Our Tampa Florida Alternative Investment Fraud Attorneys Represent Investors From All Walks Of Life Against Financial Advisors
At Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas (investorlawyers.com), our Tampa Florida Alternative Investment Fraud Attorneys work with investors who have sustained losses because of unsuitable, fraudulent, or poor-performing financial products that were inappropriately marketed and sold to them by a broker or investment adviser. If you suspect that you may be the victim of alternative investment fraud, contact us today to schedule a free, initial case assessment.
What Is An Alternative Investment And Why Might You, A Florida Investor, Want to Sue Your Broker?
This type of investment generally looks to employ non-conventional investing strategies or trading and falls outside of what are considered traditional bonds, stocks, or cash equivalents. Examples of alternative investments:
- Energy investments
- Real estate investments
- Real estate investment trusts (REITs)
- Non-traded real estate investment trusts (Non-traded REITs)
- Commodities
- Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
- Private placements
- Private debt and equity
- Hedge funds
- Cryptocurrency
- Collectibles
- Regulation D offerings
- Delaware Statutory Trusts (DSTs)
- Structured products
- Structured notes
- Annuities
- Venture capital
- Managed futures
- Oil and gas investments
- Business development company (BDC)
Often under limited regulation, requiring high minimum investment, and with complex fee structures, many alternative investments are too high risk and complex for most retail investors, unsophisticated investors, and conservative retirees. Yet alternative investments make up a significant chunk of revenue on Wall Street, with some brokerage firms even creating their own proprietary alternative investments to sell to customers.
While alternative investments can be part of a smart diversification strategy to minimize market volatility, the risks can offset the benefits, including the high commissions, non-transparency, insufficient performance benchmarks, and possible conflicts of interest. According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the fees charged to some alternative investment investors can be up to 2% of the fund’s assets and 20% of the gains produced. The financial advisors that sell alternative assets may end up seeing their hefty commissions long before the investor is paid any returns.
Even if an alternative investment proving fraudulent had nothing to do with your financial advisor’s actions, if they: unsuitably recommended this investment, failed to fully apprise you of the risks, did not disclose any conflicts of interest, neglected to make sure you fully understood the complex nature of the product, ignored red flags indicating a financial scam was taking place, or disregarded your best interests in any way when promoting an alternative investment to you, there may be grounds for a FINRA lawsuit seeking damages.
Our Seasoned Tampa Alternative Investment Fraud Law Firm Are Committed to Protecting Investors’ Rights
Our Tampa Florida Alternative Investment Fraud Attorneys have been representing Florida investors against US broker-dealers for more than 30 years. With a combined more than 100 years of experience in securities law and the securities industry, we at Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas have the skills, resources, and knowledge to represent clients with even the most complex investment loss cases.
Over the decades, more than 90% of investors we have worked with obtained full or partial financial recovery because of our skilled efforts and dedication. We have successfully represented clients regarding more than 1000 matters in arbitration, mediation, and litigation.
When you work with our Tampa alternative investment loss recovery law firm, you are retaining not just one of our attorneys, but you are hiring all of us. The majority of our firm are former financial advisors who quit that industry because we did not like the unsavory practices we witnessed that we knew were hurting investors. We chose to become Florida securities attorneys so we could protect investors’ legal rights while fighting for them against unscrupulous financial advisors.
Most Florida alternative investment fraud disputes will have to be brought in FINRA arbitration. It is one of the reasons it is important that you don’t try to settle your disagreement directly with your broker or investment adviser without a seasoned Tampa Florida Alternative Investment Fraud Attorneys on your side.
Contact Us:
In Hillsborough County, Miami-Dade County, Broward County, Palm Beach County, and all of Florida, call (813) 560-2992 or (800) 259-9010 or fill out this form.
Our Florida Alternative Investment Fraud Attorneys
407 N Howard Ave #201A
Tampa, FL 33606