O.N. Investment Management Fined Over Conflicts of Interest Complaint

O.N. Investment Management Company (ONIMCO) was fined by the SEC for breaches of its fiduciary duty to its clients in connection with its selection of investments that benefited its parent company.  Here are the details:

Complaint Involves Fund Classes

ONESCO, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Ohio National Life Insurance Company, acted as an introducing broker-dealer for ONIMCO’s advisory clients. 

ONIMCO advised clients to purchase or hold mutual fund share classes that charged higher fees, called 12b-1 fees, when lower-cost share classes of those same funds were readily available and did not charge 12b-1 fees.  ONESCO received 12b-1 fees from ONIMCO customers that they would otherwise not have collected had the investors owned the lower-cost shares, which were readily available.  In fact, the other money market funds to ONIMCO’s clients would at times have paid higher yields and not include the 12b-1 fee.  ONIMCO failed to adequately disclose this conflict of interest to its clients, and likewise violated its fiduciary duty to its clients.

In addition to a censure, ONIMCO will pay a fine consisting of disgorgement of $866,257, prejudgment interest of $162,396, and a civil penalty of $210,000.

Copy of Administrative Cease-and-Desist

Did You Lose Money Investing?

MDF Law Firm[2] is currently investigating allegations surrounding these investments with O.N. Investment Management Company.  If you lost money on investments with ONIMCO, we are interested in hearing from you to discuss the details.  We are a securities fraud law firm that pursues arbitration claims nationwide.  Our attorneys have taken on the biggest Wall Street investment firms, recovering millions of dollars for our clients.  We work on contingency, which means we do not take a fee unless we help you recover money.  For a free consultation, please call us at 212-203-9300 or complete our contact form below: