SEC Fines Rye-Based Investment Firm $150K For Violations

RYE, NY — A Westchester investment firm charged by the SEC for failing to follow through with promises made in its brochures, has agreed to pay a fine as part of a settlement with regulators.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced last week that it settled charges against registered investment advisory firm Apexium Financial LP ("Apexium"), based in Rye, for failing to manage a conflict of interest in a manner consistent with its representations in its firm brochures from 2018 through 2020, and for violations of rules relating to compliance policies and procedures.

According to the SEC's order, Apexium disclosed that it had a financial conflict of interest when selecting an affiliated firm to manage certain clients' assets and stated that Apexium would manage this conflict by documenting why it was in the client's best interest to use the affiliated firm. However, according to the agency, Apexium did not document as it stated in its firm brochures that it would, best interest determinations concerning the use of the affiliated firm.

The SEC's order also found that Apexium failed to adopt and implement written policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure that it acted in accordance with the representations in its firm brochures, and also failed to conduct the required annual review of its compliance policies and procedures and the effectiveness of their implementation for 2018 and 2019.

Without admitting or denying the findings, Apexium consented to a cease-and-desist order and a censure and agreed to pay a $150,000 penalty.