WILMINGTON — State Attorney General Kathy Jennings last week secured a multiyear suspension and fines from a Wilmington-based financial adviser for making false and misleading statements to her office’s Investor Protection Unit, and for providing services to clients while unregistered to do so, a news release said.
Robert Brandon Prettyman and the Investor Protection Unit, the arm of the Department of Justice that regulates the registration and conduct of securities firms and professionals, reached an agreement settling a pending administrative matter and a separate active investigation.
According to the agreement, Mr. Prettyman, president of Summit Wealth Advisors, will pay $60,000 in costs and penalties, and serve a two-and-a-half-year suspension from registration in Delaware, the release said.
In addition, three investors will be allowed to unwind their purchases of annuities to avoid collectively spending over $100,000 in commissions, along with tens of thousands of dollars in surrender charges, associated with those unwanted transactions.
“Protecting investors from unscrupulous financial professionals is at the core of investor protection,” said Ms. Jennings. “Investors put a lot of trust into their investment professionals and it is important that the trust is deserved. This means that investment professionals may not mislead the very regulators tasked with monitoring them.”
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