Securities Lawyers Blog
Calton & Associates, Inc. (Calton) broker Nicolas Toadvine (Toadvine) has been subject to numerous complaints over non-traded REITs and real estate related investments. According BrokerCheck Lynn has been subject to 12 customer complaints in total and declared bankruptcy in 2013. The securities lawyers of Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating the customer complaints against Toadvine.
Many of the complaints concern private placements and direct participation products (DPPs) such as non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs).
All of these investments come with high costs and historically have underperformed even safe benchmarks, like U.S. treasury bonds. For example, products like oil and gas partnerships, REITs, and other alternative investments are only appropriate for a narrow band of investors under certain conditions due to the high costs, illiquidity, and huge redemption charges of the products, if they can be redeemed. However, due to the high commissions brokers earn on these products they sell them to investors who cannot profit from them. Further, investor often fail to understand that they have lost money until many years after agreeing to the investment. In sum, for all of their costs and risks, investors in these programs are in no way additionally compensated for the loss of liquidity, risks, or cost.