Over the past decade, the Fed has kept interest rates at historically low levels. These low interest rates have incentivized U.S. Companies to borrow, adding significant debt to their balance sheets. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the gap between investment-grade U.S. corporate bonds and U.S. Treasuries has reached its highest level in two years. […]
To the dismay of financial advisors across the country, FINRA has taken notice of the public’s negative association with expungement of customer complaints from central registration depository (“CRD”) records. As a result, the standards a financial advisor must meet to convince a FINRA arbitrator to recommend expungement of a customer complaint from their record have […]
On April 22, 2014, WealthManagement.com ran Patrick Mahoney’s editorial, FINRA’s Troublesome Rule to Keep Clients Out of Expungement Requests, as part of his periodic column, The Legal Rep. A link to the article is available HERE, and the text of the editorial is below. On February 13, 2014 FINRA issued a press release announcing its approval of a […]
On January 15, 2014, Patrick Mahoney wrote an open letter to Linda Fienberg in response to the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association’s study concerning broker expungement (the “Study”). In short, Mr. Mahoney’s letter points out how the Study has contributed to the misperception surrounding the expungement process. The text of the letter is included below. […]
On January 17, 2014, WealthManagement.com ran Patrick Mahoney’s editorial, Surprise! How Did Forgotten, Minor Complaints Abruptly Appear on BrokerCheck, as part of his periodic column, The Legal Rep. A link to the article is available HERE. In 2010, FINRA amended Rule 8312 to require information concerning minor historic customer complaints be added to BrokerCheck records. Customer complaints that […]
On August 19, 2013, InvestmentNews magazine ran an Op-Ed concerning broker expungement authored by Patrick Mahoney. The article is available HERE and a preview of it is below.
The first question brokers ask when contemplating whether or not to pursue expungement of an investor complaint from their publicly available Central Registration Depository (“CRD”) record is almost always, “What are the odds that I earn expungement?” Unfortunately, the answer to this question is an uninspiring, “It depends.” To contemplate why “it depends,” brokers must […]
When an investor files a complaint against his or her stock broker and/or broker-dealer, the broker-dealer must disclose the allegations made in the complaint on the underlying stock broker’s Central Registration Depository (“CRD”) record. These disclosures almost always become publicly available via FINRA’s BrokerCheck (” FINRA BrokerCheck“) system—an online database that provides information about current and […]
On May 20, 2013 at 12:00 p.m. I will be a featured speaker at the Annual Securities Law Update before the San Diego County Bar Association. The title of my presentation is “Stock Broker Expungement – An Unknown Remedy.” Please follow the link below and sign up. If you can’t make it to downtown San Diego, the […]