Chris McConnell AIFA® has over forty years of experience including twenty years as an independent fiduciary expert and consultant on the: securities, banking, insurance, broader financial services industry and non-profit, tax-exempt organizations regulatory and internal compliance, custom and practice, supervision, suitability, employment, separation, diversity, recruiting, training, fiduciary duty, securities analysis, due diligence, risk, margin, options, valuation, compensation and or incentives for licensed and unlicensed persons and third party vendors or contractors.

He has decades of hands-on, extremely broad and in-depth experience, provided continuing legal and professional education for over 15 years. Mr McConnell, based on his personal and professional experiences, renders an accurate, unbiased perspective on the financial services, banking industries and non-profit sectors since the late 1970's near the beginning of Wall St's disintermediation strategy up through the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) of 2008 and thru the present day 2024 financial, banking, insurance and real estate services, online ordering, digital, social and traditional media marketing, and payments industry issues. He's still an avid soccer player, and since 1995, has scouted NCAA Division 1 Men's Soccer nationwide both online and in person, covering over 3,000 matches. Chris McConnell & Associates pioneered flat fee, independent, conflict-free fiduciary consulting in 2003.

Mr McConnell’s FiduciaryFORENSICS™ assesses performance, potential liability and damages for both plaintiff and defense counsel and regulators as consultant, investigator and or expert witness nationwide and internationally. While in the securities industry among an extensive list of multi-billion dollar responsibilities: he oversaw a national and international portfolio of over 500 branch offices, including the footprint, real estate, leases, development and improvements thereof; the compensation, benefits and incentives plan for FA's, branch managers, regional managers, product coordinators and service support personnel for over 8.500 financial advisors; designed, supervised and negotiated the nationwide FA forgivable loan program and designed the customer commissions, fees and account service tiers; and supervised the original accounting in the early 1980’s for managed / separate wrap-fee accounts with internal and third party money managers, including soft dollar services and arrangements, customer fees,, FA and branch revenues. Designed the tiered customer and household level cash sweep accounts into money market mutual funds with checking, priority sweep of deposits, Excess SIPC account insurance coverage levels, card, rewards and other features. All of these projects involved extensive planning and in-depth, detailed competitive securities, banking and financial services industry-wide analysis.

He has a deep and authoritative understanding of all products and services, all profit and cost centers, conflicts, marketing, solicitation, accounting, compliance, internal audit, compliance, supervision, surveillance, privacy and IT systems of a major broker dealer including the securities industry as a whole. He was appointed two times to spearhead to design, implement and report on regional diversity and inclusion initiatives involving over 40 branch offices efforts to increase diversity via recruitment, hiring, training, development and promotion.

While in the securities industry, Mr McConnell assisted in the building of branch management capacity, coaching branch managers and other sales leaders such as branch product coordinators for every product and service using a data driven approach on specific performance goals for market penetration, FA productivity and profitability within the applicable compliance frameworks (NASD, SEC, NYSE). He also focused on firm-wide to region to branch strategy (top line and individual product/service line-item revenues also known as gross production including PFP, personal financial planning services, drilling down to specific customer accounts and household relationships for each FA), implementation and delivered results on critical performance targets directly tied to branch and regional managers’ compensation, bonuses and awards. He supervised branch and regional manager compensation and bonus determinations from the mid 1980’s to the mid 1990’s simultaneously ensuring that compensation levels were competitive across the securities industry aiding in retention, development and promotion. As a result, the firm maintained its leadership in consultative, fee-based, wrap-fee, separately managed accounts AUM by a large margin.

His cases involve a wide variety of industries, entities and issues such as but not limited to family or closely-held businesses, corporate governance, securities, banking, legal malpractice, payments, online ordering, e-commerce, social, digital and traditional media, bankruptcy, divorce, trust, insurance, non-profit organizations, foundations, endowments, FINRA, ERISA, precious metals, hedge funds, private placements, derivatives, intellectual property, compensation, valuation, training, employment and diversity. Failure to supervise, disclosure failures, suitability, breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentation, fraud, taxes, best execution, proxy voting, Uniform Prudent Investor Act, ERISA, Uniform Management of Institutional Funds, Uniform Management of Public Pension Plans, Coogans' Act, UTMA, UGMA, 529 Accounts, 401K plans, 403b plans and multi-employer or Taft-Hartley plans, and Ponzi schemes and investment fraud.

