According to BrokerCheck records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker Bruce Berry (Berry), currently associated with LPL Financial LLC, has been subject to at least one disclosable event. These events include one customer complaint. Several of those complaints against Berry concern allegations of high frequency trading activity also referred to as churning or excessive trading among other securities laws violations.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a settled customer complaint on February 22, 2024.
Statement of Claim alleges an investment recommendation was made for the purpose of generating high commissions and fees and that Claimants were deprived of the ability to generate reasonable returns that would have been received in a diversified portfolio.
When brokers engage in churning, or excessive trading, they often rapidly buy and sell securities, sometimes even the same stock repeatedly, within a short span of time. Every month, the account often completely “turns over” with different securities. The only purpose of this kind of investment in the client’s account is to generate commissions, which benefit the broker, but not the investor. Churning is recognized as a form of securities fraud. The fundamental aspects of the claim involve excessive securities transactions, the broker’s undue influence over the account, and an intention to defraud the investor for illegal financial gain. A similar claim, excessive trading, under FINRA’s suitability rule involves just the first two elements. Certain commonly used measures and ratios used to determine churning help evaluate a churning claim. These ratios look at how frequently the account is turned over plus whether or not the expenses incurred in the account made it unreasonable that the investor could reasonably profit from the activity.
According to newsources, a study revealed that 7.3% of financial advisors had a customer complaint on their record when records from 2005 to 2015 were examined. Brokers must publicly disclose reportable events on their BrokerCheck reports that include customer complaints, IRS tax liens, judgments, investigations, terminations, and criminal cases. In addition, research has shown a disturbing pattern with troublesome brokers where brokers with high numbers of customer complaints are not kicked out of the industry but instead these brokers are sifted to lower quality brokerage firms with loose hiring practices and higher rates of customer complaints. These lower quality firms may average brokers with five times as many complaints as the industry average.
Berry entered the securities industry in 1997. Berry has been registered as a Broker with LPL Financial 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.