Beware of Stephen Ruvituso: Troubled Merrill Lynch Advisor

Stephen Ruvituso Merrill Lynch might come up if you’re looking for a financial advisory company in Jupiter, Florida. He is a well-known advisor who has gotten into trouble more than once for putting his interests ahead of those of his clients. The review that follows will shed light on these disagreements and the parts of his statements that are not good:

Who’s Stephen Ruvituso?

Stephen Ruvituso works for the company Merrill Lynch, which is based in Jupiter, Florida. His phone number is 561-775-8157, and his address is 900 US-1 Suite 400, Jupiter, FL 33477, US. From 9 AM to 4 PM, Stephen’s office is open.

Stephen is in charge of running the RSM Group. This company says it can give certain clients and their families unique services. Todd Stankiewicz, Graham Mandl, Julie Ackerman, and Joseph Castiglione are also well-known people who work at this company.

The company works with very wealthy people and their families. Some of the services this advisory company offers are liquidity event strategies, discretionary investment management, philanthropic strategies, trust and estate planning services, and concentrated stock strategies.

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Even though this company brags a lot about its services, its reports say something very different. According to this company’s terms and conditions, the RS Group’s advisors should ignore your interests when making suggestions.

Stephen Ruvituso Merrill Lynch Has Warning Signs

The amount of legal disputes Stephen Ruvituso has had with his clients is the main reason why you shouldn’t trust Merrill Lynch. If you need a financial advisor, you should look at their FINRA BrokerCheck page. It would tell you how long the advisor has been in business, what tests they have passed, where they have worked, and, most importantly, if they have ever fought with a client.

Stephen Ruvituso Merrill Lynch’s FINRA BrokerCheck page says that he has had four disagreements with different clients.

In 1999, there was the first fight. Here, the client said that the contract had been broken and asked for $256,000 in damages. Stephen’s company paid $131,250 to settle this case and said that it happened because the management of a hospital system did something wrong.

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In 2000, he got into a second fight. Here, the client said that the risk wasn’t made clear and asked for $180,000 in penalties. Stephen’s company paid $70,000 to settle the issue. They said that they did this to avoid the costs of going to court.

Stephen Ruvituso Merrill Lynch went to court for the third time in 2003. Here, the client said that he was misled and asked for $57,244.81 in damages. But the company said there was no truth to the claims without saying why. There isn’t much information out there about this disagreement.

In 2005, Stephen got into his fourth fight. In this case, the client said that he didn’t follow her orders about how to invest her money and that she didn’t get an extra $96,125 in tax-free income in 2005 that she was supposed to get.

She asked for $96,125 in damages, but for some reason, she dropped the claim. There isn’t much known about the last two disagreements.

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Charging 12b-1 Fees

The fact that Stephen Ruvituso’s company suggests investments with 12b-1 fees is a big red flag. This is a fee for marketing the protection, but it doesn’t add any value to it. It only invests costs more.

The 12b-1 fees make an investment cost more than it should, but most buyers don’t know this. Brokers are paid this fee by companies to spread the word about their investment goods. Because of this, many experts prefer to suggest investments with this fee.

The 12b-1 fee, on the other hand, is a percentage fee. This means that the cost of investing will go up as the size of your portfolio goes up. Because of this, the 12b-1 fee hurts investors with large holdings the most, which is the main market Stephen Ruvituso Merrill Lynch goes after.

Because this fee changes, you shouldn’t pay it. It lets the advisory company charge more and more hidden fees, which can eat up a lot of your money over time.

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Buying and selling securities

Stephen Ruvituso Merrill Lynch and his team buy and sell the investments they advise their clients to make. This causes a lot of different problems.

It lets them use their clients’ money to make money for themselves. Stephen’s team only works with people and families who have a lot of money. They can change the returns of certain investments in their companies to make money for themselves.

For instance, many financial advisors who trade the suggested securities tend to “front-run” their investments.

Conclusion

Stephen doesn’t care about his clients. This is clear when you look at his past legal problems and his present provisions.

So, you should look for a different advisory company that cares about its clients and their success. There are a lot of choices in the business world.

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