Brent Ditto: FINRA Suspends LPL/Ditto Financial Advisor

Elizabethtown, Kentucky financial advisor Brent Ditto (CRD# 4779103) was recently sanctioned in connection with allegations he recommended an investment that was not in a customer’s best interest. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records show that he is registered as a broker and an investment advisor with LPL Financial, doing business as Ditto Financial Group.

A Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (No. 2023079054101) describes FINRA’s disciplinary action against Mr. Ditto. Filed in August 2025, it states that FINRA found he violated industry rules by recommending that a 95-year-old customer invest in Government National Mortgage Association support bonds, “a complex product” which he lacked a reasonable basis to believe was in the customer’s best interest. As the Letter notes, the customer’s investment objective was “income with capital appreciation”—conservative, in other words—and the customer “had no experience with fixed income investments.”

The Letter goes on to note that the customer’s daughter had power of attorney over his account, and that she was seeking an investment for him “that had no principal risk” and that “could not be tied up for any longer than one year.” In spite of these facts, according to the Letter, he recommended the support bonds, which had risks that were beyond the customer’s parameters. He allegedly “failed to review the prospectuses and did not take into account the risk factors associated” with his recommendation, according to the Letter.

As a result, the customer “received no principal repayments” on the bonds, whose value decreased, and the customer ultimately “incurred $19,000 in losses from the investments.” FINRA found that Mr. Ditto’s recommendation violated the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest, ordering him to pay a fine of $5,000 plus disgorgement. It also suspended him from associating with any FINRA member firm for a period of four months.

Mr. Ditto’s BrokerCheck report discloses one investor complaint. Filed in June 2023, it alleged that as a representative of LPL Financial, he recommended unsuitable government bonds. The complaint reached a settlement of $12,475.77.

According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Brent Ditto holds 20 years of securities industry experience. Based in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, he has been registered as a broker and an investment advisor with LPL Financial since 2014 and 2022, respectively, doing business as Ditto Financial Group. His past registrations include Private Advisor Group, JJB Hilliard WL Lyons, PNC Investments, and Morgan Stanley. His credentials include the passage of four securities industry qualifying exams: the Uniform Combined State Law Examination, or Series 66; the Securities Industry Essentials Examination, or SIE; the General Securities Representative Examination, or Series 7; and the Futures Managed Funds Examination, or Series 31. He is licensed in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. (Information current as of August 10, 2025.)

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