Founded by Joe Ricketts in 1975, TD Ameritrade, Inc. (“TD”), which evolved from First Omaha Securities, is one of the largest broker-dealers and registered investment advisers (RIA) in the U.S., (headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska).
- TD, which is owned by TD Ameritrade Online Holdings Corp., is credited with executing the first online trade in 1994.
- The firm went public in March 1997, during which time it combined its various brokerage units into one broker dealer, Ameritrade, Inc.
- Beginning in 2001, the firm acquired 10 firms in 10 years.
- Then, in 2006, Ameritrade purchased TD Waterhouse USA from TD Bank Financial Group, creating TD Ameritrade.
As of TD’s Form ADV filed on September 20, 2022, TD had 4,429 registered brokers. Today, TD provides investing and trading services for 11M client accounts totaling $1T+ in assets, and custodial services for 6,000+ independent registered investment advisors. TD’s brokers are licensed in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Financial Misconduct at TD Ameritrade, Inc.
TD 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.
TD and brokers backed by TD have a long history of misconduct. Per FINRA’s BrokerCheck report, TD has 206 disclosures (72 regulatory events; 1 civil event; and 133 arbitrations).
In August 2022, the Banking Commissioner of Texas initiated a claim against TD alleging that the firm provided non-securities-related transmission services for its customers but was not licensed to do so in Texas. TD paid an administrative penalty of $81,750 and ceased related activities.
Earlier, in December 2019, FINRA initiated a claim against TD finding that the firm created inaccurate order memoranda on options orders for customers whose orders should have been coded as professional customers.
TD mismarked approximately 1.5 million options orders with an inaccurate customer origin code instead of the required professional customer code. This resulted in the execution of approximately 500,000 mismarked options orders. The miscoding of these orders caused inaccurate records and possibly allowed for those orders to be given undue priority for execution on options exchanges.
Unfortunately, the firm’s supervisory system was found to not reasonably designed to determine whether its customers’ options orders that were entered through its trading platform were accurately coded. Rather, the system for keeping track of the number of options orders entered by the firm’s customers through its trading platform did not aggregate orders submitted by the same customer through multiple accounts. TD was censured and fined $250,000.
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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 the largest investment firms, such as TD Ameritrade, Inc., and our track record affirms our resources and expertise. Meyer Wilson has represented clients nationwide and internationally, in state and federal courts, and in securities arbitration. As an investor, you have a right to recover investments lost through unethical behavior or decisions made against your interests.