Ameriprise Broker Allegedly Purchased Risky Exchange Traded Products in a Retiree's Account, Along With Other Concentrated Positions in Individual Sectors and Securities
San Francisco, California (PRWEB) July 11, 2016 -- In late 2011, the Claimant, a soon to retire teacher, began working with Mr. Cary Kievman, a broker at Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., according to the FINRA arbitration claim. The Claimant sought Kievman’s advice to invest her retirement savings, per allegations in the FINRA claim, including funds received from the sale of her home. As alleged in the FINRA arbitration claim, once in possession of her funds, Kievman proceeded to invest the Claimant’s money in a reckless fashion, placing her funds in unsuitable high risk investments, and concentrating the account in a limited selection of individual stocks and sectors. Per the FINRA claim, in 2013, Kievman concentrated a large portion of the Claimant’s account in exchange traded notes, designed to provide investors with exposure to the S & P 500 VIX Short Term Futures Index Total Return. According to Mr. Feldman, both FINRA and the SEC have issued investor alerts on these types of Exchange Traded Products, suggesting that they are rarely if ever suitable for retail investors. According to FINRA Regulatory Notice 09-31, such products are highly complex financial instruments “. . . unsuitable for retail investors who plan to hold them for longer than one trading session, particularly in volatile markets.” More information about The Law Offices Of Jeffrey A. Feldman can be found at: http://www.jeffreyfeldman.com.
According to allegations in the claim filed with FINRA, the exchange traded product, or ETN sold to the Claimant, is a highly complex and a speculative investment, designed to be used by professional traders for very short periods of time. Per allegations in the FINRA claim, by purchasing this security for the Claimant, Respondents were gambling that the market would go down substantially in a very short amount of time. When that did not happen, according to FINRA claim, the Claimant lost a substantial portion of her retirement funds. In the claim filed with FINRA, the Claimant also alleges that Kievman failed to diversify her account, concentrating much of the remainder of her funds into technology stocks, precious metals stocks and mining stocks. Per the allegations in the FINRA claim, Kievman generally only discussed his recommendations with the Claimant in broad generalities, and he failed to advise her regarding the risks of overconcentration in her account, or the risks of the individual securities he was purchasing for her.
From the outset of their relationship, the Claimant communicated to Kievman that she would soon be retiring with a modest fixed income, and could not afford high risk investments, according to the claim filed with FINRA. The Claimant also made it clear that she had minimal investment experience, per the FINRA claim, and needed safe investments - as she would never again have the opportunity to make up losses through her work. Contrary to the Claimant’s wishes, Kievman and Ameriprise purchased high risk, speculative securities for the Claimant, all the while assuring her that they were purchasing suitable low risk investments, per allegations in the FINRA arbitration claim.
Jeffrey Feldman, Law Offices of Jeffrey Feldman, +1 (415) 391-5555, [email protected]
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