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What went wrong · Unsuitable investments

“I needed income and safety. He sold me something I couldn’t sell.”

A retiree living on a fixed income was sold products built for someone else — or for the broker.

A broker must have a reasonable basis to believe a recommendation fits your age, income, objectives, risk tolerance, and need for liquidity. An American retiree abroad, drawing a fixed monthly amount from a US account, has a clear and conservative profile. Non-traded REITs, structured notes, variable annuities with long surrender schedules, private placements, and leveraged funds are frequently sold to exactly that profile because they pay the seller well. When the product could not be sold, cut its distributions, or lost value the broker never described, the recommendation itself is the claim.

Recognize it

You may have this claim if

  • Products you cannot sell or can only sell at a steep discount
  • Distributions that were cut or suspended
  • A surrender charge you were not told about
  • A large share of your account in one product or one kind of product
  • Risk described as “conservative” or “like a bond” for something that was neither

The rule

What the firm owed you

FINRA Rule 2111 (suitability) and, since 2020, SEC Regulation Best Interest require that recommendations be in the customer’s best interest based on the customer’s investment profile. Age, retirement status, and liquidity needs are core parts of that profile.

From abroad

Why distance does not matter here

Suitability is judged from your account documents and the broker’s own records of your profile — a comparison we make on paper. Distance is irrelevant to it.

Guides

Read next

  1. My US Brokerage Is Closing My Account Because I Live Abroad Got the closure letter? What the deadline means, how to stop a forced sale, how to transfer in kind, and when the closure becomes a claim. 7 min read
  2. Can I Keep My IRA or 401(k) If I Move Abroad? Yes — Mostly You can generally keep an IRA or 401(k) after moving abroad. What changes is who will hold it — and what brokers get wrong about rollovers and cashing out. 7 min read
  3. How to Keep a US Brokerage Account While Living Overseas Address, residency, the “we no longer serve your country” letter, and how to move an account without a forced sale — for Americans abroad. 7 min read
  4. FINRA Arbitration From Overseas: Start to Award The whole FINRA arbitration process for an investor abroad — filing, the answer, arbitrators, discovery, mediation, the hearing, and getting paid. 8 min read
  5. Video Hearings in FINRA Arbitration: What Actually Happens How a FINRA arbitration hearing works over video for an investor abroad: who is on screen, testimony and exhibits, time zones, and preparing your room. 7 min read
  6. The FINRA Six-Year Eligibility Rule, Explained for Expats FINRA Rule 12206 bars claims six years after the event. What counts as the event, why state limitations periods may be shorter, and why waiting hurts. 6 min read
  7. FINRA Simplified Arbitration for Claims of $50,000 or Less How FINRA Rule 12800 works: one arbitrator, a decision on the papers unless you ask for a hearing, lower fees, a shorter timeline — and why to file. 6 min read
  8. How to Read Your Brokerage Statements for Churning Turnover ratio, cost-to-equity, and confirmations you never approved: a plain guide to finding unauthorized trading and churning in your statements. 8 min read
  9. Variable Annuities Sold to Retirees Abroad: What to Know Surrender charges, layered fees, oversold riders, and annuities inside IRAs: how variable annuity claims work for American retirees abroad. 7 min read
  10. Non-Traded REITs: Why You Cannot Sell Them Why a non-traded REIT cannot be sold, where the distributions really came from, and when the recommendation — not the market — was the problem. 7 min read
  11. Offshore and Expat Specialist Advisors: Who Regulates Them How to check whether an “expat specialist” advisor is registered — BrokerCheck, the SEC’s IAPD, host-country regulators — and what unregistered means. 7 min read
  12. What to Send a Securities Lawyer: A Document Checklist The documents a securities lawyer needs for a free case review — statements, confirmations, the account application, the firm’s letters — from abroad. 6 min read
  13. The Retirement Rollover Checklist Before You Move Abroad Before you roll a 401(k), TSP, or pension into an IRA and leave the country: what Regulation Best Interest requires, and the questions to ask in writing. 7 min read
  14. Selling Away: When a Side Deal Is the Firm’s Problem Your broker sold you something that never appeared on a statement. FINRA Rules 3280 and 3110 explain when the brokerage firm is responsible anyway. 7 min read
All guides

Free case review

Sound familiar? Send the statements and let us check.

Free and confidential review by Richard Frankowski. Calls scheduled in your time zone, never ours.

Call — US toll-free

+1 888 741 7503

From abroad: +1 205-390-0399

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The other four

Often more than one applies.

  1. 01 “They found out I moved, and now my account is frozen.”
  2. 03 “I was twelve hours away, and the trading never stopped.”
  3. 04 “I rolled over everything the month I retired. That was the mistake they were waiting for.”
  4. 05 “He said he specialized in Americans abroad. I never checked who regulated him.”

Where you live

The same claim, from your time zone.