He is retained to review and evaluate all account types, employment agreements and all manner of financial, insurance and annuity instruments not limited to include: trusts (all types), IRA's, IRA Rollovers, ERISA, Taft-Hartley, Profit Sharing, non-profits, foundations, endowments. And other types of matters not limited to regulatory agency, legal malpractice, bankruptcy, criminal, white collar crime and marital dissolution, separation and divorce matters.

Mr McConnell is also an expert on the causes of the 2008 global financial crisis and the more recent 2019 / 2021 global financial panic (dating to September 2019, pre-dating Covid-19).

Educational Background:
B.A. - Economics / Accounting option, Rutgers University;
M.B.A. - Graziadio School of Business, Pepperdine University;
AIFA® - (Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst), Center for Fiduciary Studies, Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh
He successfully passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination, State of New York Board of Accountancy.

Mr McConnell has a truly impressive and authoritative command drawn from over 40 years of deep and extensive hands-on experience, training, education and knowledge of all levels and elements of any and all types of customers account, securities, futures, banking and payments, financial services and insurance and annuity industry (and since 2003 e-commerce, social, digital and traditional media, online ordering, delivery and payments) including but not limited to the legal entity, corporate governance, compliance, regulatory, accounting, tax, sales tax, music licensing, supervision, employment, diversity, recruiting, training areas, industry custom and practice, standard of care and customer experience.

His expertise spans representations and warrants in ads, social media, press releases, capabilities brochures, FORM ADV, solicitation, point of sale, merchants, user, financial advisor, branch manager, support personnel, branch staff, complex, region, headquarters, legal entity, broker/dealer, bank holding company entities, enterprise, cloud to blockchain touch points including the board-level oversight, planning, budgeting, accounting, compensation, incentives, employment, disqualified persons, separation, termination, disclosures, conflicts of interest, advertising, marketing, tax, regulatory reporting and other requirements culminating in clarity through his fact-based, unique, succinct and incandescent case insights. While in the securities industry he performed the accounting for branch and firm-wide litigation reserves coordinating with internal and outside counsel including the timing and estimations thereof.

• Since 2004 and prior to the 2008 GFC (the global financial crisis) Mr McConnell issued annual FiduciaryALERTS™ warning trustees and fiduciaries of the extraordinary escalating risks building up in the real estate and fixed income (including RMBS and related derivatives) sectors along with prudent steps for them to undertake to help protect trust assets (such as real estate and real estate-based investments) and trust beneficiaries from the dangers of leverage building up in the financial system. The 2004 FiduciaryALERT™ included a red flag when it was announced that the largest Wall St broker dealers’ Excess SIPC insurance coverage was abruptly canceled after thirty years of no claims, because as one major insurance carrier was quoted “it’s too much exposure.”

He has assisted on cases pro-bono such as for a claimant, a retired file clerk who had $26 left in her bank account (the subject of a Los Angeles Times article) to exceedingly complex individual and a wide variety of corporate tax, securities, pension plan, life insurance and annuities matters to multi-billion-dollar class actions and Ponzi schemes regarding potential liability, additional potential exposures, and valuation, damages and or surcharge for:

