2016
Ronald Eugene Harrison, an investment adviser representative in Carrollton, has been suspended for 90 days and is required to repay a client $5,000, which represents a portion of the commissions he earned in the sale of an investment to the client. Texas Securities Commissioner John Morgan entered the Consent Order on Feb. 16.
Harrison violated the registration requirements of state law and sold investments he did not have a reasonable basis to believe were suitable. One of his clients, a retiree, filed a complaint with the State Securities Board over her investment.
Harrison sold investments in a “Resale Life Insurance Policy Program” (RSLIP) operated by Retirement Value LLC (RV) of New Braunfels. The investments were structured as loans to RV, which would use the proceeds to purchase life settlements. Harrison was not registered as an agent of Retirement Value when he sold RSLIP program investments. Retirement Value was placed in receivership in 2010 after the Securities Commissioner issued an emergency order finding, in part, that RV committed fraud in connection with the RSLIP program.
The client who filed the complaint invested $400,000 in the RSLIP program. As Harrison knew, the client was retired and depended on her retirement portfolio as her primary source of income. The RSLIP investments were illiquid, with no set payments to the investor.