- GM's Agreement to Sell Saab Unit Falls Apart
- Consumer Confidence Improves But Still Shaky
- US Home Prices Up 5th Month, 2nd Straight Quarter
- FDIC Fund Falls into The Red, Bair Urges Lending
- Ron Paul's Plan to Audit Fed a 'Serious Attack': Mishkin
- Strong Banks, Weak Credit: Treasury Rethinks TARP
- Fairfax Lawsuit Keeps Heat on Chanos, SAC's Cohen
- Blog: Behind The Scenes With Warren Buffett
- Buyers Look For Bargains At Luxury Condo Auction
- Busch: The Debt-Interest Rate Paradox
- The Lloyd's Prayer, Leggo My Eggo, Plate Hate & Your Emails
- Buy These 'Competitively Positioned' Stocks: Portfolio Manager
- Behind The Scenes With Warren Buffett
- 'Why the American Consumer Will Keep on Buying No Matter What'
- On Assignment: Europe & Asia
- The L.A. Extravaganza: A Test for Auto Shows
- 8 Stocks That Could Gain With Rising GDP
- 5 Stocks That Benefit from Health Care Legislation: Analysts
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- US Home Prices Up 5th Month, 2nd Straight Quarter
- GM's Agreement to Sell Saab To Swedish Firm Falls Apart
- Buyers Look For Bargains At Luxury Condo Auction
- FDIC Fund Falls into The Red, Bair Urges Lending
- Revised GDP Reading Puts Growth at 2.8%; Inflation Tame
- Weak Dollar Is Golden for Mining Companies
- Behind The Scenes With Warren Buffett
- CA "More Profitable" After Saving Energy: CEO
Text Size 
Ameriprise Financial Services on Friday agreed to pay more than $17 million to settle federal regulators' charges that it failed to disclose nearly $31 million received for selling certain investments to its brokerage customers.
 |
Ameriprise [AMP
Loading...
()
] did not admit or deny wrongdoing in its settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Minneapolis-based company—which provides financial planning, asset management and insurance with a major focus on baby boomers who have $100,000 to $1 million in assets—did agree to refrain from future violations of the securities laws and to pay $17.3 million in civil fines and restitution.
According to the SEC, Ameriprise did not disclose compensation for selling certain real estate investment trusts to customers between 2000 and May 2004. REITs own and often operate income-producing real estate or related assets such as office buildings, retail stores and hotels.
The SEC alleged in an administrative proceeding that Ameriprise failed to disclose to investors the roughly $30.8 million it received in connection with sales of the REIT shares and the potential conflicts of interest the payments created.
"Few things are more important to investors than getting unbiased advice from their financial advisers," SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said in a statement. "Ameriprise customers were not informed about the incentives its brokers had to sell these investments."
The SEC also said that Ameriprise sold more than $100 million of shares of one REIT that weren't registered with the agency, a violation of securities laws.
"This is a very old case that hinged on issues of revenue-sharing disclosure that ended in early 2004," Ameriprise spokesman Paul Johnson said. "We long ago expanded our disclosures to ensure that our clients receive the information from us directly as well as through the prospectus of the product issuer."
Ameriprise was spun off from American Express [AXP
Loading...
()
] in 2005.
Print
Email
- Remember when auto shows were major events where new models could generate buzz?
- A diet high in fat and sugar might actually be good for your portfolio.
- A new McDonald's in Manhattan is the nation's first to sport a sleek, chic interior imported from stores in London and Paris.
- One shopper explains why he gets up at 3am on the day after Thanksgiving to go shopping every year.
- From the AIG&T to the Merrill Lychee, Jane Wells lists this year's holiday cocktails.
- For nearly three decades, these on-call experts have been dishing advice on how to – and not to – cook turkey.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes