Tim O'Connor's Blog

At its annual conference held in Washington, DC in May of this year, FINRA included a session to provide guidance for practices at FINRA member firms regarding the use of emerging technology in compliance and operations.  The session included industry experts and FINRA staff in a panel addressing how emerging technologies are being utilized to […]

Do you have an inherited IRA?  Do you know that it may not be exempt from claims of creditors and it may not be subject to the same protections afforded other IRA’s such as regular IRA’s, Roth IRA’s, SEP IRA and rollover IRA’s?  Unfortunately, beneficiaries of inherited IRA’s labor under many similar misapprehensions and misunderstandings […]

Investment Adviser Accused of Stealing $1,000,000 From Clients In a Press Release of September 6, 2017, the Securities Exchange Commission announced charges against a New Jersey based investment adviser, Scott Newsholme, of Farmingdale, New Jersey, alleging that he stole more than $1,000,000 from advisory clients.  The underlying charges include allegations of fabricated account statements, forged […]

IRA’s have been around for over 40 years, but most investors don’t know what happens when they inherit all or part of an IRA account as a death beneficiary.  Taking an outright distribution of cash as a beneficiary of an IRA upon another’s death is usually a foolish idea.   While spouses have generous options […]

Many brokerage firms have been promoting non-purpose loans, resulting in abusive sales practices and supervisory violations associated with the aggressive marketing of these lending arrangements.  Brokerage firms suggesting that investors borrow against their securities to originate non-purpose loans has been at a number of large brokerage firms including Morgan Stanley, UBS, Wells Fargo and Bank […]