Securities Arbitration · Investment Fraud
Practice Areas
These are the claims that come up most often in FINRA arbitration. You do not need to identify which one fits your situation — that is our job. If something below sounds familiar, that is enough.
Unsuitable Investments
A broker must have a reasonable basis to believe a recommendation is suitable for you specifically — your age, your income, your liquidity needs, and what you said you were trying to accomplish. When the new-account form says "conservative, income" and the account holds speculative or illiquid products, that gap is the claim.
Churning & Excessive Trading
Excessive trading is measured, not argued. Turnover ratio and cost-to-equity ratio show how hard an account had to work simply to break even against its own costs. When those numbers are high and the broker controlled the trading, churning is on the table.
Misrepresentation & Omission
It is not only what you were told — it is what you were not told. A product described as safe, steady, or principal-protected, when the offering documents said otherwise, is a misrepresentation claim. So is a risk that was never mentioned at all.
Overconcentration
Diversification is the most basic obligation in portfolio construction. An account with the bulk of its value in one stock, one sector, or one non-traded product carries a risk profile you likely never agreed to — and it is one of the most common causes of catastrophic investor loss.
Unauthorized Trading
Unless you gave written discretionary authority, your broker needs your approval before each trade. Trades you learned about only when the confirmation arrived — or only when you read the statement — are unauthorized.
Failure to Supervise
Brokerage firms are required to supervise their registered representatives and to maintain systems that catch problems. When a firm ignored the red flags its own compliance systems produced, the firm is answerable for what followed — which matters, because the firm is usually the party able to pay an award.
Selling Away & Outside Investments
When an advisor steers you into an investment their firm never approved or supervised, both the advisor and the firm may bear responsibility. These matters often surface only after the investment stops making payments.
Elder Financial Exploitation
Investors in or near retirement have the least capacity to recover from a loss and are subject to specific protective rules, including trusted-contact requirements and holds on suspicious disbursements. Claims involving older investors are treated seriously in the FINRA forum.
Ponzi Schemes & Investment Fraud
When the fraudster is gone, the question becomes who else is responsible — the brokerage firm that failed to supervise, the advisor who solicited the investment, or the custodian that processed the transfers. Recovery usually depends on identifying a solvent party with an obligation you can enforce.
No cost, no obligation
Tell us what happened.
Describe your account, your advisor, and the losses. We will review what you send and tell you candidly whether a FINRA claim makes sense — including when it does not.
- The case review is free and carries no obligation.
- Your message goes directly to the attorney, not to a call center.
- You will get a straight answer, even if that answer is no.
- Timing matters — FINRA claims are subject to an eligibility rule and to statutes of limitations.
Inquiry@altamiranopllc.com
1 World Trade Center, 85th Floor
New York, NY 10007