Attorney Sean Sweeney from Halling & Cayo, S.C. discusses some of the warning signs of a bad broker and what you can do about it.

What are the warning signs of a bad Financial Advisor?

  • Unclear explanations/answers to your questions
  • Feels like a sales call
  • Too much small talk (weather, kids), never talks business
  • Seeing unfamiliar things in your portfolio/emails

“Some of the warning signs that you have to look for, I think is that if your broker first isn’t explaining things to you the way that you would like to. Often we hear about people who whenever they talk to the broker, it’s just sort of a sales call. They want to talk about the weather and the kids and everything else. And they don’t focus on what the call is actually about, which is the investments that they are selling to you, whether they’re appropriate for you, whether they make sense.

The other is if you start to see things that you don’t recall talking to your broker about. That is called unauthorized trading, which is the name of the claim. For most accounts you have to give your broker the authority to make a trade and they have to clear it with you. If you start seeing account statements that show traits that you don’t remember ever talking to your broker about, that’s a red flag.”

Your financial advisor has a duty to you, the client, to only make recommendations that are appropriate for you given your age, wealth, risk tolerance, and time horizon. If your financial advisor took actions that result in significant losses in your account, you may have a claim to recover those losses in a FINRA Arbitration.”

The Securities Lawyers practice group at Halling & Cayo, S.C. can help. We take cases all over the country, and we only get paid if we win. Contact us to set up a meeting to review your case.