A schoolteacher nearing retirement notices that his advisor has been making frequent trades of the mutual funds in his account and sees that now he has a group of mutual funds that have very similar investments or investment objectives as the funds he initially owned. A retired lawyer reviews his monthly statement and realizes that her bond portfolio has been bought and sold several times in the last year, with little change in the portfolio's value or quality. In each of these cases, it may be that the broker violated the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) rule against excessive trading, or "churning."
Churning means that your stockbroker is excessively trading your account without considering your investment interests as the primary objective. Rather, the broker is merely generating commissions for himself or herself by trading your account. If your stockbroker or other investment advisor is constantly buying and selling investments in your account he or she may be 'churning' your account. Although churning was probably more common during the last part of the bull market that ended in early 2000, the activity continues today and both past and current churning are actionable claims.
Churning is not happening in your account if you told your broker that you wanted to have an actively traded account. In that case one of your investment objectives is trading and therefore you expect and welcome the active trading as part of your investment strategy. If you do open an account with trading as an objective your broker should require you to sign additional documents affirming your active trading objective, and the broker's failure to do so may result in unlawful conduct.
Another hallmark of churning is when a broker takes 'effective control' of your account. If your broker makes recommendations knowing that you will accept all of his or her recommendations, effective control results and gives the broker had a higher duty to act in your best interests. Breach of that duty by churning your account, constitutes unlawful behavior.
If you review the activity in your account for the last few years and suspect churning and want to consider going after your broker in arbitration, contact the Savage Law Firm, P.A. to review your account and discuss your concerns.
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