Securities Lawyers Blog
According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker Daniel Beech (Beech), previously associated with Innovation Partners LLC, has at least 10 disclosable events. These events include 9 customer complaints, one tax lien, alleging that Beech recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint with a damage request of $1,400,000.00 on January 15, 2025.
Customer alleges that an investment recommendation was unsuitable and misleading.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint with a damage request of $90,500.00 on October 25, 2024.
Customer alleges that an investment recommendation was unsuitable and misleading.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint with a damage request of $150,000.00 on September 13, 2024.
Customer alleges that an investment recommendation was unsuitable and misleading.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a settled customer complaint with a damage request of $50,000.01 on February 05, 2024.
Misrepresentation of investment.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a final customer complaint on December 18, 2023.
Beech was named a respondent in a FINRA complaint alleging that he improperly paid commissions of approximately $900,000, directly and indirectly, to an unregistered person, who was required to be registered at the time of the payments. The complaint alleges that while registered with a member firm, Beech entered into an agreement with the unregistered person’s registered investment advisory firm to purchase the unregistered person’s book of business (the Purchase Agreement). No FINRA member firm reviewed, approved, or was a party to the Purchase Agreement. The Purchase Agreement required Beech to pay the unregistered person’s advisory firm $10,000 up front and thereafter 75 percent of commissions Beech earned from transactions in certain customer accounts for ten years and 25 percent of commissions for an additional five years. During the relevant period, the unregistered person solicited new brokerage customers for Beech, attended meetings and telephone calls with Beech and his brokerage customers, independently met with Beech’s brokerage customers to discuss securities investments to be made through Beech, made securities recommendations to certain of Beech’s brokerage customers, maintained customer records for certain of Beech’s brokerage customers, and received commissions from securities transactions conducted in brokerage accounts.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a settled customer complaint with a damage request of $100,000.00 on November 13, 2023.
Violations of Federal Securities Laws, Unsuitable Recommendations, Misrepresentations and Ommission of Material Facts.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a settled customer complaint with a damage request of $516,000.00 on September 14, 2023.
Client seeks reimbursement of investment
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a pending customer complaint with a damage request of $115,000.00 on July 19, 2023.
Unsuitability
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a settled customer complaint with a damage request of $5,000.00 on July 03, 2023.
Negligence and Negligent Misrepresentation. Client is seeking re-imbursement for GWG Investment
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a settled customer complaint with a damage request of $5,000.00 on April 21, 2023.
Negligence and Negligent Misrepresentation
Under the securities laws brokers are obligated to act in their clients’ best interests and provide only suitable recommendations for investments to the client. In addition, the SEC has promulgated ‘Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI)‘ which according to the SEC enhanced the broker-dealer standard of conduct beyond existing suitability obligations and requires broker-dealers to act in the best interest of a retail customer when making a recommendation of any securities transaction or investment strategy involving securities. Regulation Best Interest and the fiduciary standard for investment advisers are drawn from key fiduciary principles that include an obligation to act in the retail investor’s best interest and not to place their own interests ahead of the investor’s interest.
Brokers have an obligation to first obtain and evaluate sufficient information about a retail investor to form a reasonable basis to believe the account recommendations are in the retail investor’s best interest. Recommendations cannot be based on materially inaccurate or incomplete information. Data on the investor and the expense of the advice are consistently part of material information. Types of costs that must be considered including account fees, commissions and transaction costs, tax considerations, as well as indirect costs.
In addition to obligation to understand the customer the broker must also investigate the product being sold. FINRA firms have an obligation to conduct a reasonable investigation of the issuer and the securities they recommend in offerings. A brokerage firm has a special relationship with a customer from the fact that in recommending the security, the broker represents to the customer that a reasonable investigation has been made. Thus, without conducting its own reasonable investigation, a brokerage firm cannot depend solely on the issuer for information about a company.
Another protective measure for investors is to mandate broker discloses. Brokers are required to reveal important events, such as customer complaints, IRS tax liens, judgments, investigations, terminations, and even criminal matters, publicly on their BrokerCheck reports. FINRA has recognized that recent studies offer evidence showing that brokers with a past history of regulatory and customer complaint issues are more likely to have such issues in the future. FINRA’s Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) published a study showing the predictability of disciplinary and disclosure events based on past similar events. The OCE study showed that past disclosure events, including regulatory actions, customer arbitrations and litigations of brokers, have significant power to predict future investor harm. The data shows that where a member firm on-boards brokers with a significant history of misconduct there is a high likelihood that the broker will continue to engage in similar behavior.
Beech has been in the securities industry for more than 10 years. Beech has been registered as a Broker with Innovation Partners LLC since 2022.
Investors who have suffered losses are encouraged to contact us at (800) 810-4262 for consultation. At Gana Weinstein LLP, our attorneys are experienced representing investors who have suffered securities losses due to the mishandling of their accounts. Claims may be brought in securities arbitration before FINRA. Our consultations are free of charge and the firm is only compensated if you recover.
