Firms We Have Pursued
During the more than three decades we have been representing investors seeking the recovery of investment losses, have brought actions alleging broker misrepresentation, misconduct, negligence, unsuitability and/or fraud against most of the broker-dealers with whom you are familiar, including:
| Aegis Capital Aragon Berman Acument Securities Advest, Inc. A.G. Edwards, & Sons Alex Brown & Sons AGP Alliance Global Prnr American Investors Life Ameriprise Financial Services Amerifinancial Asset Management Securities Corp. AXA Equitable Bank of America Barber & Bronson Barry Financial Group Bear Stearns Berthel Fisher & Co. Biltmore Securities, Inc. Canterbury Securities Capital Financial Services Clearing Services of America Charles Schwab Chelsea Financial Services CIBC Oppenheimer Clearing Services of America Coastal Equities Continental Broker Dealer Corporate Securities Group Costa Financial DBC Rain Daucher Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Dreyfuss Service Corp. Edward Jones & Co. LP Essex Securities Euro Pacific Capital Fintegra LLC First Allied Securities First Atlantic Resources First Canterbury Securities First Liberty Investment Group First Union Securities First United Equities FSC Securities Corporation FMS Bonds G.A. Repple Garden State Securities Great Western Financial Securities Gruntal & Co., LLC GunnAllen Financial, Inc. Halpert & Co. |
Harris Trust H. Beck Hilltop Securities H.J. Meyers ING Investacorp, Inc. Investec Bank PLC Invest Financial Investment Centers of America Investors Capital Corp. Janney Montgomery Scott Janssen Meyers J.B. Hanauer Jefferies LLC Jefferson Pilot J.P. Morgan J.W. Charles Joseph Charles Josephthal J.P. Turner Legg Mason Lehman Brothers L.H. Ross & Company, Inc. Liberty National Financial Liberty National Life Insurance Lincoln Financial Advisors Linsco Private Ledger LPL Financial Madison Avenue Securities Maxim Group LLC McNally Financial Services Melhado Flynn Merrill Lynch Mesirow Financial Services, Inc. Metlife Moors & Cabot Money Concepts Capital Corp. Montauk Financial Morgan Keegan Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Muriel Siebert & Co., Inc. National Planning Corp. National Securities Corp NEXT Financial Group New England Securities Newbridge Securities NEXT Financial Group Noble Investments Northern Trust Securities Olde Discount Corporation Oppenheimer |
PacVest Parkland Securities Penson Financial Services Prime Charter Prudential Equity Group Prudential Securities Questar Capital Raymond James RBC Capital Markets Roan-Meyers Associates LP Royal Alliance Royce Investment Group, Inc. Ryan Beck & Co. Sagepoint Financial Smith Barney Samco Financial Sanford Bernstein Schneider Securities Securities America Sigma Financial Shochet Securities Somerset Financial Group, Inc. Southtrust Securities, Inc. Spartan Securities Summit Brokerage Services SunTrust Investment Services SunTrust Securities Tasin & Co. Telaro Securities Titan Securities The Tidal Group Titan Securities UBS UBS PaineWebber U.S. Trust United Planners VFG Securities VSR Financial Services VOYA Financial Wachovia Securities Waddell & Reed Wells Fargo Advisors West America Securities Corp. Whale Securities Woodbury Financial Worden Capital |
HOW TO ACCESS FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF A BROKERAGE FIRM AND HOW TO RESEARCH THE REGULATORY HISTORY OF A BROKER AND/OR A BROKERAGE FIRM
There are some 5,000 registered broker-dealers in the United States. These firms range from the largest and most well known wirehouses, to large regional firms, down to the local broker-dealer that may have only one office.
It is quite possible that the firm or broker you are considering dealing with may have prior regulatory problems and/or prior customer complaints. Before you hand over your nest egg that you may have spent a lifetime accumulating, we suggest that you do two things:
- Go the the Edgar website of the Securities & Exchange Commission and take a look at the most recent financial statement (X17A-5) for the company you intend to do business with. If it is one of the big well known national firms, you can probably skip this step since they likely have adequate financial resources to cover any typical broker negligence or fraud. If however it is a regional firm or small local firm, you should definitely take a look at the financials to see if they have the wherewithal to cover investor claims should one of their brokers negligently handle customer accounts or in the case of stockbroker fraud. Input the name of the company you are considering trusting with your retirement funds on the SEC Edgar website. On the results page, look for the most recent X-17A-5 filing and take a look at the amount of shareholder equity on the balance sheet. Since many firms do not carry insurance for broker negligence and fraud, the amount of shareholder equity may be the limit of that firm’s ability to cover customer losses.
- Next you should visit the FINRA BrokerCheck website and input the name of ‘Individual” who will be handling your account. After confirming that you have the correct broker (look at the name of the firm he works for to be sure), follow the link to the Detailed Report and review it to see if there are any disclosure items, which may include disciplinary matters, terminations or customer complaints and arbitrations. Use this information, coupled with your assessment of the broker’s integrity and the recommendations of trusted friends, to make your decision.
- You can obtain a similar report from FINRA on the ‘Firm” by performing another search on the FINRA BrokerCheck website.
If you prefer, we are happy to obtain these reports for you at no charge. Call our office or email Robert H. Rex, Esq. ( rhr@dmrslaw.com) and I will be happy to forward the documents to you.
Call 561-391-1900, and speak with Mr. Rex or his secretary Nan Thompson.
We do not charge for your initial consultation to determine if we can help you.
A WORD TO THE WISE ABOUT SMALL LOCAL FIRMS-MOST ARE NOT INSURED
There is no regulatory requirement that brokerage firms carry insurance to cover losses for the inappropriate, negligent or fraudulent advice that may have resulted in the accounts you or your loved ones.
In September 2014, after studying the matter for a year, FINRA decided that it could not compel brokerage firms to carry insurance to cover awards and verdicts customers might obtain against them and their brokers for fraud and/or negligence in the handling of customer accounts. This means that if your account is at a firm with limited net capital (many have less than $100,000 in net capital) and the broker makes a mistake, or worse yet, commits fraud and your nest egg suffers, your case may put them out of business. Unfortunately, if they are forced to file bankruptcy because the $250,000 loss they have been ordered to pay exceeds their $75,000 net capital, that does not get any money back to you.
Often times these losses, when suffered by the elderly who are living on fixed income, are devastating to the individual as well as the family, who now must figure out how to pay the health costs and living expenses with what now remains of the nest egg.
We routinely see cases where proving that the broker and the firm are liable for the losses is not really the issue, since often times the abuse is so flagrant. The problem is that the broker and firm may have very limited ability to pay damages. Unless the firm has insurance, which is not common, there is little that can be done to recover these losses.
Dealing with larger firms eliminates much, if not all of the risk associated with ability to pay.
If you have questions about the way your brokerage account has been handled or are in the process of investigating a new broker or brokerage firm you contemplated doing business with, give us a call at 561-391-1900 and we will be happy to help.
