaus to pay customers over understated fees related to early rollovers of UITs.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered Stifel, Nicolaus to pay over $1.9 million in restitution to over 1,700 customers regarding early rollovers of Unit Investment Trusts (UITs). It also fined the firm $1.75 million for deceiving customers about rollover costs and for violations. Even so, in agreeing to settle the matter, Stifel neither admitted nor denied the charges.

The regulatory body contends that between 2012 and 2016 the firm sold $10.9 billion in UIT’s, of which $935.2 million were early rollovers. FINRA accused the company of failing to adequately supervise its employees and of permitting them to bilk customers out of $1.9 million in fees charged for rolling over their customers’ UITs before their maturity dates. It also alleges that Stifel failed to inform its customers about the fees they would have to pay if they rolled their investments over early, understating “the costs to customers by approximately 49%.”

FINRA said that its action was the fruit of a “targeted examination with respect to UITs” that it undertook in 2016.

Want The Daily Brief delivered directly to your inbox? Sign up for WealthManagement.com's Morning Memo newsletter.

 

TAGS: Industry
Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish