Publicly available records provided by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and accessed on October 4, 2018 indicate that Nebraska-based brokerage firm Securities America was recently sanctioned by FINRA in connection to alleged rule violations. Fitapelli Kurta is interested in hearing from investors who have complaints regarding Securities America (CRD# 10205).
Established in Delaware in 1984, Securities America is headquartered in La Vista, Nebraska and registered with 53 US states and territories. According to the firm’s BrokerCheck report, it has been involved in 53 regulatory events and 27 customer complaints that evolved into arbitration.
In September 2018 FINRA sanctioned the firm in connection to allegations it failed to maintain and enforce a supervisory system and written supervisory procedures that were reasonably designed to ensure that its representatives recommendations of variable annuity investments were in compliance with relevant laws, rules and regulations. FINRA’s findings stated additionally that though the firm sold variable annuity contracts with options for different share classes, its procedures “did not specifically address the suitability issues pertaining to the fees and costs or surrender periods of the different variable annuity share classes,” and that they also failed to address when “additional scrutiny” might be necessary during the firm’s principal review and approval process for variable annuity transactions. In connection with these and other findings, the firm was censured and issued a fine of $175,000.