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Call it the Thunderdome of the securities industry. For the 4,000 firms, 637,000 registered representatives and millions of investors in the U.S. brokerage industry, there’s practically only one way to settle disputes: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration. Here, in part one of a series on FINRA arbitration, Law360 offers a primer on […]
As we have recently discussed, so-called “high-yield” investment opportunities present a number of potential risks for individual investors. Among these risks is the ever-present threat that your investment opportunity is not actually an investment at all, but rather a scam designed to leave you with nothing. Recently, both the Securities […]
The sudden passing of Justice Antonin Scalia and the ensuing political scramble to replace him could have a profound effect on Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. In June, The Supreme Court will decide whether or not Puerto Rico’s public utility, PREPA can restructure its own debts. The Supreme Court will consider […]
As an individual investor, high-yield bonds certainly sound tempting. A higher interest rate without the ups and downs of the stock market — who doesn’t want that? However, as with most investments, there is more to high-yield bonds than meets the eye. For individual investors, these can be extremely risky […]
Brokers who pitched energy based structured products during the recent oil boom to conservative clients will be flooded with phone calls from angry clients. As the price of oil has crashed from $100 a barrel less than two years ago to below $30 on Thursday, investors who bought structured products […]
Junk bonds are back. A type of high-yield security that involves loaning money to a non-investment-grade company, “junk bonds” got their name because they are also extremely high-risk for both institutional and individual investors. While some bonds are junk from the beginning, others can become junk bonds when a company […]
During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush famously called Al Gore’s budget plan “fuzzy math.” Bush said Gore promised too much and couldn’t pay for what government programs he had planned. The notion of “fuzzy math” is particularly appropriate today when discussing Puerto Rico’s $72 billion ticking time bomb […]
Among its many provisions, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) provides protections for two classes of individuals in particular. These are (i) employees who suffer investment losses due to improper conduct, and (ii) employees who report companies’ misconduct (known as “whistleblowers”) leading to investment losses. ERISA is a complex […]
We are investigating sales of the Babson Capital Global Short Duration High Yield Fund (NYSE: BGH), a closed end short duration high yield bond fund for potential securities law suitability violations. Since 2009, many investors, particularly retirees or those seeking income, have invested in short duration high yield bond funds. […]
Yesterday New York City-based Zamansky LLC unveiled investigations into a dozen open-end mutual funds, two hedge funds, and a closed-end fund. The investigation comes four days after Zamansky filed a $500-million, putative class-action lawsuit over the now-infamous fall of Third Avenue’s Focused Credit Fund. Click here to view the full […]