Thomas Povinelli: $275K Complaint Against Royal Alliance Advisor

Thomas Povinelli (CRD# 1326492), a financial advisor based in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, has received investor complaints alleging he recommended unsuitable investments. According to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records, he is a broker and investment advisor with Royal Alliance Associates. 

Mr. Povinelli’s BrokerCheck report discloses several investor complaints. The most recent, filed in March 2022, alleges that he recommended an alternative investment that was unsuitable for the clients’ objectives and needs, and that he failed to adequately research the investment before recommending it. The pending complaint alleges damages of $275,000.

An earlier investor complaint listed on Mr. Povinelli’s BrokerCheck report was filed in 2020. It alleged that as a representative of Royal Alliance Associates, he recommended unsuitable investments in high-risk products, including real estate securities and a private investment fund. The complaint reached a settlement in 2020 of $35,000.

Mr. Povinelli was sanctioned by FINRA in 2011, according to another disclosure on his BrokerCheck report. The sanction concerned findings that when he sold variable annuities to two clients, a husband and wife, in 2007, the clients signed the applications in New York, but he “indicated on the applications that they had been signed in Florida.” FINRA also stated that he “inserted dates of signing on the documents that were inaccurate,” then submitted them to the annuity issuers. “Because [Mr.] Povinelli indicated on the two applications that the customers had signed the forms in Florida,” FINRA found, “the customers did not receive the benefit of New York Regulation 60, which would have provided them with a right of rescission of the replacement annuity and reinstatement of the surrendered annuity within 60 days.” He was suspended for one month and fined $5,000.

According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Thomas Povinelli holds 37 years of securities industry experience. Based in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, he has been a broker and investment advisor with Royal Alliance Associates since 2005 and 2006, respectively. His past registrations include Prime Capital Services, North Ridge Securities Corp., JT Securities, Integrated Resources Equity Corporation, Equico Securities, and the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. His credentials include the passage of seven securities industry qualifying exams: the General Securities Principal Examination, or Series 24; the Municipal Fund Securities Principal Examination, or Series 51; the Investment Company Products/Variable Contracts Representative Examination, or Series 6; the General Securities Representative Examination, or Series 7; the Securities Industry Essentials Examination, or SIE; the Uniform Securities Agent State Law Examination, or Series 63; and the Uniform Combined State Law Examination, or Series 66. He holds 38 state licenses. (Information current as of June 7, 2022.)

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