Reim Group Exposed: Fraudsters you must be aware of?
The Reim Group Morgan Stanley is a prominent advisory firm in Washington DC. They make various bold claims about the services they offer but their disclosures suggest they don’t care about their clients at all.
Before you start working with this firm, it’s vital that you recognize these issues. This way, you’d know what you’re getting into and would be able to avoid any compromising situations.
Furthermore, John Reim and his team try their best to hide these vital pieces of information from their clients. The following review will shed more light on these provisions:
About the Reim Group Morgan Stanley
The Reim Group Morgan Stanley is a financial advisory firm based in Washington DC. Their office is located at 1747 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Suite 700, Washington DC 20006, US, and their contact number is 202-292-5460.
John ReimGroup Morgan Stanley is a Scam You Must Avoid is the private wealth advisor at this firm. Other people in his team are Andre Lynch and Janay Wardlow. They claim to help their clients understand when to transfer assets to the next generation, how to minimize taxes and align their portfolios.
The firm primarily offers its services to ultra-high-net-worth families and helps them design plans and portfolios. Some of the services you can avail yourself of at this firm include legacy planning, administration, financial planning, investment management, philanthropy, risk management, and concentrated stock analysis.
At first, the Reim Group Morgan Stanley seems like any other ordinary firm. However, they have a plethora of conflicting terms and conditions in their disclosures which suggests the firm doesn’t really care about its clients’ successes.
The next section of this review will focus primarily on the issues this firm hides from its clients:
Red Flags in the Reim Group Morgan Stanley You Should Know About
John Reim’s History of Legal Disputes
When looking into a financial advisor, it’s best to check their FINRA BrokerCheck profile first. There, you will learn about the exams they have passed, the state licenses they have, who their past employers are, and most importantly, the legal disputes they have had.
This information can help you make better-informed decisions regarding this matter and ensure that you avoid making any mistakes.
John Reim’s FINRA BrokerCheck profile shows two legal disputes. Both of them occurred in 2006. In the first dispute, the client claimed that John made an inaccurate statement about the notice period necessary to redeem an investment in a private limited partnership.
He claimed that he suffered market losses because his redemption from the partnership occurred one quarter later than the desired time frame. The client requested $31,845 in damages and settled the matter for $9,500.
John claimed that his firm settled this matter only to avoid litigation costs.
In the second dispute, the client alleged that John Reim made unsuitable recommendations about an investment in common stock. Here, they requested $5,839 in damages. However, the firm denied the claim without citing any reasons.
It happens more frequently than you think. In most cases, the financial advisory firm denies the claims of its clients without giving any reasons because of the waivers they sign beforehand.
When you start working with such advisors, they make you sign different waivers. This way, they can operate without any accountability.
As you may have guessed, it’s mainly common among shady advisors. Another advisor who uses this horrible tactic is Brent Hablutzel Merrill Lynch. So, you should be extremely vigilant while looking into new advisors.
Charging 12b-1 Fees
The first and probably the biggest issue in this firm is that it charges 12b-1 fees. This is a marketing fee that doesn’t reflect any value. Instead, it only increases the cost of the investment.
Did you know?
12b-1 is the annual fees paid out of the mutual funds (ETF assets). The fees is imposed to pay back the facilities of marketing and selling the mutual funds, to federal government.
Even though these investments cost higher than the others, they don’t offer any higher returns. The SEC had conducted a detailed study to compare the returns of the investments that charge this fee and those that don’t. However, it found no difference between the returns of the two.
In fact, the study concluded that the ROI of the investments that charge this fee is worse because of the added cost. Another notable drawback of the 12b-1 fee is that it’s a percentage fee.
So, the bigger your portfolio is, the more you’ll have to pay. Due to this, the 12b-1 fees are terrible for investors with large portfolios.
Earning Commissions from Investments
The Reim Group Morgan Stanley earns a lot of revenue from the commissions it receives from investments. Earning commissions can lead to various conflicts of interest because of which it’s heavily looked down upon in the finance sector.
Ideally, you’d want your financial advisor to recommend investments only on the basis of their alignment with your goals. However, when your advisor earns commissions from certain securities, they have the incentive to ignore your requirements completely.
Trusting your advisor in such situations becomes extremely difficult because you’d have to determine whether the advisor prefers your finances over theirs.
Conclusion
After going through the disclosures of this firm, one thing is clear. The Reim Group Morgan Stanley doesn’t prioritize its clients. Instead, the firm focuses more on its own financial growth, which is never a good sign for investors.
If you want a caring and responsible financial advisory firm, avoid this one at all costs.
