Transamerica Financial Advisors, Inc. (“Transamerica Financial Advisors“) (CRD#16164) has many different complaints filed by FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), state regulatory organizations, and investors such as yourself.
At the Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce, we have investigated Transamerica Financial Advisors, its regulatory and customer complaints, and have also represented investors with claims of fraud, negligence, and breach of fiduciary duty against this organization and its financial advisors. If you’ve lost money due to Transamerica’s documented supervisory failures or unsuitable investment recommendations, you can pursue compensation through FINRA arbitration – even if you signed an arbitration agreement with the firm.
The firm’s pattern of violations reveals systemic supervisory failures that have resulted in millions of dollars in fines and customer restitution. These documented regulatory issues may directly relate to your investment losses. Don’t wait – there are strict time limits for filing claims.
We can help you navigate the FINRA arbitration process and hold Transamerica accountable for the losses you’ve suffered. Our firm specializes in securities fraud cases and knows exactly how to build claims against firms with Transamerica’s regulatory history.
Can I Sue Transamerica Financial Advisors?
Yes, you can sue Transamerica Financial Advisors if you’ve lost money due to misconduct, but most claims must be resolved in FINRA arbitration rather than court. Attorney Robert Wayne Pearce has over 45 years of FINRA arbitration experience and can guide you through filing and winning your case against Transamerica Financial Advisors.
How to Sue Transamerica Financial Advisors for Investment Losses
What Can I Do If I Lost Money at Transamerica Financial Advisors?
If you lost money at Transamerica Financial Advisors, you can file a FINRA arbitration claim to recover your losses, even if you signed paperwork agreeing to arbitration. FINRA arbitration is the standard legal process for resolving disputes between investors and brokerage firms because most account agreements require it instead of traditional court lawsuits.
The arbitration process works like a streamlined court case. You present evidence showing how Transamerica’s documented failures caused your losses. This may include the firm’s failure to supervise variable annuity recommendations, its practice of selecting mutual fund share classes that charged excessive 12b-1 fees, or its failure to apply volume discounts on REITs and BDCs that resulted in customers paying excessive sales charges.
Transamerica has a documented history of regulatory violations. FINRA fined the firm $4.4 million and ordered $4.4 million in restitution to approximately 2,400 customers for failing to supervise its registered representatives’ recommendations. The SEC has repeatedly censured the firm for various violations. These patterns establish that Transamerica has struggled with proper supervision and compliance practices.
Your losses may stem directly from these same systemic failures. During the period covered by FINRA’s major sanctions, commissions from variable annuities comprised more than 40% of Transamerica’s total revenue. This created inherent conflicts of interest that may have led to unsuitable recommendations in your account.
Who Can Help Me Sue Transamerica Financial Advisors?
You need an attorney experienced in FINRA arbitration and securities fraud cases. The Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce specializes in cases against firms like Transamerica with documented regulatory problems. We understand how independent broker-dealers operate, why their business model creates supervisory gaps, and how to demonstrate that these failures caused your specific losses.
We’ve represented numerous investors in claims involving variable annuity churning, unsuitable mutual fund recommendations, and failure to supervise – the exact violations for which Transamerica has been repeatedly sanctioned. Our experience with these specific types of misconduct means we know what evidence to gather, which regulatory actions to reference, and how to build a compelling case for full recovery of your losses.
What is Transamerica Financial Advisors?
Transamerica Financial Advisors (CRD#16164) is a registered broker-dealer. It operates as a full-service independent broker-dealer, providing a range of financial products and services to individual investors and financial advisors.
As a registered broker-dealer, Transamerica Financial Advisors is subject to regulations and oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). It is required to comply with industry standards and regulations to ensure the protection of its clients’ interests.
A failure to comply with industry standards by either its brokers or the firm itself can result in disciplinary actions, fines, or other penalties imposed by regulatory authorities.
