Practice Area · Conflicts of Interest

Self-Dealing Attorney

Your financial professional was required to put your interests first. When they used their position of trust to benefit themselves at your expense, they violated one of the most fundamental obligations in securities law.

Get a Free Case Review
What Self-Dealing Means

Self-Dealing Is Not a Gray Area. It Is a Betrayal of the Trust You Placed in Your Financial Professional.

Self-dealing occurs when a broker, investment adviser, or financial professional uses their position of trust and access to client assets to benefit themselves, their firm, or related parties at the client's expense. It takes many forms, but they all share a common feature: the professional's financial interest was placed above yours, and the advice or transaction you received was shaped by what benefited them rather than what was right for you.

Self-dealing is prohibited under Regulation Best Interest for broker-dealers, under the Investment Advisers Act fiduciary duty for registered investment advisers, under ERISA for retirement account managers, and under the common law of agency for any person who holds a position of trust over another's assets. Regardless of which legal framework applies, the result is the same: the investor who was harmed has the right to recover.

Common Forms of Self-Dealing

How Self-Dealing Occurs in the Securities Industry

Proprietary Product Bias

A broker or adviser recommends the firm's own investment products over objectively better alternatives because the firm earns higher fees on proprietary products, without disclosing this conflict to the client.

Undisclosed Revenue Sharing

An adviser receives compensation from a fund company for directing client assets into that fund's products, without disclosing the revenue sharing arrangement that influenced the recommendation.

Principal Transactions

A broker-dealer sells securities to a client from the firm's own inventory without disclosing the principal capacity of the transaction and the firm's financial interest in selling those securities at the price charged.

Related-Party Transactions

An adviser invests client assets in entities owned by or affiliated with the adviser, generating fees or economic benefits for the adviser beyond the stated advisory fee, without adequate disclosure and client consent.

Cherry-Picking

A broker or adviser allocates profitable trades to favored accounts, including their own or those of preferred clients, and allocates losing trades to other client accounts, systematically enriching themselves at other clients' expense.

Cross Transactions

An adviser arranges trades between client accounts at prices that benefit one client account over another, often to the adviser's advantage, without the required disclosure and client consent for cross transactions.

Legal Framework

The Rules Prohibiting Self-Dealing

  • Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI): Requires broker-dealers to act in the retail customer's best interest and to identify, disclose, and mitigate or eliminate conflicts of interest that could affect their recommendations. Undisclosed self-dealing violates Reg BI's conflict of interest obligation.
  • Investment Advisers Act Fiduciary Duty: Registered investment advisers owe a continuous fiduciary duty to their clients that requires them to eliminate conflicts of interest where possible and to make full and fair disclosure of any remaining conflicts that could affect their advice.
  • ERISA Prohibited Transactions: Self-dealing transactions involving assets of employee benefit plans, including employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs, are prohibited transactions under ERISA Section 406, exposing the adviser to excise taxes, disgorgement, and civil liability regardless of disclosure.
  • FINRA Rule 2010 (Standards of Commercial Honor): Requires FINRA members to observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade. Self-dealing that harms clients is a violation of Rule 2010 independent of any other specific rule violation.
  • SEC Rule 206(4)-2 and Related Rules: The Investment Advisers Act and SEC rules impose specific requirements on advisers engaging in transactions with or for the benefit of affiliates and related parties, including disclosure requirements, consent requirements, and in some cases outright prohibitions.
The Insider Advantage

SEC Enforcement Experience in Conflict of Interest Cases

Self-dealing and undisclosed conflicts of interest are among the SEC's highest enforcement priorities for investment advisers. Jorge L. Riera's decade at the SEC's Division of Enforcement in Miami included investigation and prosecution of advisers who engaged in precisely these kinds of self-serving transactions at clients' expense.

Finding the Hidden Conflict

Self-dealing cases are won through document discovery. Revenue sharing agreements, compensation schedules, trade allocation records, emails between compliance and management, and Form ADV filings are among the documents that reveal the conflict the adviser failed to disclose. Jorge knows which documents to request, how to interpret what they reveal, and how to present that evidence to a FINRA arbitration panel or court.

