Winston Turner-Former MetLife Broker – Barred from Securities Industry-Sarasota, FL

Winston Turner-Former MetLife Broker – Barred from Securities Industry-Sarasota, FL

Winston Turner-Former MetLife Broker – Barred from Securities Industry-Sarasota, FL 150 150 Robert Rex, Esq.

UPDATE AUGUST 2016Winston Turner was permanently barred from the securities industry. According to FINRA records Turner refused to produce significant categories of information requested by FINRA and failed to appear for his scheduled on the record testimony in the Disciplinary Proceeding discussed below.

ORIGINAL POST-February 25, 2016-Sarasota, Florida

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) filed Disciplinary Proceeding 2013038398401 against former stockbroker Winston Wade Turner accusing him of deceptive sales practices related to the sale of annuities to elderly retired persons.

According to the FINRA complaint,

  • “From late 2012 through July 2015, while registered with MetLife Securities and Pruco Securities, Respondent Winston Wade Turner engaged in a course of deception and other misconduct in connection with sales and exchanges of variable annuities involving numerous customers. Among other things, Turner induced customers to exchange their existing variable annuities and other investments (sometimes incurring large surrender charges) while hiding from his firm the true source of the customers’ funds, thereby circumventing the additional supervisory scrutiny applicable to annuity exchanges. He did so in part by splitting the exchanges into separate sales and purchases and, in most instances, interposing the customer’s bank account. Turner misrepresented the source of the customer’s funds and falsely denied in transaction documentation that the customers had previously held variable annuities or other investments, even though he knew that they were in fact surrendering or liquidating such investments to fund the new variable annuities he was recommending and selling to them.”
  • Turner also used forged customer signatures on variable annuity application materials. lied to his firm’s principals, and put his own email addresses as the email addresses of certain customers on variable annuity documentation to ensure that account notifications would be sent to him instead of the customers.”
  • “In addition to deceiving his firms and circumventing their supervision and documentation requirements, Turner deceived at least three customers by telling them that their annuities would earn a “guaranteed” minimum annual interest when, in fact, the annuities guaranteed only minimum withdrawal or annuitization rates. In one case he paid the customer her expected returns out of his own pocket while disguising the payments to appear as if they were coming from the variable annuity issuer.”

According to FINRA records, Turner was registered with MetLife Securities from 12/2011-7/2013 and with Pruco Securities from 7/2013-2015.

He was discharged by Pruco Securities in 8/2015 with the following allegations reported to FINRA: “registered representative made an unsuitable variable annuity recommendation, provided inaccurate information to the company concerning the transaction, and made payments to a client who was dissatisfied with the performance of her annuity contract”

Turner has  4 currently pending customer disputes.

If you have losses in an account handled by Winston W. Turner, contact us to discuss how you may be able to recover damages through FINRA arbitration.

Rex Securities Law , with offices in Boca Raton, FL,  and  Austin, TX,   provides representation to  investors  nationwide who are seeking recovery of investment losses due to the negligence or fraud of stockbrokers and broker dealers. If you have questions about how your account has been handled, call to speak with an experienced securities attorney.

Most cases handled on a contingent fee basis meaning that you do not pay legal fees unless we are successful.

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Rex Securities Law

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