Law and legal issues

Jefferies was among a group of firms cited by the SEC in its recent sweeping investigations into illegal "off channel" communications.

Regulators accused UBS of not doing enough to monitor 22 brokers who generated commissions and sales concessions of syndicate preferred stocks.

While at Schwab, Roberto Ortega worked with clients whose accounts held more than $1.5 billion. A lawsuit seeks to bar him from soliciting their business for his new employer.

The case stems from Raymond James' recruitment of the $2.8 billion Wise Advisor Group from Baird, which also landed a penalty for a broker protocol violation.

The rival firms will pay for a forensic consultant to preserve evidence of transferred confidential data while they await FINRA arbitration.

The wirehouse is accused of not doing enough to prevent employees of its Smith Barney unit from making unauthorized transfers.

A former wealth manager contends she was unfairly denied disability payments after fibromyalgia and other health complaints forced her to stop working in 2022.

Court decisions have opened up a whole new world of tax worries for college student athletes.

The Texas AG leads a lawsuit against BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, alleging asset managers' influence on coal production led to higher energy prices.

Former Western Asset Management co-Chief Investment Officer Ken Leech was charged with engaging in an alleged "cherry-picking" trading scheme.

Compliance experts think the costs of going along with a sweeping investigation are ignored by regulators touting the benefits of cooperation.

The bulk of the haul came from the bankrupt crypto company Terraform Labs. But Morgan Stanley, LPL Financial, Ameriprise and other big firms also came under scrutiny.

FINRA must let the SEC weigh in before it can cast out one of its members, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found.

The SEC Chair oversaw a sweeping rulemaking agenda that drew resistance from many advisory and brokerage industry representatives.

Whoever is named SEC chair by the president-elect is likely to take a lighter hand on crypto, AI and "regulation by enforcement."

Business goals cannot always put clients' best interests first. Here's why even the executives leading fast-expanding advisory firms say the critics have a point.

Nicholas Takahashi and his team are accused of deliberately trying to poach the clients of a former colleague managing hundreds of millions in assets and producing more than $1 million a year in revenue.

Former financial advisors accused the firm of filing false disclosures about a template invoice their onetime employer claimed they sent to clients.

The firm's new policy of keeping discrimination complaints out of court isn't sitting well with at least two financial advisors.

In October's roundup of pressing issues in the wealth management space, learn about the CFP Board's problematic advertising campaign, LPL Financial's ongoing recruitment court battles against rival Ameriprise and more.