LOS ANGELES, CA, USA, April 3, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — National investment loss and securities lawyers KlaymanToskes continues its investigation into financial advisor John Palma of Spartan Capital Securities, after he excessively traded an elderly investor’s account and caused up to $500,000 in losses. The law firm urges all current and former customers who suffered investment losses with John Palma and/or Spartan Capital Securities to contact the firm immediately at 888-997-9956.
KlaymanToskes reports that the firm has filed a FINRA arbitration claim (no. 24-00308) against Spartan Capital Securities on the behalf of an elderly investor who is seeking to recover up to $500,000, due to the excessive trading and churning of his account by his financial advisor John Palma. Excessive Trading occurs when a financial advisor engages in a high number of trades in a customer’s account, not for the customer’s benefit but to instead generate high commissions for the broker/firm. This excessive trading is known as “Churning”.
According to the lawsuit, the customer’s account was not a fee-based account, but rather a straight commission-based account. A fee-based account typically charges clients a set fee for financial services, while a straight commission-based account compensates advisors based upon the number of transactions initiated for the client.
KlaymanToskes’ investigation indicates that if the account had been initially set up as a fee-based account, the customer would have paid around 1%, totaling to less than $1,500 over six months. Instead, the customer paid commissions of $114,625 in a span of just six months, and the account was excessively churned with a total of $3,290,286 in purchases.
The turnover of nearly $3.3 million in purchases was made on an average equity of under $300,000, representing a turnover of 10 times. This high turnover ratio has led KlaymanToskes to believe that the only justification for the account’s excessive turnover was to financially benefit Palma and Spartan, all to the detriment of the customer.
Spartan Capital also sent the customer a letter wherein the firm misstated the customer’s liquid net worth and misstated his investment objective and risk tolerance as “Speculation.” In a second letter sent by Spartan, the investment objective was changed to “maximum growth” and the risk tolerance was “aggressive,” while the stated liquid net worth remained inaccurate. While the customer did not sign either of these documents, his signature was purportedly forged and misspelled on both letters.
Financial advisors and their firms are responsible for providing suitable investment advice and must act in the best interest of their customers. Investment firms may be held liable for any losses incurred by their customers in the event of unsuitable investment recommendations, misrepresentations or omissions of material facts, excessive trading/churning, and/or an overconcentration of the customer’s portfolio in one particular investment, class, or market sector.
Current and former customers of John Palma and/or any other financial advisor who suffered investment losses at Spartan Capital Securities are encouraged to contact attorney Steven Toskes, Esq. at (888) 997-9956 or by email at investigations@klaymantoskes.com in furtherance of our investigation.
About KlaymanToskes
KlaymanToskes is a leading national securities law firm which practices exclusively in the field of securities arbitration and litigation on behalf of retail and institutional investors throughout the world in large and complex securities matters. The firm has recovered over $250 million in FINRA arbitrations and over $350 million in other securities litigation matters. KlaymanToskes has office locations in California, Florida, New York, and Puerto Rico.
Contact
Steven D. Toskes, Esq.
KlaymanToskes, P.A.
+1 888-997-9956
investigations@klaymantoskes.com