CPA Analysis of Undisclosed Compensation

Quantifying the economic benefit a self-dealing adviser received at the client's expense, and translating that into damages recoverable by the investor, requires forensic financial analysis. Jorge's CPA credentials enable faster case evaluation, better expert direction, and stronger cross-examination of the firm's damages expert at the arbitration hearing.

All self-dealing claims are handled on a contingency fee basis. No legal fee unless we recover.

Case costs and expenses are payable from any recovery as provided in the written engagement agreement.


Schedule Your Free Consultation

or call ( 305) 204-9779

Common Questions

Self-Dealing: Frequently Asked Questions

Not necessarily. Disclosure of a conflict does not cure a breach of fiduciary duty if the conflict was so pervasive that it could not be adequately managed through disclosure alone, or if the disclosure was so general or buried in boilerplate that it did not constitute meaningful disclosure to a reasonable investor. Additionally, even where a conflict is disclosed, the adviser remains obligated to manage it in a way that does not harm the client. Disclosure and management are separate obligations.
Revenue sharing arrangements should be disclosed in the adviser's Form ADV Part 2A, which is a public document available on the SEC's IAPD website. However, not all advisers make complete disclosure, and the disclosure that is made is not always specific enough to reveal the true extent of the arrangement. In litigation or arbitration, discovery from the firm will typically reveal the actual revenue sharing agreements and the specific amounts received.
Principal transactions, where the firm sells securities from its own inventory to a client, are permitted but subject to strict disclosure requirements. The broker must disclose the firm's capacity as principal in the transaction and must comply with Reg BI's best interest obligation, including ensuring that the price and terms of the transaction are fair to the client. Where a firm consistently steers clients into its own inventory positions at unfavorable prices without adequate disclosure, that pattern may constitute actionable self-dealing.
No Fee Unless We Win

Your Financial Professional Was Supposed to Work for You, Not for Themselves.

Self-dealing is one of the most serious violations of the trust investors place in their financial professionals. If your adviser enriched themselves at your expense, you have the right to recover. Contact the firm for a free, confidential evaluation.

Request a Free Case Evaluation

or call (305) 204-9779

Jorge L. Riera, Esq., CPA, CGMA, MAcc · Former SEC Senior Enforcement Counsel · FINRA NAMC Public Member & Expungement Subcommittee Chair · AV Preeminent (Martindale-Hubbell) · Avvo 10.0 · PLI Securities Arbitration Faculty 2026 · Contingency Fee Representation

Related Practice Areas

Fiduciary Duty Breach Misrepresentation & Omission IRA Rollover Abuse Failure to Supervise
Practice Area · Conflicts of Interest
Self-Dealing Attorney

Your financial professional was required to put your interests first. When they used their position of trust to benefit themselves at your expense, they violated one of the most fundamental obligations in securities law.

Get a Free Case Review
What Self-Dealing Means

Self-Dealing Is Not a Gray Area. It Is a Betrayal of the Trust You Placed in Your Financial Professional.

Self-dealing occurs when a broker, investment adviser, or financial professional uses their position of trust and access to client assets to benefit themselves, their firm, or related parties at the client's expense. It takes many forms, but they all share a common feature: the professional's financial interest was placed above yours, and the advice or transaction you received was shaped by what benefited them rather than what was right for you.

Self-dealing is prohibited under Regulation Best Interest for broker-dealers, under the Investment Advisers Act fiduciary duty for registered investment advisers, under ERISA for retirement account managers, and under the common law of agency for any person who holds a position of trust over another's assets. Regardless of which legal framework applies, the result is the same: the investor who was harmed has the right to recover.

Common Forms of Self-Dealing

How Self-Dealing Occurs in the Securities Industry

Proprietary Product Bias

A broker or adviser recommends the firm's own investment products over objectively better alternatives because the firm earns higher fees on proprietary products, without disclosing this conflict to the client.

