Former Woodbury Financial Services, Inc. Broker, Jodie Lane, Suspended Six Months By FINRA For Allegedly Accepting Gifts And Becoming Beneficiary Of A Client

Jodie Lane (CRD # 5069112) was a Financial Advisor at Woodbury Financial Services, Inc. in Greenfield, WI. Jodie Lane has been in the securities industry since 2006 and previously worked at SII Investments, Inc., LPL Financial LLC, Uvest Financial Services Group, Inc., and Edward Jones.

According to publicly available records released by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), on September 9, 2020, Jodie Lane was sanctioned by FINRA, suspending her for a period of four months and imposing a fine of $10,000. Jodie Lane was sanctioned for allegedly having an improper account relationship with the client whereby she was given power of attorney, became a monetary beneficiary under the account and was provided monetary gifts from the client.

According to the FINRA sanction:

“Without admitting or denying the findings, Lane consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that she circumvented her member firm’s WSPs, which prohibited brokers from engaging in certain relationships with customers and accepting gifts, in connection with her customer, who was her second cousin once removed….The findings stated that the firm prohibited brokers from acting as a power of The customer granted Lane three powers of attorney (POA) over their financial affairs: a health care POA, a general financial POA, and a POA over their outside checking account, which included the power to withdraw funds from, and write checks on, the checking account. When the firm hired Lane, she did not inform it of the powers of attorney, or that she had check writing authority over the customer’s bank accounts as required….Lane accepted $154,299 in gifts from the customer, by transferring the funds from the customer’s checking account to her accounts. Additionally, the customer designated Lane the transfer on death beneficiary for two of her brokerage accounts. At the time, the total value of the accounts was approximately $768,000. Lane was aware of the designation, but did not notify the firm as required by its procedures. Lane also did not designate the accounts as employee-related. When the customer died, Lane inherited more than $715,000. The findings also stated that Lane stated in three annual compliance questionnaires that she did not have any customer relationships such as a power of attorney to report, and she had not received gifts valued at over $100 dollars from a customer, which was not true.”

For a copy of the FINRA sanction, click here

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