FINRA has suspended former Cetera Investment Services LLC broker Jimmie Darrel Summers from the securities industry for 45 business days for circumventing Cetera’s procedures that prohibited registered representatives from being named as a trustee, successor trustee, or executor for a firm customer, or from having power of attorney for a firm customer, except when the customer was a member of the representative’s immediate family.
Summers’ suspension began on May 17, 2021, and is scheduled to end on June 30, 2021. He was also fined $5,000.
If you have lost money with Jimmie Darrel Summers or Cetera Investment Services LLC, contact FINRA arbitration lawyers Iorio Altamirano LLP for a free and confidential evaluation of your account.
FINRA Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (“AWC”)
Jimmie Darrel Summers and FINRA entered into a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (“AWC”) on April 19, 2021.
The AWC indicates that, in 2019, Cetera’s procedures prohibited its registered representatives from being named as a trustee, co-trustee, successor trustee, or executor for a firm customer, or from having power of attorney for a firm customer, except when the customer was a member of the representative’s immediate family. Cetera’s procedures also forbade the firm’s registered representatives from being named a beneficiary of a customer’s account, estate, or insurance policy, unless, again, the customer was a member of the representative’s immediate family.
Summers circumvented these procedures when he accepted multiple appointments and designations from an 82-year-old Cetera customer to whom he was not related. In March 2019, Summers was named the successor trustee of the customer’s living trust, and Summers would have received 90% of the trust’s assets upon the customer’s death. In the same month, Summers was named the personal representative of the customer’s estate in the customer’s will. He was also appointed power of attorney and medical power of attorney for the customer, although Summers never acted as the power of attorney or medical power of attorney for the customer. In June 2019, Summers again circumvented Cetera’s procedures when he was named the sole beneficiary of an annuity held by the customer. Summers did not disclose any of these designations or appointments to the firm. As of the publishing of the AWC, Summers no longer held any of these appointments or designations for the customer.
FINRA Rule 2010 requires members and associated persons, in conducting their business, to “observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade.” By circumventing firm procedures designed to protect customers, Summers violated Rule 2010.
Jimmie Darrel Summers (CRD#: 1467286)
Summers has 32 years of experience in the securities industry and was most recently registered with Waddell & Reed in Tulsa, OK, between January 2020 and April 2021.
Summers was registered as a broker with Cetera Investment Services LLC in Tulsa, OK, between December 2017 and January 2020. He was registered with BOK Financial Securities, Inc. in Sand Springs, OK, between February 1997 and December 2017.
How to Recover Losses or Obtain a Free Consultation
If you have lost money with Jimmie Darrel Summers, or Cetera Investment Services LLC, contact FINRA arbitration lawyers August Iorio and Jorge Altamirano of Iorio Altamirano LLP at august@ia-law.com, jorge@ia-law.com or toll-free at (855) 430-4010 for a free and confidential evaluation of your account.
Iorio Altamirano LLP is a securities arbitration law firm based in New York, NY. We pursue FINRA arbitration claims nationwide on behalf of investors to recover financial losses arising out of wrongful conduct by financial advisors and brokerage firms.