Undisclosed Revenue Sharing

An adviser receives compensation from a fund company for directing client assets into that fund's products, without disclosing the revenue sharing arrangement that influenced the recommendation.

Principal Transactions

A broker-dealer sells securities to a client from the firm's own inventory without disclosing the principal capacity of the transaction and the firm's financial interest in selling those securities at the price charged.

Related-Party Transactions

An adviser invests client assets in entities owned by or affiliated with the adviser, generating fees or economic benefits for the adviser beyond the stated advisory fee, without adequate disclosure and client consent.

Cherry-Picking

A broker or adviser allocates profitable trades to favored accounts, including their own or those of preferred clients, and allocates losing trades to other client accounts, systematically enriching themselves at other clients' expense.

Cross Transactions

An adviser arranges trades between client accounts at prices that benefit one client account over another, often to the adviser's advantage, without the required disclosure and client consent for cross transactions.

Legal Framework

The Rules Prohibiting Self-Dealing

  • Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI): Requires broker-dealers to act in the retail customer's best interest and to identify, disclose, and mitigate or eliminate conflicts of interest that could affect their recommendations. Undisclosed self-dealing violates Reg BI's conflict of interest obligation.
  • Investment Advisers Act Fiduciary Duty: Registered investment advisers owe a continuous fiduciary duty to their clients that requires them to eliminate conflicts of interest where possible and to make full and fair disclosure of any remaining conflicts that could affect their advice.
  • ERISA Prohibited Transactions: Self-dealing transactions involving assets of employee benefit plans, including employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs, are prohibited transactions under ERISA Section 406, exposing the adviser to excise taxes, disgorgement, and civil liability regardless of disclosure.
  • FINRA Rule 2010 (Standards of Commercial Honor): Requires FINRA members to observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade. Self-dealing that harms clients is a violation of Rule 2010 independent of any other specific rule violation.
  • SEC Rule 206(4)-2 and Related Rules: The Investment Advisers Act and SEC rules impose specific requirements on advisers engaging in transactions with or for the benefit of affiliates and related parties, including disclosure requirements, consent requirements, and in some cases outright prohibitions.
The Insider Advantage

SEC Enforcement Experience in Conflict of Interest Cases

Self-dealing and undisclosed conflicts of interest are among the SEC's highest enforcement priorities for investment advisers. Jorge L. Riera's decade at the SEC's Division of Enforcement in Miami included investigation and prosecution of advisers who engaged in precisely these kinds of self-serving transactions at clients' expense.

Finding the Hidden Conflict

Self-dealing cases are won through document discovery. Revenue sharing agreements, compensation schedules, trade allocation records, emails between compliance and management, and Form ADV filings are among the documents that reveal the conflict the adviser failed to disclose. Jorge knows which documents to request, how to interpret what they reveal, and how to present that evidence to a FINRA arbitration panel or court.

CPA Analysis of Undisclosed Compensation

Quantifying the economic benefit a self-dealing adviser received at the client's expense, and translating that into damages recoverable by the investor, requires forensic financial analysis. Jorge's CPA credentials enable faster case evaluation, better expert direction, and stronger cross-examination of the firm's damages expert at the arbitration hearing.

All self-dealing claims are handled on a contingency fee basis. No legal fee unless we recover.

Case costs and expenses are payable from any recovery as provided in the written engagement agreement.


Schedule Your Free Consultation

or call (305) 204-9779

Common Questions

Self-Dealing: Frequently Asked Questions

Not necessarily. Disclosure of a conflict does not cure a breach of fiduciary duty if the conflict was so pervasive that it could not be adequately managed through disclosure alone, or if the disclosure was so general or buried in boilerplate that it did not constitute meaningful disclosure to a reasonable investor. Additionally, even where a conflict is disclosed, the adviser remains obligated to manage it in a way that does not harm the client. Disclosure and management are separate obligations.
Revenue sharing arrangements should be disclosed in the adviser's Form ADV Part 2A, which is a public document available on the SEC's IAPD website. However, not all advisers make complete disclosure, and the disclosure that is made is not always specific enough to reveal the true extent of the arrangement. In litigation or arbitration, discovery from the firm will typically reveal the actual revenue sharing agreements and the specific amounts received.
Principal transactions, where the firm sells securities from its own inventory to a client, are permitted but subject to strict disclosure requirements. The broker must disclose the firm's capacity as principal in the transaction and must comply with Reg BI's best interest obligation, including ensuring that the price and terms of the transaction are fair to the client. Where a firm consistently steers clients into its own inventory positions at unfavorable prices without adequate disclosure, that pattern may constitute actionable self-dealing.
No Fee Unless We Win

