SEC Charges Investment Advisers with Misleading Investors and Breaching Their Fiduciary Duties to Clients

The SEC charged Total Wealth Management ("Total Wealth") chief executive officer Jacob Cooper, chief compliance officer Nathan McNamee, and another employee for misleading investors and breaching their fiduciary duties to clients.

The SEC's Enforcement Division alleges that Total Wealth Management and its owner and CEO, Jacob Cooper, entered into undisclosed revenue-sharing agreements through which they paid themselves kickbacks or so-called "revenue sharing fees." They failed to disclose the conflicts of interest created by these agreements when recommending the underlying investments to clients and investors in the Altus family of funds. The SEC found that Total Wealth and Cooper also materially misrepresented the extent of the due diligence conducted on the investments they recommended.

See: SEC Order.