Securities Lawyers Blog
We represent clients of financial advisors and brokerage firms in investment disputes against their firms, such as Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated. Our services cover a wide spectrum of broker misconduct, including unsuitable investments, failure to supervise, and losses in various investment products. Our firm can analyze your brokerage accounts, determine the extent of your investment losses, and understand the issues and remedies available.
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, known as Merrill, is a broker-dealer and investment adviser owned by Bank of America that provides wealth management, brokerage, custody, portfolio management, and investment consulting services. Headquartered in New York City, the firm serves more than 3 million clients across the United States.
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated – By the Numbers:
- CRD #: 7691
- Regulatory Events: 613
- Arbitration Events: 878
- Broker Employees: 26,241
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated – Investment Advisors:
- SEC #: 14235
- Assets Under Management: $1,781,568,171,479
- ADV Form Employee: 32,960
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated – In the News:
FINRA v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (Case #2022073414901) – Between January 2021 and September 2023, Merrill Lynch failed to provide material disclosures regarding municipal securities purchased with market discounts for 4,181 transactions involving 1,072 self-directed customer accounts. During this same period, Merrill Lynch failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system, including written procedures, reasonably designed to achieve compliance with the firm’s obligation to provide self-directed customers with all material information concerning municipal securities transactions subject to a market discount at or prior to the time of trade. As a result, Merrill Lynch violated MSRB Rules G-47 and G-27. For these violations, Merrill Lynch is censured and fined $175,000.
FINRA v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (Case #2024081776401) – From January 2018 through December 2023, Merrill Lynch invited customers who phoned its call centers to complete a post-call survey, which included a written commentary section. However, the firm did not reasonably review the written responses to identify customer complaints and failed to reasonably supervise to achieve compliance with its quarterly summary and statistical customer complaint reporting obligations under FINRA Rule 4530( d). As a result, Merrill Lynch did not report thousands of customer complaints in the survey responses to FINRA. Therefore, the firm violated FINRA Rules 4530(d), 3110(a) and (b), and 2010, and is censured and fined $225,000.
FINRA v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (Case #2021070593301) – From July 2020 to June 2023, Merrill Lynch accepted market orders for the purchase of shares of equity new issues in the secondary market prior to the commencement of trading of such shares in the secondary market. As a result, it violated FINRA Rules 5131(d)(4) and 2010. From July 2020 to present, Merrill Lynch violated FINRA Rules 3110(a) and (b) and 2010 by failing to establish and maintain a supervisory system, including written procedures, reasonably designed to achieve compliance with FINRA Rule 5131(d)(4). For these violations, Merrill Lynch is censured, fined $275,000, and agreed to undertake corrective action.
FINRA v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (Case #2019062983001) – From March 2010 to September 2020, the firm failed to accurately report to the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) over two million retail customer2 transactions in TRACE-eligible securities, as defined in FINRA Rule 6710(a). Specifically, the firm reported incorrect execution times for approximately 1,576,000 primary market transactions in market-linked securities, in violation of FINRA Rules 6730(c)(8) and 2010. The firm also under-reported 422,197 allocations of various TRACE-eligible securities to client accounts, in violation of FINRA Rules 6730(a)(4), 6730(a)(5), and 2010. In addition, the firm failed to include the No Remuneration (NR) indicator for 179,734 U.S. Treasury securities transactions for which there was no transaction-based compensation, in violation of FINRA Rules 6730(d)(1), 6730(d)(4)(F), and 2010. Further, from September 2017 to February 2019, the firm reported 65,335 municipal securities transactions for retail customers to RTRS that it should not have reported, in violation of MSRB Rule G-14(b). Finally, the firm’s supervisory systems relating to TRACE and RTRS reporting were not reasonably designed in violation of NASD Rule 3010 and FINRA Rules 3110(a) and (b) and 2010 from March 2010 to September 20203 and MSRB Rule G-27 from September 2017 to December 2019.
FINRA v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (Case #2023078116101) – From July through December 2022, Merrill Lynch and BofA Securities failed to timely file amendments for their registered representatives’ Uniform Applications for Securities Industry Registration (“Forms U4”) to update the representatives’ outside business activities and to reflect changes in the representatives’ business addresses. As a result, the firms violated Article V, Section 2(c) of FINRA’s By-Laws and FINRA Rules 1122 and 2010. During that same six-month period, the firms also failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system reasonably designed to ensure the timely filing of Form U4 amendments, in violation of FINRA Rules 3110 and 2010.
Our attorneys have successfully represented hundreds of investors in investment disputes with their brokers and brokerage firms. Our consultations are free and we welcome all inquiries.