Massachusetts securities regulators fined independent broker-dealer LPL Financial $1 million for failing to supervise financial advisors working in Digital Federal Credit Union branches. They claim the LPL registered reps operating as credit union employees were part of securities sales contests in which they earned cash bonuses, used business "inconsistent and confusing" business cards and made "misleading statements" about their compensation.

"The credit union paid cash bonuses and operated sales contests to generate cash prizes based on commissions," Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin said in a statement.

"What is worse – when my office did mystery shopping at one of the credit union locations, they were told by a dual credit union/LPL employee that the employee was paid by the credit union and did not receive commissions. This is not true," Galvin explained.

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Janet Levaux

Editor-in-Chief Janet Levaux has covered the financial markets since 1991, with a focus on financial advisors since 2005. After graduating from Yale and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she studied global economics, Janet worked as a freelance financial and business writer in Japan, and then as a reporter and editor for Investor's Business Daily and the Bay Area News Group in California. She earned an MBA in 2007 and since then has helped lead key ThinkAdvisor projects like its Neal-Award winning reporting on Ken Fisher, Luminaries awards program and Women in Wealth newsletter.