1. Divorce involving a leading Financial Advisor (FA) at a major broker dealer and investment advisor, multi-million-dollar valuation marital community estate, declarations regarding PMK / corporate representative, compensation plan documents and reports, soft dollars, best execution, prime broker, institutional clients including ERISA pension plans, breach of marital fiduciary duty
2. ERISA plan violations by the largest commercial bankruptcy in Las Vegas history for the PBGC (the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. the US govt. agency which protects US workers’ pensions)
3. Bankruptcy estate around a hedge fund manager and the Beverly Hills celebrity poker ring (later made into the movie, Molly's Game on Netflix)
4. Divorce of an investment partner of horse racing’s 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew’s original breeding syndicate (family law, real property, trust & estate, probate, conservatorship, elder and disabled persons abuse, equine law, legal malpractice)
5. Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, defense of a solo RIA (registered investment advisor)
6. Hollywood icon, intellectual property, Oscar-winning film copyrights, celebrity estate versus one of the largest trust companies in the world (probate matter)
7. Insured bank deposit sweep account class action & largest US broker/dealers banks’ multi-billion-dollar customers’ funds diversion; a cause of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and bailout
8. A nationwide gold coins, bullion & collectibles advertising and promotion scheme; illegal margin trading investigation
9. The successor trustee of a prominent family trust which operated a technology business (defense, of a founder of a prominent pension consulting firm)
10. The valuation of a Wall St financial advisor’s compensation & benefits plan under the 9/11 Victim’s Special Compensation Fund in a divorce (marital dissolution, family law)
11. A large family trust with operating farms, related brokerage account investments, trust heirs, beneficiaries and charitable trust, non-profit bequest dispute
12. The self-directed IRA involving an official of a national political party, foreign investment
13. Offshoring of US-based family trust bank accounts, over $100 Million claim in a constructive trust (Trust and Estate, Probate matter)
14. The criminal fraud impacting 5,000 investors in a VOIP intellectual property patent investment scam, Ponzi scheme (Criminal defense)
15. Best execution matter for a Taft – Hartley, union pension plan
16. Publicly traded US home builder investigation, the issuer updated its SEC form 8-K disclosures
17. Investigation into the NYSE’s (then a non-profit) corporate governance & compensation paid to a former chairman
18. Regulatory agency investigation of a major broker dealer’s mutual fund sales practices, FA and branch manager compensation and incentives including sales contests, broker dealer concessions, firm profits, share class solicitations violations related to preferred marketing agreements with major national investment advisors and mutual funds
19. Professional athletes’ (one NFL & one NBA) high profile cases vs a major bank and affiliated broker-dealer, involving a group / team of FA’s in a specialized service department tailored towards professional athletes (and the media and entertainment industry), referral to a known scam artist, related business entity, construction costs, the divorce, separation, re-marriage and 2nd divorce of the FA (ex-spouse also was employed as an associated person at the broker dealer, then separated from employment), theft of customer data, violations of Reg S-P, books and records, money laundering, insurance and annuity misrepresentations, forgery, failure to supervise, significant internal compliance department failures, breach of fiduciary duty and damages.
20. Elder financial abuse and exploitation involving securities held at a stock transfer agent, defense of a financial institution
21. IRA and subsequent conduit IRA, spousal Trust beneficiary and broker dealer malfeasance dispute involving one of the original investors in the Cheesecake Factory
22. IRA account and a medallion stamp signature guarantee, unauthorized transactions and withdrawals by a spouse against a global brokerage firm, within a related family law / divorce, trust beneficiary, child custody and bankruptcy case involving a pioneer of the fulfillments and promotions industry for the financial services sector
23. Corporate governance, termination, compensation of an employee/investor, medical technology industry
24. Legal malpractice, rebuttal expert, two adopted siblings vs the trust and estate attorney for their deceased adoptive father
25. Violations of FINRA rules and regulations, broker dealer supervision, policies and procedures, unauthorized account transfers, change of beneficiary, medallion signature stamp guarantee, elder abuse and exploitation, breach of fiduciary duty involving the founder and owner of a closely held family business vs a major broker dealer and a former licensed and registered employee, also involved the divorce and ex-spousal interests claims, and life insurance
26. Elder abuse and unfair denial of benefits of membership by a fitness club, violations of required CA entity filings
27. Trustee / grantor v Trust & Estate planner, legal malpractice around trust terms, successor trustee and unfunded trust issues
28. FINRA – Member vs Associated Person - Forgivable loan, balance of eight figures forgivable loan repayment settlement for a departed FA due to a change in control
29. Investment Advisory – chief compliance officer (CCO) vs Investment advisory firm, wrongful termination, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, retaliation, compensation, benefits, vested compensation awards, equity interests, damages, case involved market segment penetration studies and McLagan data (and historical data)
30. Class action – retired, elder person plaintiff v global, foreign-based investment advisory firm involving elder financial abuse, misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, undisclosed investment advisory fees and undisclosed conflicts of interest involving a group/team of FA’s (and separately, legal malpractice in the underlying FINRA matter)
31. Oscar’s (AMPAAS) awards recommendations and solutions (non-commissioned)
32. NCAA Division 1 Men’s Soccer investigation and solutions (non-commissioned)

When we are brought into a case, with over forty years of experience including hundreds of cases when on Wall St, and hundreds more as an independent consulting expert since 2003, we provide new, unique, fact-based insights and clarity which nearly always help bring about a settlement.