Your Financial Professional Was Supposed to Work for You, Not for Themselves.

Self-dealing is one of the most serious violations of the trust investors place in their financial professionals. If your adviser enriched themselves at your expense, you have the right to recover. Contact the firm for a free, confidential evaluation.

Request a Free Case Evaluation

or call (305) 204-9779

Jorge L. Riera, Esq., CPA, CGMA, MAcc · Former SEC Senior Enforcement Counsel · FINRA NAMC Public Member & Expungement Subcommittee Chair · AV Preeminent (Martindale-Hubbell) · Avvo 10.0 · PLI Securities Arbitration Faculty 2026 · Contingency Fee Representation

Related Practice Areas

Fiduciary Duty Breach Misrepresentation & Omission IRA Rollover Abuse Failure to Supervise
Practice Area · Conflicts of Interest
Self-Dealing Attorney

Your financial professional was required to put your interests first. When they used their position of trust to benefit themselves at your expense, they violated one of the most fundamental obligations in securities law.

Get a Free Case Review
What Self-Dealing Means

Self-Dealing Is Not a Gray Area. It Is a Betrayal of the Trust You Placed in Your Financial Professional.

Self-dealing occurs when a broker, investment adviser, or financial professional uses their position of trust and access to client assets to benefit themselves, their firm, or related parties at the client's expense. It takes many forms, but they all share a common feature: the professional's financial interest was placed above yours, and the advice or transaction you received was shaped by what benefited them rather than what was right for you.

Self-dealing is prohibited under Regulation Best Interest for broker-dealers, under the Investment Advisers Act fiduciary duty for registered investment advisers, under ERISA for retirement account managers, and under the common law of agency for any person who holds a position of trust over another's assets. Regardless of which legal framework applies, the result is the same: the investor who was harmed has the right to recover.

Common Forms of Self-Dealing

How Self-Dealing Occurs in the Securities Industry

Proprietary Product Bias

A broker or adviser recommends the firm's own investment products over objectively better alternatives because the firm earns higher fees on proprietary products, without disclosing this conflict to the client.

Undisclosed Revenue Sharing

An adviser receives compensation from a fund company for directing client assets into that fund's products, without disclosing the revenue sharing arrangement that influenced the recommendation.

Principal Transactions

A broker-dealer sells securities to a client from the firm's own inventory without disclosing the principal capacity of the transaction and the firm's financial interest in selling those securities at the price charged.

Related-Party Transactions

An adviser invests client assets in entities owned by or affiliated with the adviser, generating fees or economic benefits for the adviser beyond the stated advisory fee, without adequate disclosure and client consent.

Cherry-Picking

A broker or adviser allocates profitable trades to favored accounts, including their own or those of preferred clients, and allocates losing trades to other client accounts, systematically enriching themselves at other clients' expense.

Cross Transactions

An adviser arranges trades between client accounts at prices that benefit one client account over another, often to the adviser's advantage, without the required disclosure and client consent for cross transactions.

