Broker-dealers are required to comply with investment laws and offer only suitable options when trading and when managing customer accounts. Some broker-dealers do not have a reputation for compliance, however. A NEXT Financial Group lawsuit has revealed significant allegations against the investment firm NEXT Financial Group Inc.

If you have a complaint against NEXT Financial or a similar dealer-broker, contact our NEXT Financial Group fraud attorney. You could be owed compensation for investments lost due to unfair practices and deceit.

NEXT Financial Group Customer Complaints

An Overview of Allegations against NEXT Financial Group

As a national financial advisory firm and broker-dealer focusing on general securities, NEXT Financial Group has been the subject of numerous allegations. NEXT Financial Group Customer Complaints cover a range of issues and allegations related to broker activities and misconduct.

Broker-dealers must ensure that they offer sound and suitable options and investments to customers. Brokerages are responsible for maintaining a system to supervise investments and remain compliant with laws. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) investigated NEXT Financial’s supervisory practices to check broker activities for compliance. In July 2021, FINRA issued a letter and formal censure to NEXT Financial and fined it for violations.

NEXT Financial was ultimately fined $750,000 and was required to work with a consultant to amend its supervisory system. The allegations against NEXT Financial included issues with the group’s short-term mutual funds and municipal bond recommendations to customers, among others.

A NEXT Financial Group lawsuit could help you recover funds lost to unsound and unsupervised investment practices. Call Wolper Law Firm, P.A. today at 954.406.1231 / 800.931.8452.

Why Choose Us?

A NEXT Financial Group Fraud Attorney on Your Side

Investors who’ve dealt with NEXT Financial Group, or a similar brokerage, may be able to recover compensation. You should not have to live with financial losses due to mishandled accounts and a firm’s lack of broker supervision. Our legal team and NEXT Financial Group investment loss attorney has a record of helping people like you recover losses and get results.

When choosing a law firm, you can count on our lawyers’ experience and our eagerness and ability to form deep, trusting relationships with our clients. We truly want what’s best for our clients and do all we can to recover money and help them obtain justice.

Allegedly deceitful and non-compliant practices have resulted in more than one NEXT Financial Group lawsuit being levied against the brokerage. In addition to helping aggrieved investors recover losses, our lawyers want to hold deceptive brokers responsible. Recovering unfair financial losses and holding the right parties accountable are paramount.

How We Can Help

A Record of Recovering Compensation

The attorneys at the Wolper Law Firm, P.A. are committed to helping investors recover investment losses. They have represented clients nationwide facing investment losses caused by poor investment advice, mismanagement, deceit and other unfair practices. We seek to recover losses from investments, commissions, fees, and all ways through which you’ve lost money.

We have recovered compensation for wronged investors in 99% of the cases we’ve handled.

If you feel you’ve been wronged by the NEXT Financial Group, speak with a NEXT Financial Group investment loss attorney from our firm. Call us at 954.406.1231 / 800.931.8452 and ask to speak to our legal team. Our attorneys offer free consultations, and we would be happy to learn about your case and how we may be able to help.

Finally, our attorneys aren’t afraid to take a case to trial. Our lawyers have spent years defending large banks and brokerage firms, so we know their strategies and how to handle them. By preparing for and learning all the details of each case, our legal team is ready to fight on your behalf.

Supervisory Concerns and Short-Term Trades

FINRA began investigating NEXT Financial Group after one of its brokers allegedly demonstrated unsuitable investing involving senior citizens’ accounts. Unsuitable short-term trades on Class A mutual funds resulted in more than $900,000 in fees. After being questioned, the accused broker gave misleading answers, as described by FINRA. NEXT Financial allegedly still did not seek to rectify the broker’s irregularities and did not increase supervision of trading. It took multiple NEXT Financial Group customer complaints to prompt further action.

NEXT Financials’ alleged failure to establish and uphold a supervisory system resulted in charges from FINRA. The regulatory agency has required NEXT Financial to create and implement a better supervisory system to prevent noncompliance with legal and regulatory standards. Specifically, the system must prevent improper trading of mutual funds and municipal bonds. In addition to fines, NEXT Financial was given a deadline to implement and improve practices.

A NEXT Financial Group Investment Loss Attorney Breaks Down the Allegations

FINRA’s Department of Enforcement has sanctioned NEXT Financial Group after investigating an alleged failure to adequately supervise excessive and unsuitable short-term trading of municipal bonds and mutual funds. This practice, called “churning,” involves a broker demonstrating excessive trading within a client’s account in order to generate commission.

FINRA’s allegations and other NEXT financial group customer complaints encompass practices that allegedly reveal a lack of financial supervision and violation of rules. FINRA’s Department of Enforcement’s allegations include:

• Failure to establish supervisory controls to comply with securities laws and FINRA rules
• Lack of a supervisory system to prevent improper short-term trading of clients’ mutual funds and municipal bonds
• Having an improper surveillance system for generating transaction alerts and for reviewing alerts to determine trading suitability
• Lack of written supervisory procedures related to the concentration of municipal bonds in customer accounts and to the analysis of municipal bonds

As a result of financial losses related to alleged misconduct, some investors and clients working with this broker-dealer have sought help from a NEXT financial group investment loss attorney. It is important to remember that even brokerage firms with many registered representatives and their own legal teams can still fail to follow the rules.

Large, well-established firms can still be capable of misconduct and deceit, and it’s important that investors are not deceived. Speak with a NEXT Financial Group fraud attorney if you believe you’ve lost money as a result of misconduct.

NEXT Financial Group Lawsuit and Additional Allegations

The former accusations against NEXT Financial Group were unfortunately not the only allegations. NEXT Financial Group customer complaints include other accusations and alleged improper transactions. Some complaints and allegations have taken place recently, while others stretch back throughout the decade. In 2017, the Massachusetts Securities Division investigated NEXT Financial’s sale of non-traded real estate investment trusts, or REITs.

• The investigation found that a firm representative had made hundreds of improper REIT sales over roughly 10 years. Many of the sales surpassed the firm’s liquid net worth concentration guidelines.
• The sales and non-traded REIT transactions allegedly occurred within a customer’s account and without accounting for liquid net worth reduction. Some of the customer accounts affected were owned by clients over the age of 80.

Regulators said that due to NEXT Financial’s failure to create and enforce accurate concentration calculations, the transactions were deemed potentially unsuitable. The Massachusetts Securities Division required NEXT Financial to pay restitution to affected clients along with a $150,000 fine.

There have been still other allegations and NEXT Financial Group lawsuits. By working with a NEXT Financial Group fraud attorney, former customers of the broker have recovered damages due to improper trading and investment practices.

Contact a NEXT Financial Group Investment Loss Attorney at Wolper Law Firm, P.A. Today

We Can Help Recover Investment Losses

For investors who may be caught up in this or a similar situation, you may be able to recover your losses because of not only the broker’s mishandling of your accounts but the member firm’s lack of supervision of its brokers.

The Wolper Law Firm, P.A. represents investors nationwide in securities litigation and arbitration on a contingency fee basis. Matt Wolper, the Managing Principal of the Wolper Law Firm, P.A., is a trial lawyer who has handled hundreds of securities cases during his career involving a wide range of products, strategies and securities. Prior to representing investors, he was a partner with a national law firm, where he represented some of the largest banks and brokerage firms in the world in securities matters. We can be reached at 954.406.1231 / 800.931.8452.