Securities Lawyers Blog
According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) financial Broker Gunnar Gavin (Gavin), currently associated with Bankers Life Securities, Inc., has at least one disclosable event. These events include one customer complaint, alleging that Gavin recommended unsuitable investments in different investment products including debt securities among other allegations and complaints.
FINRA BrokerCheck shows a settled customer complaint with a damage request of $45,000.00 on September 18, 2023.
In a written complaint received on September 18, 2023 , addressed to Bankers Life and Casualty Company (BLC), an affiliated insurance company, client alleged that the agent forged his wife’s signature on a document and feels this is a fraudulent action. While the annuity in question was not funded by securities, there was an allegation of forgery made against the financial representative who sold the annuity to the client. Bankers Life Securities, Inc. (BLS) reviewed the allegation by pulling all the documents signed by the client and comparing the signatures to the complaint letter. The firm found the signature on the documents that were signed through E-App and the signature on the complaint letter appeared to be signed by the same person and did not find merit to the allegation of forgery.
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. Every recommendation’s cost and investor details are always 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. So, a brokerage firm should not depend solely on information from the issuer regarding a company, but must perform its own thorough investigation.
Another protective measure for investors is to mandate broker discloses. Brokers must publicly disclose reportable events on their BrokerCheck reports that include customer complaints, IRS tax liens, judgments, investigations, terminations, and even criminal matters. FINRA has recognized that recent studies offer evidence showing that brokers with a past record 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.
Gavin entered the securities industry in 2015. Gavin has been registered as a Broker with Bankers Life Securities, Inc. since 2016.
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.