SEC charges adviser who allegedly held leveraged and inverse ETFs for elderly clients for an average of 798 days

The US Securities and Exchange Commission charged Greenville, South Carolina investment adviser Cary Urich on October 29, 2026 with breaching his fiduciary duty by putting clients’ savings into leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds that did not suit them. Urich has agreed to settle without admitting the allegations.

What the SEC alleges

According to the complaint, filed in federal court in South Carolina, from April 2020 to November 2023 Urich used his discretionary authority over the accounts of 54 advisory clients, most of them elderly, to place large concentrations of their savings and retirement money in leveraged and/or inverse ETFs. He was then an investment adviser representative at United Planners’ Financial Services of America A LP.

The SEC says the funds’ prospectuses and regulatory notices, which Urich had reviewed, warned against holding the products for more than one day because of their heightened risks. The complaint alleges he held them in client accounts for an average of 798 days, did not tell clients that this was inconsistent with the recommended short holding period, and did not disclose the products’ negative historical returns. According to the complaint, the 54 clients lost approximately 70% of their investments in the products.

Proposed settlement

Urich has consented to a final judgment, subject to court approval, that would permanently enjoin him from violating the antifraud provisions of Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, bar him from acting as or associating with an investment adviser for two years, and impose a $100,000 civil money penalty. The SEC also instituted settled administrative proceedings against United Planners arising out of the same conduct.

What it means for traders

The case turns on a warning printed in the products’ own prospectuses: these funds are built for holding periods of a day, and the SEC treats years-long positions in them, without disclosure, as a breach of an adviser’s duty to clients. Anyone who gives an adviser discretion over an account can ask what products it holds and for how long. The SEC’s investor bulletin on leveraged and inverse ETFs explains the risks of holding them longer.

The proposed judgment still needs the court’s approval.