First Command Fights Pay Claim
From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law LLC:
In July 2014, an advisor left First Command Financial Planning and joined another firm. First Command claimed the rep violated his non-competition agreement.
In FINRA arbitration, the rep has responded with a claim of his own. He alleged that First Command is holding $767,000 in deferred compensation. First Command has taken it one step further by trying to bifurcate the rep’s deferred-pay claim to another forum, the American Arbitration Association.
While this move is unusual, a similar situation did play out in 2009 when Merrill Lynch merged with Bank of America. Merrill Lynch required its reps to resolve all cases in the New York state courts, instead of FINRA arbitration. However, FINRA fined Merrill Lynch $1 million for its attempt to circumvent arbitration.
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