FINRA Suspends LPL Financial Broker for Unsuitable Mutual Fund Trading
Steve Dale Heath, of Newport News, Virginia, submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for allegedly executing unsuitable mutual fund trades, including switches, in the account of an elderly customer with conservative investment goals, causing the customer to suffer losses of approximately $7,207. FINRA alleged that Steve Heath recommended and effected short-term mutual fund trades in the account of an elderly customer. Mutual funds are intended as longer-term investments. However, Mr. Heath allegedly recommended selling after only 249 days on average. Further, some of the trades involved mutual fund switches, which were allegedly unsuitable for his customer in light of the customer’s conservative investment objectives. Mutual fund “switching” is simply the process of transferring an investment from one mutual fund to another, sometimes for good reasons and other times to defraud clients. Some brokers attempt to effect numerous switches in client accounts in order to generate commissions.
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