Finra: Broker cheated elderly couple out of $70,000 for bogus financial planning services

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. has filed a complaint of elder abuse against a broker who allegedly cheated a couple in their 90s out of more than $70,000 of fees for financial planning services.

Stanley Clayton Niekras didn’t have a financial planning or investment advisory agreement with his elderly customers, but billed them for hundreds of hours he claimed to have spent working on their “financial future” over the course of four years, according to a Finra complaint. While employed by MML Investors Services, he charged them retroactive compensation at a rate of $250 per hour.

Mr. Niekras presented the bill to the couple in 2013 when they were in physical and mental decline at the ages of 90 and 91, knowing he wasn’t entitled to the “estate planning” or “financial planning” fees he charged, according to Finra. The broker was facing tax liens imposed by the IRS at the time, and assured MML that he had compensation coming to take care of it as he was expecting to reap commissions from the sale of variable annuities to the couple’s children, Finra said.

“I have business cooking that will more than settle the IRS debt,” Mr. Niekras was quoted as saying in the Finra complaint.
In December 2012, the couple gifted about $500,000 in cash and securities to each of their three children. The assets were transferred into brokerage accounts that Mr. Niekras opened for them at MML.

In February 2013, he recommended that the children buy a particular variable annuity with the gifted assets, anticipating collecting about $75,000 in commissions from the sales. Ultimately, they declined, according to Finra.

Mr. Niekras acknowledged that the bills he presented to their parents were intended to replace the commissions he would have received from the sale of variable annuities, Finra said in its complaint.