Security Attorney Sacramento
Cases We Are Investigating
Brokerage Firm Marketed Products
TD/Ameritrade/Reserve Yield Plus Fund, Brook Street Securities, Lehman Brothers "Principal Protected" Notes, Morgan Keegan's Select Intermediate Bond Fund and Select High Income Fund, and most target date 2010 funds that were marketed and sold as "safe funds" and they're not.
Bond Funds
Certain bund fonds, such as Charles Schwab's YieldPlus Fund, were marketed and sold as safe alternatives to cash. But brokers filled these funds with risky mortgage-backed securities to pump up performance, with disastrous results.
Hedge Funds
The decline of Citigroup's fixed income hedge funds has led to investor claims and an investigation of Citigroup, Inc. Others may face a similar fate.
Auction Rate Securities
In late 2007 and early in 2008, investors purchased auction-rate securities from a variety of sources including UBS, Merrill Lynch, Nuveen and Citigroup/SmithBarney — in the form of preferred shares in closed-end mutual funds, or corporate or municipal bond instruments — in reliance on the representation that they were safe, liquid, slightly higher-yielding, tax-exempt alternative to money-market funds. Now, after the auctions failed, many investors are stuck with these investments.
TICs - Tenant In Common Investments
Brokerage firms have sold risky fractional ownership interests in real estate to persons who have recently sold or are considering the sale of an appreciated piece of property as an alternative investment vehicle that preserves the tax free.
Ultrashort Bond Funds
The dismal state of “ultrashort” bond funds, often marketed as safe investments that would provide higher potential returns than money market funds, with only marginally higher risk, has wreaked havoc on investors and created massive financial losses.
Subprime Mortgage Investments
Recent turmoil in the credit markets has begun to expose the lack of disclosure and in some cases misleading sales presentations made by brokerage firms to their customer regarding the sale of “mortgage backed” or “asset backed” securities.
Variable Annuities
Variable annuities are poor products for most investors, but insurance companies make huge tremendous profits and pay brokers huge commissions to sell them. “Indexed” annuities may have similar problems.
Early Retirement Schemes
Unscrupulous brokers advise older employees to transfer their retirement funds to the broker, then retire early and begin withdrawing the funds under IRS Rule 72t, earning the broker big fees but depleting the hard-earned nest egg—often resulting in the “retiree” having to go back to work.