The law firm of Oakes & Fosher is presently investigating the alleged misconduct of former securities broker Richard Hughes. According to his publicly available FINRA BrokerCheck report, Richard Hughes has been the subject of a FINRA sanction.
Richard Hughes was an Illinois based securities broker. He worked in the securities industry for thirty years. During his career, he was registered with six different securities firms. He is not currently working as a registered securities broker.
His Registrations
- Reliastar Financial Marketing Corp. (1986-1991)
- Liberty Securities Corporation (1993-1994)
- Laughlin Group Advisors (1994-1997)
- Edward Jones (1997-2011)
- Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network (2011-2016)
- Summit Brokerage Services (2016-2018)
The Allegations
Richard Hughes was officially sanctioned by FINRA in September 2018. The findings in this matter state that he made unsuitable recommendations to a senior customer. The alleged recommendations were to do short-term switches between unit investment trusts and Class A-share mutual funds–which are products designed to be held for the long-term. These alleged actions incurred over $34,000 in excessive commissions and fees charged to elderly customer. Due to the alleged actions he was suspended from acting as a securities broker in any fashion for a period of eight months and fined $10,000. The client in question expressed her dismay to Richard Hughes’ member firm in May of 2016 and was reimbursed the full $34,000.
What Does This Mean?
Different securities are designed to be held onto for different lengths of time. For instance, there is a security known as a leveraged exchange traded fund that is designed to be purchased and then resold within a single trading day. However, securities like Class A mutual fund shares and unit investment trusts are designed to be held onto for longer periods of time in order to show investors the returns they are seeking. These products are also accompanied by very high sales charges. Excessive short-term trading for these products often causes these sales charges to rack up and significantly deteriorate an investor’s principal investment. For both these reasons, short term switching of these two types of products proves to be highly unsuitable for any investor.
Oakes & Fosher Can Help
Many investors are unaware of the legal recourse available to them after losing money due to securities broker fraud and/or negligence. The truth is that investors who have lost money in this fashion may actually be entitled to damages.
Oakes & Fosher dedicates its entire legal practice to helping investors across the nation. If you, or someone you know, have lost money investing with Richard Hughes, please contact Oakes & Fosher for a free and private consultation.