Transamerica Financial Advisors in Trouble – Latest News
Yes, Transamerica Financial Advisors, Inc. is experiencing significant regulatory troubles and ongoing issues in 2024 and 2025. The company continues to face substantial penalties, customer complaints, and regulatory actions.
Most notably, in January 2025, Transamerica Retirement Advisors LLC (a related entity) was fined $2.9 million by the SEC on January 17, 2025, for failing to disclose conflicts of interest created by incentive compensation payments to representatives InvestmentfraudlawyersSEC. This recent action demonstrates that problems persist within the Transamerica family of companies.
The 2025 developments show that regulatory scrutiny continues. Individual brokers associated with the firm are still generating customer complaints, with recent examples including unsuitable investment recommendations and alleged failures to recommend appropriate investment strategies.
Why Does Transamerica Financial Advisors Have So Many Bad Reviews and Customer Complaints?
Transamerica Financial Advisors has so many bad reviews and customer complaints because independent broker-dealers like Transamerica use a business model that creates weak supervision of financial advisors. This structure prioritizes growth and profits over investor protection.
Unlike traditional brokerage firms with managers working on-site at branch offices, independent broker-dealers operate as franchise-type operations. Transamerica opens many offices nationwide to generate steady monthly revenues without paying for full-service branches. The registered representatives run their own separate businesses – they aren’t employees of Transamerica.
The supervision structure compounds this problem. Transamerica uses other independent contractors to run Offices of Supervisory Jurisdiction (OSJs) that monitor representatives from remote locations. These OSJ managers aren’t devoted full-time supervisors – they run their own businesses while supposedly overseeing multiple branch offices they rarely visit. This means no one is watching day-to-day operations where your money is being invested.
There’s typically no immediate review of new accounts, securities transactions, or business records at these firms. No one is on-site to detect forged signatures, catch inaccurate information about your investment objectives, or verify that recommendations are suitable for your situation. Many of these offices only get one compliance audit per year.
The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) has documented more instances of sales abuse and investor losses at independent broker-dealers than at traditional brokerage firms with on-site managers and compliance personnel. This documented pattern explains why Transamerica has accumulated approximately 19 state and regulatory disclosure events over the years.
Examples of Regulatory Problems and Complaints for Transamerica Financial Advisors
Transamerica Financial Advisors’ rapid growth has not been without consequences. There have been approximately 19 state and self-regulatory body disclosure events; that is, final and formal proceedings initiated by a regulatory authority (e.g., a state or federal securities agency like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or self-regulatory body like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) for a violation(s) of investment-related rules or regulations. In addition, there have been customer complaints filed against Transamerica Financial Advisors for misconduct by its securities sales and investment advisory representatives that are not reported by the firm on its Central Depository Record.
We have reported and written about these regulatory problems and customer complaints over many years. Transamerica Financial Advisors is a repeat offender: there are over 19 FINRA-reported proceedings citing the firm with one form of supervisory lapses or another.
A Brief Overview of Some of the Regulatory Problems Transamerica Financial Advisors Has Faced Over the Years*
Transamerica Financial Advisors has been repeatedly censured, warned, and fined multi-millions of dollars for its own misconduct and failure to supervise its army of financial advisors.* A few of the notable FINRA Sanctions for its Supervisory Failures are below:
FINRA Censures and Fines Transamerica Financial Advisors for Failure to Supervise Variable Annuity Recommendations
Brief Overview: Without admitting or denying the findings, Transamerica Financial Advisors consented to the sanctions and to the entry of FINRA findings that it failed to reasonably supervise its registered representatives’ variable annuity recommendations and made disclosures that either omitted or contained materially inaccurate information.
FINRA alleged the firm failed to provide adequate training to its representatives regarding how to complete disclosure forms that were required when recommending a variable annuity exchange and failed to provide adequate training to supervisors regarding how they should verify the information on the disclosure forms. Because of this, certain firm principals approved variable annuity exchanges based on disclosure forms that contained inaccurate or missing information, which each had the effect of making the exchange appear to be more favorable than was the actual case. In several cases, these misstatements or omissions prevented the firm’s reviewing principals from having a reasonable basis to approve these transactions.
