SEC Charges Financial Advisory Firm with Improperly Calculating Advisory Fees and Overcharging Clients

The SEC charged Transamerica Financial Advisors ("Transamerica") with improperly calculating advisory fees and overcharging clients.

SEC examinations and a subsequent investigation revealed that Transamerica offered breakpoint discounts designed to reduce the fees that clients owed to the firm when they increased their assets in certain investment programs. The firm permitted clients to aggregate the values of related accounts in order to get the discounts. However, the SEC found that Transamerica failed to process every aggregation request by clients and also had conflicting policies on whether representatives were required to pass to clients the savings from breakpoint discounts. As a result, the firm overcharged certain clients by failing to apply the discounts, and also failed to adopt and implement adequate policies and procedures to ensure that the firm was calculating its fees properly.

See: SEC Order.