SLCG’s ratings reveal that firms it ranked as:          

• The worst brokerage firms over the past 10 years that are still in business remain among the worst firms.

• The worst firms appear to adhere to a high-risk business model, resulting in high continuing investor harm.

• The worst firms in the industry have concentrated their customers’ accounts in a tiny sliver of available investments.

• The worst firms are more than five times as likely to have customer complaints over illiquid investments (30 percent) as all firms (1.16 percent), despite illiquid securities such as variable and indexed annuities, non-traded REITs, oil and gas products, equipment leasing, direct participation products (DPP) and other private placements.

 “If Finra unshackled BrokerCheck, researchers would come up with innovative ways to reach and inform unsophisticated investors about high-risk brokers and brokerage firms,” McCann said in the firm’s white paper. The research was originally published in The Journal of Investing in June.

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