Arete Wealth pays out $1.1M in arb claims to start 2024

investmentnews.com:

Arete Wealth Management, a broker-dealer with a focus on alternative investments, over the first three months of the year has paid settlements of more than $1.1 million related to investor claims against the firm, according to a filing at the beginning of the month with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It’s not clear what specific allegations or products prompted Arete Wealth, which is based in Chicago, to settle the investor claims, or “matters,” as they are referred to in the filing.

The company also reported an insurance reimbursement of $987,000 related to the matter under its errors and omissions policy, according to the firm’s annual audited financial statement, which it filed April 1 with the SEC.

On its website, Arete Wealth reports having 49 offices and 230 financial advisors, and says it works with more than 50 alternative asset managers and sponsors.

A spokesperson for Arete Wealth said the bulk of the $1.1 million the firm has paid in settled claims to investors stemmed from one advisor who had previously been terminated.

Arete Wealth has been in growth mode of late; in 2021, it bought Center Street Securities Inc. of Nashville, Tennessee, with the intention of operating the firm as a separate, stand-alone entity. In November, Center Street said it was closing down.

Center Street’s financial advisors were significant sellers of bonds backed by the bankrupt GWG Holdings Inc.

At the end of February, Arete Wealth lost an investor arbitration claim of $75,000, plus interest, to the Knox Family Revocable Living Trust, in the Finra Dispute Resolutions Services arbitration forum. According to the arbitration award, the Knox Trust alleged that an Arete Wealth financial advisor “invested claimant’s money