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Winston Wade Turner Banned from Securities Industry by FINRA for ‘Unethical and Dishonest Actions

FINRA banned Winston Wade Turner, a former Prudential Financial Inc. and MetLife Inc. broker, from the securities industry for making unsuitable variable annuity recommendations. Turner misled clients by misrepresenting and omitting material facts about the sales, according to the regulatory authority. Additionally, Turner hid that he convinced a number of clients to surrender existing variable annuities and, in a few instances, to sell other investments to fund their purchases of new variable annuities he was recommending, FINRA says. FINRA also says that exchanging annuities necessitates heightened supervisory scrutiny because of their relatively high commissions and costs. Pruco Securities Inc., a brokerage subsidiary of Prudential, terminated Turner's employment in August of last year due to the misleading sales practices. "Turner's unethical and dishonest actions, and his willingness to take unfair advantage of customers who placed their trust in him, demonstrate that he is unfit to remain in the securities industry,” according to FINRA's statement. In November 2012, Turner had a client [...]

By |July 13th, 2016|FINRA, Press Releases & News|
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Variable Annuities The Subject Of High Scrutiny

Recently, two FINRA enforcement officials emphasized at an insurance industry conference that variable annuities, which offer lifetime guaranteed income to investors but can be complicated and expensive, are still the subject of high scrutiny. “Variable annuities are just very frequently involved in our cases,” Russ Ryan, FINRA Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief of Enforcement, said Tuesday at an Insured Retirement Institute conference in the nation's capital. James Day, FINRA Associate Vice President and Enforcement Chief Counsel, stated that variable annuities "are at the sweet spot of complex products marketed to retirees and people about to retire." Both Ryan and Day noted FINRA's enforcement action against MetLife, which the regulatory authority hit with a record $25 million penalty for misleading variable annuity sales. In that instance, FINRA found that MetLife financial advisors made misrepresentations and omissions of fact in 72% of 35,500 applications the firm approved between 2009 and 2014 to replace clients' old variable annuities with [...]

By |June 7th, 2016|FINRA|
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MetLife To Pay Record Fine Of $25M

MetLife has agreed to pay $25 million to settle an investigation of abuses pertaining to variable annuities. That penalty is the greatest amount ever paid for violations regarding those products. From that $25 million, $20 million will go to FINRA as a fine and $5 million will be paid to customers for negligent misrepresentations and omissions, said FINRA. MetLife neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing. According to Brad Bennett, FINRA's Chief of Enforcement, “Variable annuities are complex and expensive products that are routinely pitched to vulnerable investors as a key component of their retirement planning. Firms engaging in this business must ensure that the information on the costs and benefits of these products provided to customers is accurate.” Regulators have been scrutinizing variable annuities more and more. These products can combine securities investments with guaranteed income, an arrangement that may create attractive fees for insurers. According to FINRA, the investigation related to abuses from 2009 to 2014, [...]

By |May 3rd, 2016|FINRA, Press Releases & News|
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Ex-MetLife, Pruco Broker Accused Of Deceptive Variable Annuity Sales Practices

FINRA has accused a former MetLife Securities Inc. and Pruco Securities Inc. broker, Winston Wade Turner, of harmful and deceptive variable annuity sales practices. According to FINRA's complaint, Turner allegedly "engaged in a course of deception and other misconduct in connection with sales and exchanges of variable annuities involving numerous customers." Turner also allegedly induced some clients to exchange their variable annuities and other investments, whereby they surrendered existing contracts to fund purchases of new variable annuities, sometimes incurring surrender charges for the investor and generating additional commissions for Turner. He concealed the unsuitability of these transactions by falsifying documents and misrepresenting the way some income features on the annuity contracts worked, according to the complaint. More specifically, Turner allegedly hid the nature of the variable annuity transactions by circumventing the “additional supervisory scrutiny and documentation” required for these exchanges, the complaint says. In some cases, Turner hid his actions by recommending clients deposit proceeds from the surrender of the variable [...]

By |March 2nd, 2016|Broker Check, FINRA, Fraud, Press Releases & News|
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