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September 09, 2024 at 03:26 PM
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday settled charges against nine registered investment advisors for violating the Marketing Rule by disseminating advertisements that included untrue or unsubstantiated statements of material fact or testimonials, endorsements or third-party ratings that lacked required disclosures.
All nine firms have agreed to settle the SEC’s charges and to pay $1.2 million in combined civil penalties.
The nine firms and their penalties are:
- Abacus Planning Group Inc. agreed to pay a civil penalty of $150,000;
- AZ Apice Capital Management LLC agreed to pay a civil penalty of $70,000;
- Beta Wealth Group, Inc. agreed to pay a civil penalty of $80,000;
- Droms Strauss Advisors Inc. agreed to pay a civil penalty of $85,000;
- Howard Bailey Securities LLC agreed to pay a civil penalty of $90,000;
- Integrated Advisors Network LLC agreed to pay a civil penalty of $325,000;
- Professional Financial Strategies Inc. agreed to pay a civil penalty of $60,000;
- Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC agreed to pay a civil penalty of $295,000; and
- TS Bank d/b/a Callahan Financial Planning agreed to pay a civil penalty of $85,000.
Abacus and Callahan Financial “published advertisements with untrue statements about third-party ratings,” and “Callahan Financial posted an advertisement falsely claiming that it was a member of an organization that did not exist,” according to the SEC orders.
AZ Apice, Callahan Financial, Droms Strauss and Integrated Advisors disseminated advertisements that claimed to provide conflict-free advisory services, which the firms were not able to substantiate, the SEC said.
Meanwhile, Beta Wealth disseminated advertisements “that it could not substantiate regarding an award provided to a firm principal,” the SEC said, and Howard Bailey disseminated advertisements “claiming to contain two testimonials, but neither actually came from current clients.”