FINRA stated that the firm and its representatives received compensation from new variable annuity sales, trails, and subsequent contributions in the form of gross dealer commissions of more than $591 million. As a result, the firm was censured, fined $4.4 million, and ordered to pay restitution of $4,354,160 to customers.
SEC Censures Transamerica Financial Advisors for Mutual Fund Share Class Selection Practice
Brief Overview: The Securities and Exchange Commission initiated cease-and-desist proceedings against Transamerica Financial Advisors based on findings of breaches of fiduciary duty and inadequate disclosures by the firm in connection with its mutual fund share class selection practices and the fees it received. According to the SEC, the firm purchased, recommended, or held for advisory clients’ mutual fund share classes that charged 12b-1 fees instead of lower-cost share classes of the same funds for which the clients were eligible.
The firm received 12b-1 fees in connection with these investments but failed to disclose in its Form ADV or otherwise the conflicts of interest related to its receipt of 12b-1 fees and/or its selection of mutual fund share classes that pay such fees. During this period, the firm received 12b-1 fees for advising clients to invest in or hold such mutual fund share classes. As a result of the conduct and violations, the firm was censured and agreed to pay disgorgement of $5,364,292.04 plus interest and cease and desist from violating securities laws and regulations.
FINRA Censures and Fines Transamerica Financial Advisors for Failure to Apply Discounts to Eligible Purchases of REITs and BDCs
Brief Overview: Without admitting or denying the findings, Transamerica Financial Advisors consented to the sanctions and to the entry of FINRA findings that it failed to identify and apply volume discounts to eligible purchases of non-traded real estate investment trusts and business development companies. This resulted in customers paying excessive sales charges. In addition, the firm failed to establish, maintain, and enforce a supervisory system and written supervisory procedures with respect to the sale of nontraded REITs and BDCs.
FINRA stated the firm did not have procedures in place reasonably designed to identify accounts that would be eligible for volume discounts, but instead relied on its associates to ensure its customers received the volume discounts. The firm also failed to provide adequate guidelines, instructions, or policies for its associated persons and supervisors to follow to determine whether a customer’s purchase qualified for a volume discount. As a result, the firm was censured, fined $85,000, and ordered to pay restitution of $51,066.08.
FINRA Censures and Fines Transamerica Financial Advisors for Filing Inaccurate Form U5 on Behalf of Former Registered Representative
Brief Overview: Without admitting or denying the findings, Transamerica Financial Advisors consented to the sanctions and to the entry of FINRA findings that it filed with FINRA an inaccurate Form U5 on behalf of a former registered representative that failed to disclose that the representative had been charged with a felony before her termination.
FINRA stated that the representative was charged with a felony during the period of her employment and registration with the firm, and the firm was aware of this information during her employment. FINRA also stated that the firm filed with FINRA an inaccurate and misleading amended Form U5 for the same representative that stated that she had not been charged with a felony before her termination and that she had not disclosed her arrest at the time of her resignation. As a result, the firm was censured and fined $50,000.
SEC Censured and Fined Transamerica Financial Advisors for Failure to Apply Advisory Fee Discounts to Eligible Clients
Brief Overview: The Securities and Exchange Commission initiated cease-and-desist proceedings against Transamerica Financial Advisors for the firm’s failure to apply advisory fee discounts to certain retail clients in several of its advisory fee programs, contrary to its disclosures to clients and its policies and procedures. The firm offered clients in these programs breakpoint discounts that reduce the total advisory fee as the clients’ assets in the programs increase.
In the Form ADV filings and in account opening documents, the firm represented that clients may request that the firm aggregate the values of certain related accounts to achieve these discounts. The SEC also stated that the firm’s policies and procedures required that clients receive savings from breakpoint discounts. Despite these disclosures, the firm failed, in some instances, to apply the breakpoint discounts regardless of client requests for aggregation.