Legal Framework

The Rules Prohibiting Self-Dealing

  • Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI): Requires broker-dealers to act in the retail customer's best interest and to identify, disclose, and mitigate or eliminate conflicts of interest that could affect their recommendations. Undisclosed self-dealing violates Reg BI's conflict of interest obligation.
  • Investment Advisers Act Fiduciary Duty: Registered investment advisers owe a continuous fiduciary duty to their clients that requires them to eliminate conflicts of interest where possible and to make full and fair disclosure of any remaining conflicts that could affect their advice.
  • ERISA Prohibited Transactions: Self-dealing transactions involving assets of employee benefit plans, including employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs, are prohibited transactions under ERISA Section 406, exposing the adviser to excise taxes, disgorgement, and civil liability regardless of disclosure.
  • FINRA Rule 2010 (Standards of Commercial Honor): Requires FINRA members to observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade. Self-dealing that harms clients is a violation of Rule 2010 independent of any other specific rule violation.
  • SEC Rule 206(4)-2 and Related Rules: The Investment Advisers Act and SEC rules impose specific requirements on advisers engaging in transactions with or for the benefit of affiliates and related parties, including disclosure requirements, consent requirements, and in some cases outright prohibitions.
The Insider Advantage

SEC Enforcement Experience in Conflict of Interest Cases

Self-dealing and undisclosed conflicts of interest are among the SEC's highest enforcement priorities for investment advisers. Jorge L. Riera's decade at the SEC's Division of Enforcement in Miami included investigation and prosecution of advisers who engaged in precisely these kinds of self-serving transactions at clients' expense.

Finding the Hidden Conflict

Self-dealing cases are won through document discovery. Revenue sharing agreements, compensation schedules, trade allocation records, emails between compliance and management, and Form ADV filings are among the documents that reveal the conflict the adviser failed to disclose. Jorge knows which documents to request, how to interpret what they reveal, and how to present that evidence to a FINRA arbitration panel or court.

CPA Analysis of Undisclosed Compensation

Quantifying the economic benefit a self-dealing adviser received at the client's expense, and translating that into damages recoverable by the investor, requires forensic financial analysis. Jorge's CPA credentials enable faster case evaluation, better expert direction, and stronger cross-examination of the firm's damages expert at the arbitration hearing.

All self-dealing claims are handled on a contingency fee basis. No legal fee unless we recover.

Case costs and expenses are payable from any recovery as provided in the written engagement agreement.


Schedule Your Free Consultation

or call (305) 204-9779

Common Questions

Self-Dealing: Frequently Asked Questions

Not necessarily. Disclosure of a conflict does not cure a breach of fiduciary duty if the conflict was so pervasive that it could not be adequately managed through disclosure alone, or if the disclosure was so general or buried in boilerplate that it did not constitute meaningful disclosure to a reasonable investor. Additionally, even where a conflict is disclosed, the adviser remains obligated to manage it in a way that does not harm the client. Disclosure and management are separate obligations.
Revenue sharing arrangements should be disclosed in the adviser's Form ADV Part 2A, which is a public document available on the SEC's IAPD website. However, not all advisers make complete disclosure, and the disclosure that is made is not always specific enough to reveal the true extent of the arrangement. In litigation or arbitration, discovery from the firm will typically reveal the actual revenue sharing agreements and the specific amounts received.
Principal transactions, where the firm sells securities from its own inventory to a client, are permitted but subject to strict disclosure requirements. The broker must disclose the firm's capacity as principal in the transaction and must comply with Reg BI's best interest obligation, including ensuring that the price and terms of the transaction are fair to the client. Where a firm consistently steers clients into its own inventory positions at unfavorable prices without adequate disclosure, that pattern may constitute actionable self-dealing.
No Fee Unless We Win

Your Financial Professional Was Supposed to Work for You, Not for Themselves.

Self-dealing is one of the most serious violations of the trust investors place in their financial professionals. If your adviser enriched themselves at your expense, you have the right to recover. Contact the firm for a free, confidential evaluation.

Request a Free Case Evaluation

or call (305) 204-9779

Jorge L. Riera, Esq., CPA, CGMA, MAcc · Former SEC Senior Enforcement Counsel · FINRA NAMC Public Member & Expungement Subcommittee Chair · AV Preeminent (Martindale-Hubbell) · Avvo 10.0 · PLI Securities Arbitration Faculty 2026 · Contingency Fee Representation

Related Practice Areas

Fiduciary Duty Breach Misrepresentation & Omission IRA Rollover Abuse Failure to Supervise