JACKSON, Miss. – Mississippi Secretary Of State Michael Watson and the Secretary of State's Securities Division, a member of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), have joined a $17 million settlement with Edward D. Jones & Co., L.P. (Edward Jones) resulting from an investigation into the broker-dealer’s supervision of customers paying front-load commissions for Class A mutual fund shares in light of later moving brokerage assets into fee-based investment advisory accounts.

As part of the settlement, Edward Jones will pay Mississippi, in addition to all other 49 states, Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, an administrative fine of approximately $320,000.

"Through the continuous hard work of our Securities Division, Mississippi investors may have confidence their hard-earned and invested dollars are safe. Companies operating in Mississippi will be required to follow the law," said Secretary Michael Watson.

The four-year investigation was led by a working group of 14 state securities regulators and looked into Edward Jones’s supervision of customers moving from brokerage to advisory accounts in light of the 2016 U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Fiduciary Rule which would make investment advice to retirement accounts subject to a fiduciary standard of care.

In evaluating the supervisory failures and determining the appropriate resolution, the states considered certain facts such as the positive performance of the investment advisory accounts as compared to the brokerage accounts.

The investigation found that Edward Jones charged front-load commissions for investments in Class A mutual fund shares in situations where the customer sold or moved the mutual fund shares sooner than originally anticipated. The states found gaps in Edward Jones’s supervisory procedures in this respect.

For additional information or questions, contact the Securities Division at (601) 359-1334. Investors living in states other than Mississippi, or in provinces, can contact their local regulator agency.