The SEC also found the firm failed to adopt and implement adequate policies and procedures to ensure that its clients’ fees were calculated as represented. As a result of such willful violations of the Advisers Act, the firm was censured and fined $553,624.
How to File an Official Complaint Against Transamerica Financial Advisors or One of Its Brokers with FINRA
File a complaint against Transamerica Financial Advisors or one of its brokers through FINRA if you’ve experienced investment losses due to misconduct. Our law firm has experience holding Transamerica accountable for fraud, negligence, and regulatory violations.
We understand their history of supervisory failures, ongoing customer complaints, and regulatory fines, including recent penalties in 2025. Don’t risk handling these complex cases alone.
Related Read: Can You Sue Your Brokerage Firm?
How The Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce, P.A. Can Help You Recover Losses at Transamerica Financial Advisors
The Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce, P.A. assists investors in navigating both the complaint process and FINRA arbitration proceedings against Transamerica Financial Advisors. We handle everything from gathering evidence of supervisory failures to presenting your case before arbitrators.
With over 45 years of experience in securities arbitration and a track record of recovering more than $175 million for investors, Attorney Pearce understands exactly how to build winning cases against firms with documented regulatory problems like Transamerica. We know which violations matter most, how to connect them to your specific losses, and what evidence arbitrators need to see.
Attorney Pearce offers free consultations to evaluate your potential claim. During this consultation, we review your account statements, identify which of Transamerica’s documented failures may have affected your investments, and explain your realistic recovery prospects. There’s no obligation and no upfront cost to learn whether you have a viable case.
Did Transamerica Financial Advisors Advisor Misconduct Cause Your Investment Losses?
If Transamerica Financial Advisors advisor misconduct caused your investment losses, you may be entitled to compensation through FINRA arbitration. Common forms of advisor misconduct at Transamerica include unsuitable variable annuity recommendations, churning of investments to generate commissions, failure to disclose conflicts of interest, and placing clients in mutual fund share classes that charged excessive 12b-1 fees when lower-cost options were available.
The firm’s documented pattern of supervisory failures means many investors suffered losses that were never properly reviewed or prevented. FINRA found that Transamerica failed to reasonably supervise its representatives’ variable annuity recommendations and that firm principals approved exchanges based on inaccurate disclosure forms. This systemic breakdown in supervision created an environment where unsuitable recommendations could occur without detection.
If you experienced significant losses in variable annuities, mutual funds, or 529 plans at Transamerica between 2010 and 2016, your losses may fall within the period covered by FINRA’s major sanctions. The firm paid $4.4 million in restitution to approximately 2,400 customers during this time, but many eligible investors may not have received full compensation for their losses.
Other red flags include: excessive trading in your account, recommendations to exchange variable annuities repeatedly, being placed in higher-fee mutual fund share classes when you qualified for lower fees, or discovering that volume discounts on REITs and BDCs were not applied to your purchases. These specific violations match the regulatory actions taken against Transamerica.
The SEC also found that Transamerica breached its fiduciary duty by selecting mutual fund share classes that paid the firm 12b-1 fees instead of recommending lower-cost alternatives for which clients were eligible. During the relevant period, the firm received these fees without properly disclosing the conflicts of interest this created. If you held mutual funds at Transamerica and noticed high fees or poor performance, this undisclosed conflict may have contributed to your losses.
Time limits apply to filing FINRA arbitration claims. Generally, you must file within six years of the misconduct or three years from when you discovered (or should have discovered) the losses. Don’t delay in seeking legal advice about your potential claim.
Consult With An Attorney Who Recovers Investment Losses Caused By Transamerica Financial Advisors Today
The investment loss attorneys at The Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce, P.A., have helped countless investors over the last 45 years recover the losses from their investment accounts that were caused by broker negligence or misconduct. The firm has extensive experience with Transamerica Financial Advisors cases, and Attorney Pearce is committed to seeing that those responsible for the losses you have suffered are held fully accountable.
Give us a call at 800-732-2889. Let’s discuss your case and see what we can do to help you get the compensation you need and deserve.
