The Capitol Wealth Management Group Morgan Stanley is among the most prominent financial advisory firms in Washington DC. However, the firm is using unethical business tactics to take advantage of its clients and their funds.
They have various problematic provisions in their disclosures that put their clients in unfavorable positions. Furthermore, the firm’s disclosures indicate that they are terrible for investors with large portfolios and low-risk tolerance. Also, the founder of this firm, Marvin Mcintyre has a terrible history of legal disputes and disciplinary actions.
Did You Know?
Marvin Mcintyre is the financial advisor based in Washington, DC. He is also been mentioned in Forbes for several times. Yet, the practices of the investor can not be trusted due to his dubious acts.
In the following review of the Capitol Wealth Management Group, you’ll find out the various issues present in the firm’s disclosures that it desperately tries to hide:
About the Capitol Wealth Management Group Morgan Stanley
The Capitol Wealth Management Group Morgan Stanley is a wealth advisory firm in Washington, D.C. Their office is located at 1747 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Ste 900, Washington, DC 20006, US, and their contact number is 202-776-1381.
The firm claims to offer its clients tailored advice and world-class wealth management services. They offer various services to their clients including asset management, estate and tax planning strategies, insurance, retirement planning, and lifestyle preservation. Additional services include risk management, corporate services 10b5-(1) programs, investment management, and philanthropy management.
The founding partner of this firm is Marvin Mcintyre who has received numerous accolades and awards in the finance industry. Apart from him, this firm has the following people as its managing directors:
- Donald Metzger
- David Gray
- AJ Fechter
This firm also claims to focus on understanding every client’s personal situation, family dynamics, and financial profile to offer tailored solutions. However, all of these boastful claims seem fake when you look at the predatory provisions present in their disclosures.
For example, the Capitol Wealth Management Group’s advisors have a financial incentive for ignoring your portfolio’s unique requirements. More on this in the next section of this review below:
Red Flags in the Capitol Wealth Management Group You Should Know
Marvin Mcintyre’s History of Legal Disputes and Conflicts
Whenever you’re looking for a wealth advisor, it’s best to check their FINRA BrokerCheck listing. This database gives you vital information about your advisors such as their qualifications, industry experience, state licenses, and the disputes they have faced.
The FINRA BrokerCheck profile of Marvin Mcintyre shows two disputes. His first dispute is actually a regulatory action. The National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc had taken regulatory action against Marvin in 1993 and fined him $73,675.
However, there is no additional information available on this dispute. You can’t find out why the regulator had taken such stringent action against Marvin nor can you find out what he said in response to it.
The second disclosure is a client dispute which occurred in 2010. Here, the client alleged misrepresentation, inter alia, with respect to the structured product in 2007. They requested $19,000 in damages but Marvin’s firm denied the claim.
Still, they haven’t cited any reasons as to why they denied the claim.
Facing a regulatory action and a misrepresentation lawsuit doesn’t show good signs. These disputes suggest that Marvin and his firm don’t always put their client’s interests first.
When you look at their shady terms and conditions, you’d understand why it’s such a huge red flag and why you should be extremely cautious of this advisory firm.
Selling Investments Instead of Recommending Them
The advisors at the Capitol Wealth Management Group make money by selling the proprietary and affiliated investment products of Morgan Stanley. In theory, there’s nothing wrong in selling proprietary products but in practice, it leads to a plethora of conflicts of interest.
Different proprietary products offer different commissions to advisors. Hence, they tend to “sell” the investments that offer them higher commissions. This clouds their judgment and makes it extremely difficult to trust their recommendations.
You can’t trust your advisor’s recommendations when you don’t know if they are prioritizing your financial growth or their own. Due to the limited number of high-commission generating investments, the variety of recommendations such an advisor makes also gets very restricted.
You might miss out on many great investment opportunities only because your advisor wanted you to invest in a special few.
Many people don’t pay attention to this but earning from commissions is among the reasons why financial advisors give unsuitable recommendations to their clients. Furthermore, if your advisor gives you unsuitable recommendations, you can’t hold them responsible because of the various waivers you sign at the beginning of your professional relationship with them.
There are plenty of shady advisors who sacrifice their clients’ growth for the sake of their wallets. Lisa Detanna (Global Wealth Solutions Group) is a prominent example of such an advisor.
All in all, you can’t trust the recommendations you get from the Capitol Wealth Management Group because of this provision.
Conclusion
It’s obvious that the Capitol Wealth Management Group is not a great choice for most investors. The firm makes a lot of money through biased recommendations and its advisors have a monetary incentive for ignoring its clients’ requirements.
Also, the founding partner of this firm has faced allegations of misrepresentation in the past along with disciplinary action. All of these are huge red flags. If you care about your financial future, it would be best to avoid dealing with this firm altogether.
Find a different wealth advisor in Washington DC because this one is terrible.
