By Kassiy Waddell
After leaving Merrill Lynch when the investment industry required a paradigm shift. Kevin Palmer orchestrate an alliance of Wall Street and business executives at Strategic Management Adisors (later sMa Institute) to build better Broker-Dealers. Their mission was to provide smaller financial firms the perspective needed to implement change through operational efficiency and crystallized corporate culture. By combining cognitive psychology and conventional economic research, they improved business models, revenue generation and profit margins.
Kevin Palmer who is still currently registered as an RIA had at the time according to brokercheck his Series 65 (Uniform Investment Advisor Law Examination), obtained on June 18, 2004 : Series 63 (Uniform Sales securities Agent State Law Examination ), which he obtained on June 7, 1985; Series 7 (general securities Representative Examination ), obtained on May 18.1985; And Series 8 (General Securities Sales Supervisor Examination [Options Module & General Module ]) which he obtained on February 21, 1998.
Not wanting to give up that legacy of education and licensing, Palmer obtained approval from his former employer as a newly acquired consulting client, First Montauk to park his licenses, as a quid pro quo, providing he complied with firm rules about outside business activity disclosure’s and updated his continuing education examinations.
In the normal course of events there were mergers and acquisitions and the firm became part of First Allied Securities. Ten years had gone by after Kevin Palmer left the securities side as a stock broker to run his consulting firm and the memory of his agreement with the initial B-D faded as management personnel changed. He continued to run his own trading account but after the parent company of First Allied Securities emerged from bankruptcy Robert Moore CEO of Cetera was under pressure to perform. First Allied Securities and First Allied Advisory Services decided it was time to cut cost and clean up loose end to seek SEC approval to raise more capital for the teetering business.
It was expensive for them to keep licenses active for firm non-producers, like Palmer who had extensive outside business, charitable and BOD interests that required FINRA supervision. If they discharged him they could also save thousands of dollars in exchange fees because Kevin Palmer’s five -million-dollar day trading account and two related family accounts were managed at deep discounts. He was also utilizing the expensive institutional trading desk according to the agreement with First Montauk. So, they looked for a reason to terminate Kevin Palmer from First Allied Securities.
First, they insisted he shut down all websites for his outsider business activities hoping it would drive him out. When he flatly refused, they went after his wife’s Arizona-based design business and told him they need to house family website at First Allied Securities. When that didn’t work, Ryan Maul a compliance manager called his “accounts” of record saying. “We are interested in hearing from investors who have complaints regarding Mr. Palmer.”
What they didn’t realize, was his two “accounts” were family related, one of which was his own rollover, jointly owned. When the natural response was , “of course he makes the choices .” They used the questionable technicality as an admission of guilt and discharged him for unauthorized trading.
The absurdity was not wasted on a securities arbitration & investment fraud lawyers who quickly made contact procuring authorization to defend him. Their truth was clear, Kevin Palmer had an outstanding track record of professional integrity by comparison to 98% on CRD records! After 32 years in the security industry Palmer had only two allegations of misconduct during the time he was employed.
The one at Paine Webber Inc., was a firm wide investment banking issue. Specifically, PaineWebber themselves settled for more then $16,000 in 1994 per client who were an investment banking deal recommendation. The other, at Merrill Lynch was failure to supervise an adviser when in 2000, a customer alleged Kevin Palmer, while employed at Merrill Lynch and running Supervision and Trading modules, recommend unsuitable investments. That complaint settled for only $31,500 WITHOUT FAULT, because the customer had not lost money wholly but as a smaller part of a lager well diversified million dollar portfolio.
It was common practice to settle these small cases and keep powder dry for large dispute resolutions and complaints that are in then the millions of dollars and involve security fraud or financial scams. None the less First Allied needed to discharges this broker with a stellar track record of 32 years in the security industry as part of their cost savings and proceeded with the new course of action to adjudicate the former Arizona-based First Allied broker /adviser.
From Documents we attained, publicly available records, and sources close to the story we uncovered how subsidiaries like First Allied Securities were so overburdened with compliance oversight and infringed on personal freedoms of individual broker/adviser and discharged a command and control edit that mocked uniform investment advisor law going so far as to discriminate against simple family economic freedoms.
