Brian Stephan – Financial Advisor Brian Stephan Suspended by FINRA | Goodman & Nekvasil P.A., May Recover Investor Losses
Brian Stephan CRD #4222796
Brian Stephan is a currently licensed financial advisor/broker with American Wealth Management, Inc. in Xenia, Ohio. Brian Stephan was previously licensed with Commonwealth Financial Network. FINRA ordered that Brian Stephan be suspended for 8 months and fined $10,000.
ACCORDING TO FINRA: Brian Stephan was named a respondent in a FINRA complaint alleging that he recommended and caused the execution of unsuitable investments for an 88-year-old customer. The complaint alleges that Stephan recommended that the elderly customer invest in mutual fund Class A shares in twenty different mutual fund families. This recommendation was unsuitable because the customer would have been able to achieve a discount on applicable sales charges by aggregating her mutual fund purchases into fewer fund families. Moreover, on approximately ten occasions, Stephan recommended a mutual fund purchase in an amount that was relatively slightly less than the level required for a discount on sales charges. Brian Stephan’s recommendations caused the customer to incur excessive sales charges and he to be paid more through commissions and lacked any reasonable basis. For the Class A share mutual fund transactions this customer paid over $60,000 in commissions. Had the customer invested in larger amounts across fewer fund families, she could have benefitted from sales charge discounts and reduced her costs by approximately $30,000. Thus, Stephan recommended that the customer invest in multiple fund families without regard for available breakpoints needed for a discount. The complaint also alleges that Stephan mismarked transactions and provided false information on his member firm’s mutual fund exchange forms. Brian Stephan marked transactions in the customer’s account as “unsolicited” when they were in fact “solicited” transactions. Further, Brian Stephan provided false information on his firm’s mutual fund exchange forms, erroneously stating that the exchanges were done because the customer was unhappy with the performance of the original products, and incorrectly marking the exchanges as “unsolicited.” Again, Brian Stephan had recommended each of these exchanges, and the customer did not complain about the performance of the original products. This conduct caused his firm to maintain inaccurate books and records.
If you lost any money on investments with Brian Stephan, you may be able to recover your losses. If you lost money on investments with Brian Stephan and believe the investments may have been unsuitable or otherwise improper for you, we would like to discuss the possibility of your retaining our firm to represent you in an arbitration action concerning Brian Stephan’s conduct. There is no charge for an evaluation of your case. Further, we handle our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that unless we recover money for you, we charge no attorney’s fee. Unless you recover any money, you pay us nothing, not even the costs and expenses which the firm will advance on your behalf.
Kalju Nekvasil, Esq., formerly regional counsel with the NASD, now known as FINRA, has practiced in this area of the law for more than 35 years. Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. has recovered more than $180 million on behalf of victimized investors. If you lost money on investments with Brian Stephan and would like your case evaluated by a securities attorney (again, there is no charge for an evaluation and all cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis), please contact us.
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