Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing
The Investors’ Lawyer: Check Before You Invest
If you own a business, odds are good that you receive calls from time to time from stockbrokers or other financial advisors wanting to make money for you in the markets, if you’ll only open an account with them. Many times, these brokers are calling from several states away – or from across the country – working for firms you don’t recognize. Before you consider making an investment, you need to check out both the investment and the broker. In today’s briefing, we’ll discuss how to check out a broker.
All stockbrokers and broker-dealers in the USA are registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Through FINRA’s BrokerCheck system (go to www.finra.org, and click on BrokerCheck), you can receive an online report about both the stockbroker and his or her brokerage firm, with information including their disciplinary history, state licenses, recent customer complaints against the broker, arbitration proceedings (including those brought by former clients alleging fraudulent conduct or other claims against the broker). You can also receive a similar report for the brokerage firm. Get a report for both the broker and the firm, and review them carefully, paying attention to their regulatory disciplinary history, customer complaints and arbitration claims against them, looking for instances where the broker or firm have been found to have made unauthorized trades, unsuitable recommendations, or misrepresentations or omissions of material facts to an investor. As you review the information, understand that the reports reflect only the information that the regulators have, and that firms and brokers settle complaints and arbitration claims for many reasons, including the desire to minimize costs. If you find something disturbing, speak with the broker further about it, and make sure you’re satisfied with the caliber and experience of the broker and firm before investing. Your state may also provide further information not available through FINRA – check with your state’s securities commissioner’s office (find a link to most at www.nasaa.org).
Up next in our series – avoiding common investor traps.
Joel Beck, a former Enforcement Department lawyer for NASD (now FINRA), is now in private practice in the Atlanta, Georgia area. He opened The Beck Law Firm, LLC in July 2007. Joel’s practice focuses on legal matters relating to the financial markets. He represents investors in securities arbitrations, among other things. Learn more at his investor’s law blog at www.theinvestorslawyer.com and at www.thebeckfirm.com.
Posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Business, Entrepreneurship, Money/Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
