Mickey Long Banned From Selling Alt. Investments
The Texas State Securities Board has banned broker Mickey Long from recommending alternative investments, including nontraded REITs, after he concentrated a client's account with too many such investments. The state also suspended him for forty-five days and put him on heightened supervision by his firm, Calton & Associates Inc., for two years. Regulators have become increasingly concerned about high-commission products such as nontraded REITs over the past couple of years. In this case, “[t]he agent recommended that a client invest in certain alternative investments, namely nontraded REITs and private offerings of interests in oil and gas entities,” according to Mickey Long's central registration depository profile. “The client had elected within the client's account opening documents to have no more than 20% allocated to the 'highest risk/aggressive' risk tolerance level and no more than 60% allocated to the 'highest risk/moderate' risk tolerance level.” According to Texas' order, Long put almost 36% of the customer's invested assets into the former [...]