Goodman & Nekvasil P.A., May Recover Investor Losses | Mark Allan Miller (Mark Miller) Financial Advisor Ordered to Cease and Desist by State of Washington
Mark Miller was previously licensed with J.P. Morgan Securities, LLC and Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. The State of Washington Department of Financial Institutions alleged that Mark Miller falsely claimed that Mark Miller was not engaged in any outside business activities, when in fact Mark Miller was engaged in an outside arrangement for fixed annuity referrals. In mid-2015, Mark Miller allegedly entered a referral arrangement with E.B., an Oregon-based insurance agent licensed in both Oregon and Washington. Mark Miller had allegedly been a colleague and friend of E.B. at an insurance company several years prior and told E.B. that he wanted to help him to learn how to sell annuities and build an independent practice. Under the referral arrangement, Mark Miller would allegedly conduct annuity transactions through E.B. when clients wanted to buy annuities. Mark Miller allegedly would generally pitch the client on the annuity and would be the main point of contact if the client had any issues, while E.B. would fill out the paperwork and would sometimes participate in the final meeting with the client to complete the transaction. The insurance company would allegedly send commission payments to E.B., and E.B. would pay Mark Miller his share of the commission in cash. Mark Miller allegedly never disclosed this arrangement to his employer, and falsely represented in at least one Form U-4 filing with Washington State that he had no such arrangements.
According to the State of Washington, Mark Miller allegedly referred six Washington-resident clients to E.B. between October 2015 and April 2016, while Mark Miller was working for JP Morgan. Mark Miller allegedly did not provide JP Morgan with notice of, or receive the firm’s authorization for, these referrals. Mark Miller allegedly obtained approximately $98,726 as a result of his referrals (slightly over 70% of the total commission payments to E.B.), dealing exclusively in cash to avoid scrutiny of the transactions. In April 2016, JP Morgan allegedly began an internal investigation of Miller after learning about Miller’s annuity referral practices from one of the clients. Mark Miller allegedly resigned from the firm while under internal investigation, on June 1, 2016.
According to the State of Washington, of Mark Miller’s six referrals to E.B., at least two were JP Morgan clients. One of the clients, T.W., was allegedly an investment advisory client. In approximately March 2016, Mark Miller allegedly met with T.W. and gave T.W. a financial plan which involved liquidating some assets to purchase an annuity through JP Morgan. Although T.W. agreed to this plan, the proposed transaction was allegedly not processed. Mark Miller allegedly told T.W. that JP Morgan had found a suitability issue, and that JP Morgan was not actively involved in annuity sales at that time. According to JP Morgan, both statements were false: the transaction was not processed because Mark Miller had not properly completed the paperwork, and JP Morgan was selling annuities at that time. Rather than completing the paperwork or selling T.W. an annuity through JP Morgan, Miller allegedly referred T.W. to E.B. to buy an annuity. T.W. allegedly liquidated his managed JP Morgan account and bought an annuity through E.B. for $324,343.79. Mark Miller allegedly received approximately $20,000 through E.B. from the sale of the annuity but did not tell T.W. anything about the specifics of his referral arrangement with E.B., or the compensation he would receive.
If you lost any money on investments with Mark Miller, you may be able to recover your losses from J.P. Morgan Securities LLC. This is because J.P. Morgan Securities LLC had a duty to supervise Mark Miller.
If you lost money on investments with Mark Miller 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 against J.P. Morgan Securities, LLC concerning Mark Miller’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 Mark Miller 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.