Raymond James Agrees to Pay $15 Million for Improperly Charging Retail Investors

The Securities and Exchange Commission today instituted a settled order against three Raymond James entities for improperly charging advisory fees on inactive retail client accounts and charging excess commissions for brokerage customer investments in certain unit investment trusts (UITs). The SEC order finds that Raymond James & Associates, Inc., and Raymond James Financial Services Advisors, Inc., failed to consistently perform promised ongoing reviews of advisory accounts that had no trading activity for at least one year. According to the order, because they did not conduct the reviews properly, they failed to determine whether the client’s fee-based advisory account was suitable.