According to Brooke Southall: “There is something mercenary about the way that the former insurance broker-dealers get bought, sold, spruced up and staffed. The (formerly ING) Cetera and (formerly AIG) Advisor Group entities are equal parts grand rafts of human financial advisory potential and leftover insurance broker culture that meant not only selling but favoring the brand on their business cards. As such they are catnip for private equity firms who surmise that even marginal improvements can yield enormous gains in value. But when they install mercenary CEOs, they not only expect results, they expect results yesterday. Against that backdrop, Robert Moore is out at Cetera. The official reason and the industry-buzz reason for his planned exit next month differ in their specifics.”
The result was declining advisor retention despite a publicly available plan to acquire another broker-dealer firm. Former Arizona based FINRA registered reps ,say they were frustrated after staying affiliated with the firm through a troubled history in connection with aggressive contravention. A likely reason Cetera’s private equity owner Genstar’s discontinued talks with another undisclosed broker-dealer firm.
Robert Moore former president of LPL Financial, became CEO of Cetera in September 2016, after the independent b/d network emerged from bankruptcy over discretionary trades and poor broker/adviser management. He replaced Larry Roth, who spent years in the security industry and discharged several roles at the broker-dealer.
Robert Moore’s abrupt departure from Cetera has raised questions that echo the bankruptcy of parent RCS Capital and how former employees like Kevin Palmer were treated. Moore, the former president of LPL Financial, was appointed CEO of Cetera in 2016 after the independent broker/ dealer emerged from bankruptcy. Moore, who said he left Cetera for “health” reasons, was the architect of an alleged “unhealthy” corporate culture that bled in to its subsidiaries like First Allied Securities, once run by Adam Antoniades who was passed over for the CEO role at Cetera.
Publicly available records provided through the securities industry indicate former CEO Robert Moore was at the helm when Cetera recruited aggressively by adding more than 800 advisors. Other filings show Cetara carried a significant level of debt during Moore’s growth strategy of accelerated mass recruiting and acquisitions.The firm avoided an investment in junk bonds but carried a significant level of debt. It’s growth strategy never really got off the ground but helped give rise in revenue to firms like fitapellui kurta who accepts all recoup cases on a contingency basis.
Currently Ben Brigeman will be serving as interim CEO and is someone who had been brought aboard in a general capacity without complaints, unlike Adam Antoniades from first allied securities who currently serves as president of the firm but was not promoted.
Stay tuned for more on this developing story.
By Kassiy Waddell
July 2, 2018
A Financial Justice group that seeks to disrupt institutional abuse, financial scams and Security fraud has obtained publicly available records and customer complaints that point to a culture of oppression at First Allied, a company acquired by Cetera.
{Arbitration FINRA claims; National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) Arbitration No. 00001529 (March 28,2001}).
The information contained herein has been obtained from reliable sources however may not be accurate and is not guaranteed by us. Readers are encouraged to undertake their own independent investigation and evaluation of the relevant facts. All claims and allegations are subject to adjudication, decisions may be subject to appeal, and no inference is intended, nor should any inference be made from any information contained herein from any source. This posting and the information on our website is for general information purposes only. This content should be not considered legal advice, and any responses, comments, e-mails, other communications do not form any attorney client relationship.
Combating Dishonest Attorney Advertisement. If you or someone you know has lost money investing call 480- 515 -2211 for a free consolation about the facts. Because some Stock Fraud news & Information Attorneys at Law accepts all cases on a contingency basis: and only get paid if and when you collect money. The feasibility of your claim may be limited, because you may not be eligible to recoup your losses. So we encourage you to avoid delay. Call us first now to speak for free about such an attorney who would make the financial mistake of posting a solicitation about some on with only 3 clients.
Posted in: Terminated Tagged: First Allied and Kevin Palmer Comments are closed.
Securities Fraud Reports (1185) / FINRA Disciplinary Action (512) / FINRA Claims (317) /Customer / Complaint (315) / FINRA Dispute Resolution (211) / How to Avoid Financial Scams (150) / Class action (143) / Investor Tips (99) / Terminated (73) / Regulatory Sanction (64) / AWC (18) / FINRA News (18)
