Robert Earl Turner Jr. (CRD #2113736, McGregor, Texas)

An AWC was issued in which Robert Earl Turner Jr. (CRD #2113736) was barred from association with any FINRA member in all capacities. Without admitting or denying the findings, Turner consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that he participated in private securities transactions without providing prior written notice to his member firm before participating in the sale of fixed annuities that were outside the scope of his employment with the firm. The findings stated that Robert Earl Turner Jr. marketed, recommended, and sold fixed annuities offered by an entity formed by his college friend and business acquaintance to customers of Turner’s firm, who collectively invested over $7.2 million in the entity. The entity fixed annuities were not, in fact, fixed annuities, but rather securities. The entity was not a licensed insurance company, nor was it licensed or authorized to sell fixed annuities at any time during the period when Turner sold the entity fixed annuities. Based on Turner’s representations and quarterly annuity statements that the entity sent to Turner’s customers, they believed they would be earning a fixed, guaranteed rate of return of between four percent and eight percent, compounded on a quarterly basis. Turner did not disclose his affiliation with his friend to any of his customers who invested in the entity fixed annuities. Further, Turner actively concealed from the firm his involvement in selling the fixed annuities, which he knew were not an approved firm product, by directing his friend to send copies of the entity quarterly annuity statements to his personal P.O. Box instead of his firm office. Further, Robert Earl Turner Jr. falsely attested on several firm compliance certifications that he understood and agreed to comply with the firm’s prohibition on selling away. In addition, one of Turner’s former firm customers sought to withdraw her entire investment from the entity, which the most recent annuity statement she received had led her to believe was valued at over $450,000. Turner’s friend died before the customer received any money from her investment in the entity. Following the friend’s death, those of Robert Earl Turner Jr.'s customers who invested in the entity lost most, if not the entirety, of their investments. (FINRA Case #2021073037101)