Lincoln Investment Planning, Inc. is a full-service broker-dealer founded in 1968 by Nick Forst. Investment products and services available through Lincoln Investment include: risk management services, insurance, individual securities, mutual funds, annuities, retirement, and planning services. The firm’s headquarters are located in Wyncote, PA, just outside of Philadelphia. Today Lincoln Investment Planning has 305 offices and 800+ financial professionals providing investment and retirement products to individuals and employers.
As a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Lincoln Investment Planning is required by law to supervise their brokers, thus ensuring ethical, honorable dealings. When supervision is lax, unscrupulous representatives are allowed to operate fraudulently, causing major, wrongful losses to investors. When this happens, FINRA gives investors the right to file claims that hold Lincoln Investment Planning legally liable to repay the damages.
Red Flags for Investors
In 2012, Lincoln Investment Planning bought Capital Analysts Incorporated, merging in both assets and representatives. This essentially doubled their operations. What may concern potential, current, and former investors is that this merger means that the representatives of Capital Analysts Incorporated, a firm with checkered history, now represent Lincoln Investment Planning. The name “Capital Analysts” should be familiar to some – their representative, Kenneth Wayne McLeod, stole $30 million from 150 federal employees in a massive Ponzi scheme just a few years ago. The scheme was discovered eventually, but McLeod killed himself before allowing himself to face the consequences of his actions.
The facts of this merger raise some concerns. One, doubling a firm’s representative workforce brings with it the administrative challenge of holding each of those brokers accountable with competent supervisory procedures. In addition to this managerial issue, Lincoln has filled its representative team with brokers from a firm that demonstrated a complete lack of supervision over a broker with a prior history of misconduct. That effects of that sort of corporate culture would require vast resources to undo.
We Hold Financial Goliaths Accountable
If you have suffered significant losses because a Lincoln broker dealt with you dishonestly or negligently, you have a right to hold Lincoln Investment Planning responsible. However, while FINRA provides investors with the legal opportunity, their aim is enforcing financial law for the whole industry – Meyer Wilson’s aim is to recover your losses. Our attorneys recovered $350 million for our clients. We have the skill, experience, and resources to do the same for you. Don’t let investment firms get away with wrongfully losing your money.
Find out your next move. Contact Meyer Wilson to request a free case evaluation today.