What You Need to Know
- ISCA cIlients were urged to buy and hold funds that paid its affiliated broker-dealer 12b-1 fees.
- The firm also failed to disclose revenue sharing in a cash sweep.
- The firm did not self-report to the SEC under its Share Class Selection Disclosure Initiative.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has fined ISC Advisors for recommending mutual fund share classes that paid ISCA’s affiliated broker-dealer 12b-1 fees when lower-cost shares were available and for receiving revenue sharing in cash sweep programs.
ISCA, the order states, “failed to provide full and fair disclosure of these payments and the resulting conflicts of interest.”
Since at least Jan. 1, 2014, ISCA recommended that its clients purchase and hold mutual fund share classes that paid its affiliated broker-dealer, Institutional Securities Corp., 12b-1 fees.
Also, since at least Jan. 1, 2014, ISCA’s affiliated broker received revenue sharing from its clearing broker for ISCA’s client assets in uninvested cash (whether held in money market mutual funds, a bank insured deposit program or otherwise), the order states.