State regulators have reached a $17 million settlement with Edward Jones over its advisors charging commissions for mutual fund sales and then moving the fund shares into advisory accounts.
Bạn đang xem: State regulators strike $17M settlement with Edward Jones
The North America Securities Administrators Association, which represents state and provincial industry watchdogs, announced the settlement Wednesday with the St. Louis-based wealth management giant. Edward Jones, which has more than 20,000 advisors in the U.S. and Canada, agreed to pay administrative fines of roughly $320,000 to each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
NASAA said a group of 14 state regulators began investigating Edward Jones four years ago in relation to a now-defunct federal rule meant to subject advisors giving retirement recommendations to the fiduciary obligation to always put their clients’ interests first. The regulators found that Edward Jones advisors had charged commissions on mutual funds bought through brokerage accounts and then moved the fund shares over to fee-generating advisory accounts “sooner than expected.”
Xem thêm : Year-ender 2024: 34 equity mutual funds delivered negative returns to investors in 2024
READ MORE:
NASAA said investigators uncovered flaws in Edward Jones’ supervisory procedures.
“State securities regulators continue to lead the effort to ensure that firms always have their customers’ best interest in mind,” said Leslie Van Buskirk, NASAA president and the administrator of the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions’ division of securities.
Edward Jones said in a statement that its advisors “take a personalized approach to understanding our clients’ needs and objectives.
Xem thêm : 3 Large-Cap Value Mutual Funds to Buy for 2025 & Beyond
“We are aligned with regulators that protecting investors is a top priority and we are committed to maintaining robust supervisory and compliance systems and continually improving them.”
Edward Jones was similarly accused in 2018
The judge overseeing the case eventually dismissed the complaint after finding that Edward Jones advisors’ fiduciary duty couldn’t have applied to clients whose assets weren’t in advisory accounts yet.
Separately, Edward Jones joined its rival firms Osaic and Cambridge Investment Research
Nguồn: https://nullhypothesis.cfd
Danh mục: News