Suspect unethical financial advisor

[KatrinaK13]

What is the name of your state? Arizona.

1) Is it a conflict of interest for a financial advisor to buy real estate from a client?

2) What do you do if you suspect a financial advisor of "misappropriating" funds?

[tranquility]

1. Ethics are one aspect of being a professional. Each professional organization has its own Code of Ethics. "Financial Advisor" is such a general term, no one can advise if there is an ethical breach. You've not listed any professional (or, attempt to be professional) organization the party is a member of.

2. Why do you suspect this and what your role is affects the answer.

[KatrinaK13]

Sorry, I was trying to be brief. I will summarize.
My mom's financial advisor would never return her calls and she complained about him constantly (but would never fire him). He at one time worked for a big company but went out on his own. My mom (bless her soul) had NO idea how much money she had or what he was doing with it. When she became ill I moved her in with me. He bought her house from her for about 1/3 of what it was worth. My dad left her VERY well off, but her holdings have depreciated significantly. She asked him several times to take care of things - pay off credit cards, set up spending acount, etc. - and he never did.
My mom passed away in December.
Is there any way to get an accounting of his actions? The executor of her estate, my brother-in-law, knows of my concerns. Should he do something? I'm mostly concerned about the house. We did not find out until after the fact. The "financial advisor's" wife is (was - divorced) a real estate agent.

[tranquility]

The brother-in-law/executor is the only one who can do anything. He stands in mom's shoes and can ask for the statements from the advisior so BIL can take them to get an accounting.

[Dandy Don]

What credentials does this person have--are they legally a broker or just advising with no professional credentials? Visit the website for National Association of Securities Dealers to find out if this person is registered to do business in that state and if they have other complaints against them on file.

There are business law attorneys who deal with this type of financial abuse by stockbrokers/financial advisers so you truly need to consult one--it seems like you have very strong evidence to proceed with a lawsuit. What the broker did is called "churning", performing disadvantageous transactions only for the purpose of earning commissions for himself without regarding whether the transaction was justifiable or not and this is illegal.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)