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SEC Charges Investment Adviser for Failing to Comply with Representations in Firm Brochures and Related Violations

Sept. 28, 2023

ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING
File No. 3-21747

September 28, 2023 - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against registered investment advisory firm Apexium Financial LP ("Apexium"), based in Rye, New York, for failing to manage a conflict of interest in a manner consistent with its representations in its firm brochures from 2018 through 2020, and for violations of rules relating to compliance policies and procedures.

According to the SEC's order, Apexium disclosed that it had a financial conflict of interest when selecting an affiliated firm to manage certain clients' assets and stated that Apexium would manage this conflict by documenting why it was in the client's best interest to use the affiliated firm. However, Apexium did not document, as it stated in its firm brochures that it would, best interest determinations concerning the use of the affiliated firm. The SEC's order further finds that Apexium failed to adopt and implement written policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure that it acted in accordance with the representations in its firm brochures, and also failed to conduct the required annual review of its compliance policies and procedures and the effectiveness of their implementation for 2018 and 2019.

The SEC's order finds that, based on the foregoing, Apexium violated Sections 206(2) and 206(4) of the Advisers Act and Rule 206(4)-7 thereunder. Without admitting or denying the findings, Apexium consented to a cease-and-desist order and a censure and agreed to pay a $150,000 penalty.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Mariel Bronen and George N. Stepaniuk in the New York Regional Office, and was supervised by Tejal D. Shah. The examination that led to the investigation was conducted by Todd S. Naznitsky, Kristine Geissler, Anthony P. Fiduccia and Merryl Hoffman.

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