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The penalty was assigned by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, which announced settled charges against Rye-based Apexium Financial LP on Thursday, Sept. 28.
According to the SEC, the firm failed to properly manage a conflict of interest consistent with its representations in its brochures between 2018 and 2020 and also violated rules relating to compliance policies and procedures.
The conflict of interest arose when Apexium chose an affiliated firm to manage certain clients' assets. In order to manage the financial conflict, Apexium stated that it would document why it was in the client's best interest to use this affiliated firm.
However, SEC officials said that Apexium never documented this despite stating in its brochures that it would.
The SEC's order also found that Apexium allegedly failed to adopt and implement written policies and procedures that were meant to make sure it acted in accordance with what was represented in its firm brochures and furthermore found that the firm had not conducted required an annual review of these policies.
Although Apexium did not admit or deny these findings, the firm consented to a cease-and-desist order and a censure, and also agreed to pay the $150,000 penalty, officials said.
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