Filing a Claim or Compliant against a Financial Advisor

[sampr01]

Hi CoBF members

 

Did any one filed a recovery claim or compliant against a financial advisor?. If yes, please can you share resources or any template letter that you have used.

 

Are they any attorneys on CoBF willing to help me with arbitration process, please let me know.

 

Thank you

 

 

[Gregmal]

No I have never been a part of one, but as an advisor, I can tell you how to get it going.

 

The easiest step would be to email compliance@ the firm with your complaint. They MUST document these when received in writing.

 

What is the nature of your alleged complaint? In many cases, the firms will offer to settle if there is any wrong doing.

 

If you can not agree to settle, then the arbitration process will be next. Although often arbitration is a pain and there s a lot of grey areas where you may think you were harmed but nothing happened that technically broke the rules. You also end up paying lawyers quite a bit of money.

 

So it s important to make sure your case is valid, and that its worth pursuing from a time and money perspective. And like I said, often, the firms will just look to settle it. I know several dudes who own firms that describe paying fines as just another cost of being in the biz. Sad but true.

[Spekulatius]

Going to the firm first is probably the right idea. I think official complaints can be filed with the Finra:

https://www.finra.org/investors/have-problem/file-complaint

 

I think in most cases, it is always a good idea to file a complaint with the regulating body if you want to make sure to get traction. No company can ignore these complaints, because it is easy for prospective customers to look them up (even though most wont do so).

[sampr01]

Thanks for suggestions. Compliant is mainly for too concentrated portfolio in two distressed companies wiped out close to 2/3 rd of $$, when it should have been low risk and conservative. I am not going to disclose who the advisor is. I discussed with this with advisor already and he is okay with it.

 

Thanks

 

No I have never been a part of one, but as an advisor, I can tell you how to get it going.

 

The easiest step would be to email compliance@ the firm with your complaint. They MUST document these when received in writing.

 

What is the nature of your alleged complaint? In many cases, the firms will offer to settle if there is any wrong doing.

 

If you can not agree to settle, then the arbitration process will be next. Although often arbitration is a pain and there s a lot of grey areas where you may think you were harmed but nothing happened that technically broke the rules. You also end up paying lawyers quite a bit of money.

 

So it s important to make sure your case is valid, and that its worth pursuing from a time and money perspective. And like I said, often, the firms will just look to settle it. I know several dudes who own firms that describe paying fines as just another cost of being in the biz. Sad but true.

[Gregmal]

From that, I'll just point out the following....

 

100% of the outcome will be determined by these few things.

 

1. What boxes are checked on your investment objective profile you filled out?

 

2. How long did you hold the investments in question?

 

3. What type of trading arrangements(if any) do you have for the account? Did you consent to purchasing those securities?

 

If you've been with this advisor for a while, had lets say "speculation" as your IO, held the stocks in question for several months or more, and gave the OK to purchase them, Im sorry to say, but you're wasting your time pursuing this. If you have Income/preservation of capital checked for IO, bought the securities a few weeks/maybe months ago, had a discretionary arrangement, and no knowledge of the purchases, then you've got a pretty good case. Usually things are somewhere in between.

 

I'd also add, go to the firms compliance first. Dont go to FINRA. The reason is simple. The firm is 1000% required to disclose any written customer complaint to FINRA. And you can always go to FINRA later. But should they rebuff you, and then later on it is disclosed that they never disclosed the complaint to FINRA, thats just another instance of wrongdoing and negotiating chip in your corner. Quanitify the amount of alleged damages as well. Anything over $5000 they must update on their BrokerCheck profiles.

[sampr01]

Thanks. This is an individually managed account for past three years and managed by him through Integrated advisor solutions NOT through his fund. He terminated his relationship recently with Integrated advisor solution and received a letter stating that transfer account to another broker in 30 days.

 

I will check my paper work and get back to you.

 

Thanks

 

 

From that, I'll just point out the following....

 

100% of the outcome will be determined by these few things.

 

1. What boxes are checked on your investment objective profile you filled out?

 

2. How long did you hold the investments in question?

 

3. What type of trading arrangements(if any) do you have for the account? Did you consent to purchasing those securities?

 

If you've been with this advisor for a while, had lets say "speculation" as your IO, held the stocks in question for several months or more, and gave the OK to purchase them, Im sorry to say, but you're wasting your time pursuing this. If you have Income/preservation of capital checked for IO, bought the securities a few weeks/maybe months ago, had a discretionary arrangement, and no knowledge of the purchases, then you've got a pretty good case. Usually things are somewhere in between.

 

I'd also add, go to the firms compliance first. Dont go to FINRA. The reason is simple. The firm is 1000% required to disclose any written customer complaint to FINRA. And you can always go to FINRA later. But should they rebuff you, and then later on it is disclosed that they never disclosed the complaint to FINRA, thats just another instance of wrongdoing and negotiating chip in your corner. Quanitify the amount of alleged damages as well. Anything over $5000 they must update on their BrokerCheck profiles.