Former Minnesota Broker Under Investigation for Numerous Allegations of Unauthorized and Unsuitable Trading in Unit Investment Trusts

Silver Law Group is investigating former Feltl & Company (CRD# 6905) broker Lance J. Ziesemer (CRD# 2342087) for a plethora of filed FINRA arbitrations alleging unauthorized trading, unsuitable recommendations, and other securities misconduct, including activity involving unit investment trusts (“UITs”).

According to Ziesemer’s FINRA BrokerCheck Report, Ziesemer has 12 disclosures, a large majority of them coming in the past four years.

In November 2008, FINRA suspended and fined Ziesemer for settling with two clients and not reporting it.  FINRA alleges that Ziesemer settled quietly to purposely avoid reporting the settlements, according to the Acceptance, Waiver & Consent (“AWC”) entered into between Ziesemer and FINRA.

In 2013, two FINRA arbitrations settled for a combined $200,000.  Both of the FINRA arbitrations alleged unsuitable recommendations and excessive or unauthorized trading.  In June 2015, the IRS levied a lien in the amount of $76,000.

In May 2016, FINRA again suspended and fined Ziesemer.  The fine and suspension were related to unsuitable recommendations to invest in UITs.  According to Acceptance, Waiver & Consent (“AWC 2”), Ziesemer would purchase UITs for customers and recommend switching them to another UIT, incurring a sales charge.  To do this, his employing firm required a “switch letter” before enacting the transactions.  Ziesemer failed to obtain the switch letters from his customers for any of the trades and caused $160,000 losses according to the AWC 2.

FINRA followed up the suspension with a permanent bar in May 2016 after Ziesemer failed to respond to FINRA’s request for information.  Ziesemer currently has five FINRA arbitrations pending.

A UIT is a type of fund that is a mixture of an actively managed fund and a fixed portfolio of income-producing securities that is purchased and held to maturity.  Typically, there is a one-time public offering of only a specific, fixed number of units, like closed-end funds, and there is very little liquidity.  Normally investors hold them to maturity, but the UIT issuer can buy back the units at the net asset value (“NAV”).

If you have invested with Lance J. Ziesemer and Feltl & Company in unit investment trusts and have lost money doing so, you may be able to recover some or all of your losses.  Our lawyers are experienced in recovering investor losses due to broker and brokerage firm misconduct through FINRA arbitration.

Silver Law Group represents the interests of investors who have been the victims of investment fraud.  If you have questions about your legal rights, please contact Scott Silver of the Silver Law Group for a free consultation at ssilver@silverlaw.com or toll free at (800) 975-4345.