UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Before the

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Release No. 104238 / November 21, 2025

ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING

File No. 3-21673

In the Matter of

Summit Planning Group, Inc. and

Richard Urciuoli,

Respondents.

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ORDER APPROVING

PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION

On September 18, 2023, the Commission issued an Order Instituting Administrative and

Cease-and-Desist Proceedings, Pursuant to Sections 203(e), 203(f) and 203(k) of the Investment

Advisers Act of 1940, Making Findings, and Imposing Remedial Sanctions and a Cease-andDesist Order (the “Order”) 1 against Summit Planning Group, Inc. (“Summit”) and Richard

Urciuoli (“Urciuoli”) (collectively, the “Respondents”). In the Order, the Commission found

that there were breaches of the fiduciary duty of care and compliance failures by Summit, a

registered investment adviser, and Urciuoli, Summit’s sole owner and investment professional,

who invested advisory client assets in a volatility linked exchange traded product—the iPath

Series B S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (“VXX”)—for extended periods of time

without having a reasonable basis to do so. Of the 457 client accounts that Summit advised from

July 30, 2021 to December 1, 2021, Urciuoli invested 293 of those accounts in a 3% position in

VXX on July 30, 2021. Summit sold approximately half of the VXX position in those accounts

34 trading days later on September 17, 2021, and the remaining VXX position in each account

86 trading days later on December 1, 2021. This conduct was inconsistent with VXX’s

prospectus and pricing supplement, which stated that the product carried unique risks, was

designed to be held for very short time periods, likely would incur costs if held for more than one

trading session, and required frequent monitoring. The client accounts holding VXX collectively

lost over $443,809 from those investments. Summit also failed to adopt and implement policies

and procedures reasonably designed to prevent violations of the Advisers Act and the rules

adopted thereunder. As Summit’s sole owner and investment adviser representative, President,

and Chief Compliance Officer, Urciuoli was responsible for Summit’s failures.

The Commission ordered the Respondents to pay $8,476.36 in disgorgement, $925.23 in

prejudgment interest, and a $100,000.00 civil money penalty, for a total of $109,401.59, to the

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Investment Advisers Act Rel. No. 6423 (Sept. 18, 2023).

Commission. The Commission also created a Fair Fund, pursuant to Section 308(a) of the

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, so the penalty collected, along with the disgorgement and

prejudgment interest collected, can be distributed to harmed investors (the “Fair Fund”).

The Fair Fund includes the $109,401.59 collected from the Respondents. The assets of

the Fair Fund are subject to the continuing jurisdiction and control of the Commission. The Fair

Fund has been deposited in a Commission-designated account at the U.S. Department of the

Treasury, and any interest accrued will be added to the Fair Fund.

On September 23, 2025, the Division of Enforcement, pursuant to delegated authority,

published a Notice of Proposed Plan of Distribution and Opportunity for Comment (“Notice”), 2

pursuant to Rule 1103 of the Commission’s Rules on Fair Fund and Disgorgement Plans

(“Commission’s Rules”); 3 and simultaneously posted the Proposed Plan of Distribution (the

“Proposed Plan”). The Notice advised interested persons that they could obtain a copy of the

Proposed Plan from the Commission’s public website or by submitting a written request to

Michael S. Lim, United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street, NE,

Washington, DC 20549-5876. The Notice also advised that all persons desiring to comment on

the Proposed Plan could submit their comments, in writing, within 30 days of the Notice. The

Commission received no comments on the Proposed Plan during the comment period.

The Proposed Plan provides for the distribution of the Net Available Fair Fund 4 to

investors clients for whom Summit used its discretionary authority to buy and hold the iPath

S&P VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (“VXX” or “Securities”) for extended time periods that were

inconsistent with the intended use of the product from July 30, 2021, through December 1, 2021.

Plan.

The Division of Enforcement now requests that the Commission approve the Proposed

Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED, pursuant to Rule 1104 of the Commission’s

Rules, 5 that the Proposed Plan is approved, and the approved Plan of Distribution shall be posted

simultaneously with this order on the Commission’s website at www.sec.gov/.

For the Commission, by the Division of Enforcement, pursuant to delegated authority. 6

Vanessa A. Countryman

Secretary

Exchange Act Rel. No.104022 (Sept. 23, 2025).

17 C.F.R. § 201.1103.

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All capitalized terms used herein but not defined shall have the same meanings ascribed to them in the Proposed

Plan.

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17 C.F.R. § 201.1104.

6

17 C.F.R. § 200.30-4(a)(21)(iv).

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