Compliance
Compliance Corner - Ameriprise

The latest compliance issues in wealth management across North America.
Ameriprise Financial Services
The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Ameriprise
Financial Services will pay $4.5 million to settle charges
that it failed to safeguard retail investor assets from theft by
its representatives.
Five Ameriprise representatives committed “numerous fraudulent
acts”, including forging client documents, and stole more than $1
million in retail client funds over a four-year period, the SEC
said. The watchdog found that Ameriprise, a registered investment
adviser and broker-dealer, failed to adopt and implement policies
and procedures reasonably designed to safeguard investor assets
against misappropriation by its representatives.
The representatives were based in Minnesota, Ohio, and Virginia,
and three previously pled guilty to criminal charges. Each of the
representatives was terminated by Ameriprise for misappropriating
client funds. The SEC’s order found that Ameriprise has
implemented a new system to safeguard clients’ money and that
Ameriprise reimbursed all affected clients for the losses that
they incurred due to the misconduct of the five
representatives.
“A critical obligation of an investment advisor is to safeguard
investor assets,” Fuad Rana, an Assistant Director in the SEC’s
Division of Enforcement, said. “Ameriprise failed to meet that
obligation and as a consequence was unable to prevent the theft
of its clients’ assets.”
The SEC’s order charged Ameriprise with failing to have
reasonably designed policies and procedures to prevent its
representatives from misappropriating client funds and failing to
reasonably supervise the five representatives. Without admitting
to or denying the findings, Ameriprise agreed to be censured and
pay a penalty of $4.5 million.