Does your Client have a Securities Claim?
While we take on all sorts of securities related cases, the vast majority are going to be what we refer to as sales practice cases involving registered representatives of broker-dealers (the industry terms for stock brokers and the Wall Street banks they work for). Basically, if the person who may have violated their duty is on Brokercheck (https://brokercheck.finra.org/) then we are likely interested.
It is difficult to list every kind of case, but the basics of every case boil down to a customer losing money (or missing the opportunity to make money) as a result of something they were sold that was not appropriate for them. In the Financial Services industry it is referred to as Suitability. At the end of the day, while there are statutory claims, most cases boil down to Duty, Breach, Cause, Harm.
These are some signs you can be looking for when reviewing a Client’s accounts:
- Unfamiliar Transactions
- Unauthorized Transactions
- Unexplained losses
- Seeing losses where previous investments have shown returns
- Too many trades in the account
- An overall decline in account value during general market gains
- Purchase of alternative investments in the account (REITs, LPs, Promissory Notes, private placement investments)
- Purchase of Variable Annuity Contracts (particularly when significant portions of the overall account are in annuities)
- Purchase of Indexed Universal Life Insurance policies (IUL)
How Do I take in a Case?
If you speak with a client or potential client that you think might have an issue with their stock broker or investment advisor, have them give us a call and let us know you referred them over. We will take it from there.
We will talk to the client, we will review their facts, we will review their documents, and often we will get a preliminary opinion from one of the many experts we work with. If we think we can help, we will offer the client the opportunity to work with us, and our fee is typically 1/3 of what is recovered.
Since it is a referral, we would, consistent with our ethical obligations, disclose to the Customer the fee split that is in place. Our standard fee split for referring counsel is a sliding scale as follows:
How Long do these Cases Take?
A typical FINRA arbitration takes between 12-15 months from filing to resolution. Sometimes the client has limited documents in their possession, and so prior to being able to evaluate the case we may need to obtain authorizations to get the client’s documents from the Broker-Dealer. We will work with the potential client on that process.
Discuss Your Client’s Case Today
If you have a client that you think might hae a claim, we may be able to help them recover their losses. Send our office a message or contact us at (414) 755-5020 to schedule a consultation today.
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