On July 24, 2018, FINRA announced that the firms submitted Letters of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. was censured and fined $350,000; FSC Securities Corporation was censured and fined $200,000; SagePoint Financial, Inc was censured and fined $200,000.; and Woodbury Financial Services, Inc. was censured and fined $250,000. Without admitting or denying the allegations, the firms consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that during the investigation period the firms failed to establish, maintain and enforce a supervisory system and written procedures designed to reasonably supervise representatives’ sale of multi-share class variable annuities and failed to provide training to their representatives and principals on the sale and supervision of these annuities. Additionally, Royal Alliance failed to reasonably supervise variable annuity exchanges in that it failed to implement a reasonable supervisory system and procedures to regulate its registered representatives.
According to the findings, the firms’ procedures did not specifically address suitability issues related to the different surrender periods, fees and costs of the different variable annuity share classes; as well as, it did not specifically address the suitability concerns raised by the sale of an L-share contract when combined with a long-term income rider. The investigation also found that the firms failed to provide adequate training to their registered representatives and reviewing principals to ensure that they understood the material features of variable annuities. The firms’ training was not designed to ensure that their representatives and reviewing principals understood all suitability considerations.
The investigation revealed that between February 2014 and December 2015, Royal Alliance received over $61.9 million from the sale of variable annuities. More than 28% of the annuities were L-share contracts. Between January 2013 and December 2014, FSC received over $51.5 million from the sale of variable annuities; SagePoint received over $52.7 million from the sale of variable annuities; including $11.5 million from the sale of L-share contracts, and Woodbury received over $107.1 million from the sale of variable annuities, including approximately $18.8 million from the sale of L-share contracts.
Questions or comments may be addressed to David A. Weintraub, P.A. 7805 SW 6th Court, Plantation, FL 33324. By phone: 954.693.7577 or 800.718.1422.