The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced a $40 million civil settlement with a financial adviser it says violated the rules in promoting retirement investments to Florida teachers.
The SEC order says the company, Valic Financial Advisors, “failed to disclose to certain Florida teachers who were potential and actual clients that VFA’s parent, The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company, doing business under the AIG Retirement Services, Inc. brand (“VALIC”), was providing cash and other financial benefits to a for-profit company owned by Florida K-12 teachers’ unions.”
The order also says, “three full-time VALIC employees, called Member Benefit Coordinators (“MBCs”), were deceptively identified as the Teachers Union Entity’s employees, instead of as VALIC employees, at various retirement planning seminars and benefit events attended by K-12 teachers and referred K-12 teachers to VFA for investment advisory services. VFA’s conduct constituted a course of business which operated as a fraud or deceit upon clients and prospective clients.”
