Securities Lawyers Blog
The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP are currently representing victims of financial advisor Stewart Ginn (Ginn), currently employed by Independent Financial Group, LLC (IFG). BrokerCheck records reports that Ginn has been subject to at least six customer complaints during the course of his career and one pending regulatory action. According to records kept by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Ginn’s customer complaint alleges that Gin engaged in excessive trading or churning of investor accounts among other allegations of misconduct relating to the handling of their accounts.
On October 17, 2023 FINRA named Ginn as a respondent in a complaint alleging that he churned and excessively traded customer accounts. FINRA alleges that none of the customers was an aggressive investor, one of the customers was in her late 80s and suffering from a cognitive disability; a second retired customer was in her late 70s; and a third retired customer was between 69 and 71 years old. FINRA found that Ginn engaged in frequent in-and-out trades in the customer accounts, while charging high commissions on both buys and sells. According to the complaint, Ginn’s trading caused the customers to incur realized losses of more than $2.22 million, while generating more than $2.24 million in commissions for Ginn and his member firm.
Our firm recently filed a complaint on behalf of a client that alleged that Ginn engaged in similar misconduct in the trading of the client’s account. The complaint alleged that Ginn abused his position of trust and influence to speculatively invest his elderly clients for his own self-interest. The end result was to erase approximately 75% of the client’s accounts during a period where the S&P 500 increased by over 11%. The excessive and aggressive trading resulted in account volatility that was over 2.5 times riskier than the S&P 500 over the same period, generated commissions estimated at over $500,000 in about 2.33 years, and exposed the clients to the risks of volatile tech and meme stocks.
The client was an elderly widow with diminished capacity due to cognitive decline since 2015. The client’s investment assets were held in a Trust where her sister served as trustee. The complaint alleged that given the circumstances and infirmity of the client, Mr. Ginn’s conduct fell beneath any kind of conceivable standard of care let alone the best interest standard he is held to.
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.
Ginn entered the securities industry in 2002. Since September 2015 Ginn has been associated with IFG out of the firm’s Santa Maria, California office location.
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.