Formed in 1979 in Davenport, IA, by Robert B. Ausdal, Ausdal Financial Partners (“AFP”) is a full-service broker-dealer and Registered Investment Advisor with more than $1.5B in assets under management (AUM) as of April 2022. The firm serves all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. While headquartered in Iowa, it also has offices in Suburban Chicagoland.
Financial Misconduct at AFP
AFP is licensed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and as such is legally obligated to ensure its brokers are acting lawfully in the interest of their investors. If a client suffers losses as a result of negligent behavior or misconduct from a broker, then the firm may be held legally responsible to repay the damages. AFP has a long history of misconduct and complaints.
In 2012, FINRA initiated arbitration against AFP. The arbitration panel ordered AFP to pay $25,000 for failing to retain some email correspondence related to its business for over two years. Due to user error, for over two years, the firm failed to establish new email addresses on the server for several newly-registered representatives and associated personnel and their emails. The firm was able to retrieve emails for some of its representatives and associated personnel after discovering the error.
The firm permitted its registered representatives to use their personal email addresses so long as they forwarded securities-related emails to any of the firm’s established email review boxes. However, for a period of time, emails sent to one of these boxes did not save the emails, but would instead delete them on a weekly basis as they would become full.
In 2015, a FINRA arbitration panel ordered AFP to pay $1,250,762.67 in damages for breach of fiduciary duty, unsuitability, misrepresentation, breach of contract, failure to supervise, and negligence. This case stemmed from the misconduct of one of AFP’s financial advisors, Joan Norton. Norton was found to have improperly advised a customer, Cindy-Marie Rogers, to retire and transfer her retirement account into an annuity despite its unsuitability based on restrictions that prevented the customer from obtaining necessary income.
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Meyer Wilson reclaimed $350 million for the victims of investment fraud or misconduct. Our attorneys are experienced in going up against large investment firms, and our track record affirms our resources and expertise. Meyer Wilson has represented clients nationwide and internationally, in state and federal courts, and in arbitration through FINRA and the American Arbitration Association (AAA). As an investor, you have a right to recover investments lost through unethical behavior or decisions made against your interests.
