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Washington state fines mother-son team at WMS Wealth Management $50,000 over shared login

The October consent order says Bill Swayne used Candace Swayne's credentials from January 2021 until he registered with the $46.8 million RIA in April 2022.

$50,000over shared login

By the Practice management desk3 min read

At a glance

  1. WMS Wealth is an RIA with $46.8 million in client assets, and Candace Swayne owns it.
  2. For practice owners the order describes two control failures that are easy to replicate: a platform login shared with someone who is not registered, and an outside investment sold to advisory clients without disclosure.
  3. The order says Bill Swayne raised $1.25 million for Chelan Ridge Holdings, a holding company that bought a winery, from 11 WMS clients while registered with broker-dealer Integrity Brokerage, without disclosing the conflict.

Washington state's securities division fined the mother-and-son team at WMS Wealth Management $50,000 after the son used his mother's login credentials to manage her clients' accounts while he was unregistered, InvestmentNews reported.

Bill Swayne used Candace Swayne's credentials from January 2021 until he joined WMS Wealth Management as an investment adviser representative in April 2022, according to an October consent order from the Department of Financial Institutions. WMS Wealth is an RIA with $46.8 million in client assets, and Candace Swayne owns it.

For practice owners the order describes two control failures that are easy to replicate: a platform login shared with someone who is not registered, and an outside investment sold to advisory clients without disclosure. TD Ameritrade, then the firm's custodian, terminated its relationship with WMS Wealth in June 2021 because of the credential use, according to the order.

The order says Bill Swayne raised $1.25 million for Chelan Ridge Holdings, a holding company that bought a winery, from 11 WMS clients while registered with broker-dealer Integrity Brokerage, without disclosing the conflict. It also says Candace Swayne, as sole owner of the firm, failed to supervise him.

The penalty came with $5,000 for the cost of the investigation, and the two agreed to return fees to investors. Bill Swayne told InvestmentNews the order resulted from licensing and trading technicalities and that clients had “no losses or damages.” He also said regulators made no fraud allegations.

Reported by the Practice management desk from InvestmentNews. Published . Corrections

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Washington state fines mother-son team at WMS Wealth Management…