Chris McConnell & Associates include these consulting experts (subject to availability):
• A forensic CPA, over 40 years of expert forensic and litigation consulting experience including the San Juan, Puerto Rico New Years Eve Hotel fire, the Johnny Carson and numerous high-profile divorce / family law cases, marital standard of living, Moore-Marsden, Van Camp Perriera, and other property apportionments related to community vs separate property, valuation, surcharge, damages and rules of professional conduct
• An insurance expert and consultant, with over 50 years of experience
• A former NYSE regulator, over a 40 year career, retired expert, established global margin and credit policies, created the broker dealer frame work for prime broker services, supervised the stock loan and securities lending operations of major broker dealers and co-authored “Patterns of Supervision” the NYSE’s original compliance handbook for broker dealer customer account supervision and surveillance including institutional accounts
• The former president of a state bar association, privacy, rules of professional conduct and legal ethics expert
• An economist, PhD from University of Chicago, over 40 years of expert and consulting experience in valuation, damages, securities class action and intellectual property and lifetime earnings
• A data scientist and expert focused on 1940 Investment Company Act funds and investment advisor boards of directors
• A former state insurance commissioner
• A former corporate counsel focused on DOL, ERISA and EBSA issues
• A former HUD official, Yale Fellow, expert, designed HUD programs and policies, HUD receiver, affordable housing and developer
• A real estate developer, over 40 years of experience including prominent, high visibility and historic public / private spaces, land use, design, financing and development including for cities and leading educational institutions
• A California real estate agent, broker, notary, escrow, closing, title, settlement and training expert, over 40 years of experience
• A litigation funding expert, over 10 years of experience
• The founder and principal of a leading ERISA pension benefit, profit sharing, third party administrator, record-keeping and actuarial firm
• A former NASD (now known as FINRA) counsel, broker dealer and investment advisor compliance and regulatory expert on IAA, NASD, FINRA and other applicable rules and regulations including state-level, over 40 years of experience
• A life insurance expert, designed a proprietary, patented life insurance analytics framework, over 30 years of experience
• A crypto currency expert, expert in crypto trading and tax lot accounting, over 10 years of experience
• A former investment banker at leading firms, over 30 years of experience, expert, author and columnist
• A former SEC counsel, over 30 years of experience including whistleblower claims
• A former NASD and broker dealer in-house counsel, over 40 years of experience
• A former financial advisor, over 30 years of experience, author and prominent blogger
• A computer scientist, PhD, computing, encryption, data forensic, data at rest/storage, data in transit and recovery expert
• A computer scientist, PHD, expert in 3D printing technology
• Music rights, licensing experts with over 40 years of experience
• The editor of a leading soccer publication, over 50 years of experience
• The founder and executives at a leading professional athlete consulting and law firm, including NCAA NIL (name, image, likeness)
• Coaches at leading NCAA Division 1 Men’s Soccer programs around the country, over 30 years of coaching experience
• The founder and executive director of a leading youth, and NCAA soccer scouting portal
• The founder of a prominent brand image, marketing and PR firm, over 30 years of experience, whose clients include the A-list.
• The founder and managing partner of a leading AI/ML investment firm.
• The former chairperson of a major city bar association, family law section
• A retired securities law attorney, former member of the of the CA laws committee.
• And numerous other consulting subject matter experts in a wide range of areas including leading practitioners in securities and other class action matters, trust and estate planning, probate and tax; FINRA arbitrations (and other forums), securities, investment advisory, white collar crime, family law/divorce, elder abuse and financial exploitation including covered persons, tax-exempt non-profit organizations, foundations and endowment, ESOP’s, business litigation and disputes, public insurance adjustor, former federal prosecutors, former broker dealer and investment advisor branch managers and supervisors, financial advisors, investment advisors and compliance executives at major international, nationwide and regional securities firms.

Website www.fiduciaryexpert.com/about

Email info@fiduciaryexpert.com

Office (310) 943 – 6509 accepts texts and calls

Complimentary brief initial consultations, subject to availability
Copyright Chris McConnell & Associates 2003 to 2024. All rights reserved.