FINRA Orders Houston-Based USCA Capital Advisors LLC to Pay $3.8M to 19 ExxonMobil Retirees

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel said that USCA Capital Advisors LLC must pay over $3.8 million to 19 ExxonMobil retirees whose investments were mismanaged the Houston-based wealth management firm. The self-regulatory organization also says that the Texas investment advisory firm misled the investors about its trading strategy.

It is not uncommon for Houston financial advisers to target ExxonMobil retirees as clients. The oil company has a huge outfit and other operations in the area. According to the investors, USCA was tasked with handling their retirement savings because of promises the investment advisors made to protect, oversee, and grow their accounts.

At a presentation by USCA RIA LLC, which is USCA’s investment advisory arm, advisers told investors about their Total Return model program, which they claimed would up S & P 500 gains while lowering the risks involved in trading equities. Investors said they were told the strategy would hold primarily exchange-traded funds and U.S. stocks in a rising market and turn the money into cash when the markets dropped. Trades were to be stimulated by “objective technical factors.”

While some investors thought the program would handle trading, others thought that the firm would monitor computerized results, using the information to trade. They invested close to $40 million. They believe that they could have made $3 million from the strategy they thought the firms’ advisers were going to employ. Instead, they sustained $1.25 million in losses.

Of the $3.8 million FINRA arbitration award, $853,000 is punitive damages. $1.9 million are damages and interest. Nearly $1 million will go to legal bills and other expenses.

Shepherd Smith and Kantas, LTD LLP is a Texas stockbroker fraud law firm.

Texas Advisory Firm Ordered to Pay Exxon Retirees $3.8 Million, NASDAQ.com, November 20, 2014

Houston wealth management firm must pay $3.8 million to retirees: panel, Reuters, November 19, 2014

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