I was out of the trading buisness for 1 1/2 years. I decided to get back in 6 months ago, it has been a little better than break even situation so far. I talked to the owner of the firm and told him I was thinking about packing it in. He told me if I did so he would deduct the continuining ed. fees and the regestration fees from my balance. Is this legal ? I never agreed to pay for any of these costs. Do I have recourse if the takes my money ?
If you have a series 7 license you need to pay those fees. If you have an issue with that you probably need to take it up with the NASD, not your firm. Those are pass through fees.
What exactly are these continuing edcation fees? and registration fees? are they Series 7 fees? & how much are they going to charge...
Every 2 years you are required by law to take a continuing ed class to keep your series 7 active. If you don't do this, you lose your 7.
by pass thru fees ? If the firm has to pay for my continuing Ed. how can they say later that they want me to pay if I quit, that should be their risk. The other fee is for the U4 (?) registration . I feel that these fees (if I need to pay for them) should have been disclosed to be at the time of initial employment.
Well, I can't speak for the firm, but my guess is you were going to be charged those fees regardless if you stayed or left. It's just with you leaving now, they are going to bill you early instead of waiting. I do not believe they have to disclose those fees to you as they are not charging you those fees, the NASD is. It's the NASD who should have and probably did disclose those fees to you when you filled out our paperwork for your series 7. I'm not aware of any fees for your U-4. When you leave a firm, you fill out a U-5.
Maverick74 I believe the NASD charges the FIRM the cost of continuing education for series 7 candidates, and the CRD charges the FIRM for registering traders. I think the owner is just bitter that I did not rack up enough $$$ in commissions yet to cover all their expenses, his anticipated profits and time and effort to do all the administration. In any event is it LEGAL to back charge me for registrations and continuing Ed ?
Yes, the NASD charges the firm. That is why I called them pass through fees. The firm just passes those costs on to the trader. I doubt there is anything you can do. BTW, how much money are we talking about here? It can't be that much money.
Read your LLC agreement. Most of these specify that pass thru fees such as reg fees are trader's responsibility. The reason you don't hear more complaints of this nature is that most firms absorb it for active traders.