Financial Advisor Complaints

If you have recently lost money on an investment recommended to you by a financial advisor, you may be able to file a complaint.

Lost money can sting, especially if it’s for your retirement investment or has been advised to you by an investment advisor.

However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can sue your financial advisor for bad advice. Investing money always comes with risks, whether in the stock market, real estate, or any other asset class. So, it depends on your exact case and the law around it.

But, if you believe that you, your spouse, or your business have been harmed, are a victim of fraud or negligence, then you should make a claim. Our law firm (InvestmentFraudLawyers.com) specializes in handling complaints against broker-dealers and financial advisors.

Luckily for all of us, the financial industry is highly regulated, so if your financial advisor has gone against the law, you can sue them.

Throughout this article, we will guide you through financial advisor complaints, how they work and how you can make one.

Who Is The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority?

When filing a complaint against financial professionals, you must make it to the Securities and Exchange Commission or the FINRA.

These are the standard financial industry regulatory authority bodies that act as separate bodies from the U.S government.

They enforce the federal securities and laws that regulate the industry.

This includes but is not limited to:

• Dealing with bad financial advice from an investment advisor
• Errors made by a brokerage firm or financial planner
• Miscalculated risk by an investment advisor

Problems addressed by the FINRA:

• Buy or sell trading orders on stocks, Foreign exchange, etc.
• Unauthorized Transactions from your account
• Manipulation of price or volume
• Activity related to your 404(k), such as fraud
• Suspicious miscalculation of risk.

Problems Addressed by the Securities and Exchange Commission :

• SEC filing or report
• Public companies

Do You Have a Valid Claim?

If you have any reason to believe that your financial advisor has been fraudulent, negligent, or put his interests before yours, then you might have a valid claim. There are always a lot of factors involved when it comes to brokerage firms and financial professionals.

However, there are also a lot of rules and regulations. If these aren’t followed, you can probably claim with the industry regulatory authority, FINRA, or Securities and Exchange Commission.

We will talk you through making a claim, or you can also seek our legal guidance first.

How To file a complaint About Your Financial Advisor

Before you proceed with filing a complaint about your financial professional, you should first contact the broker himself.

From there, if you are not satisfied with his response, you can contact the branch manager or compliance department of the brokerage firm. You can do this through a written letter, but ensure to keep a copy of the documents for legal purposes.

If all of these steps do not resolve your issue with your financial advisor, you can move onto filing a complaint with FINRA or Securities and Exchange Commission, the two governing bodies for financial advisors and other professionals.

Besides, you can also contact your state securities commission, but that depends on which state you’re in.

For investors all over the US, the solutions outlined below should be suited.

If FINRA or Securities and Exchange Commission see several complaints about one broker, advisor, or firm, they will investigate them further to stop any potential fraudulent activity.

How To File a Complaint With FINRA

If your complaint is about a stockbroker, you will likely need to file a complaint with FINRA.

To file a complaint with FINRA, you need to head over to their form, where you will submit the details about your issue.

However, we recommend first taking a quick at FINRA’s complaint center, where you will find a range of information related to complaints.

How To File a Complaint With The SEC

If you are dealing with a transfer agent or a publicly registered company, you will likely have to file the complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

If you think you have been a victim of fraud or security issues, this is also the body you will need to file the complaint to. In some cases, they can even reverse a trade if your claim is valid.

This is a similar process, but you need to use one of their online forms instead.

What If Your Claim is a Success?

If your claim is a success, the broker or advisor must compensate you in the form of money. Or, they may also make a settlement offer, which has a lower value than your request.

If no agreement is made, they may dispute the claim, and the case could go to arbitration. However, in most cases, it will not go this far.

What If You Filed a Complaint Without Success?

If you have filed a complaint without success, you can also consider hiring financial lawyers for advice. They should be able to advise you on the legal process and your chances of succeeding in it.

From here, the lawyer will look at the investment guidance provided by your broker and will look at whether your complaint is valid.

If they believe it is, they will use FINRA’s or SEC’s website to file the complaint. A law firm can also contact the advisor’s branch manager or compliance department, as they are more likely to get a response that you are satisfied with.

The benefit of using lawyers is that they are often experienced in dealing with investment issues and financial advisor complaints.

We are a national law firm and have recovered millions for our clients. If you are looking for a law firm to help you deal with bad financial advice, FINRA or Securities and Exchange Commission, we are ready to help.

When you call us using the number below, we provide you with a free legal consultation call.

Need to File A Financial Advisor Complaint? Contact Us Today. Call 1 888-628-5590

Why Choose Us?

• We have a 95% win rate for clients.
• Recovered millions of dollars from bad financial advice
• Happy to offer a free legal consultation.

Tips For Avoiding Bad Financial Advisors

We also wanted to give you some tips to help you avoid bad financial advisors.

1. Listen Closely

Bad financial advisors will talk down to their clients. They should explain their recommended investments to you in a way that you understand.

And if they don’t do so or respond sensitively to questions about the investment, it’s a sign that you might want to avoid this financial advisor.

2. Look at their interests

A lot of financial brokers earn commissions from sales of products or investments. While this may sound like it completely incentivizes brokers or advisors to go for certain investments, this isn’t the case as they should always put the interest of their clients first.

However, there are a few advisors or brokers that don’t.

3. Do they return your calls?

You should always only be a phone call away from your financial professionals. If you find them avoiding your phone calls or not responding to online messages, this is a bad sign.

When a financial professional completes buy or sell orders of an investment for a client, you should always have access to them and their explanations.

4. Research

This sounds like an obvious piece of advice. However, there are many great websites online for financial planners that will only list certified professionals who have passed a test.

Before choosing a financial advisor, it also always makes sense to check their reviews on various platforms such as Google and TrustPilot.