As detailed in an earlier post in the Eccleston Law Blog, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management experienced a system outage on March 25. According to Morgan Stanley, the outage, which lasted roughly 4 and a half hours, was caused by a bug in third-party software. During the outage, Morgan Stanley brokers were able to place trades via a back-up system. However, the back-up system was slower than the normal system.
Over the past 18 months, regional firms like Ameriprise, Raymond James, and Stifel have been accumulating assets at levels unseen before.
Two former USAA financial advisors, Christoper Johnson and Lee Anne Przybyla, were awarded $1.8 million by a Finra on the grounds of wrongful termination. In May 2017, the two advisors were terminated from USAA in San Antonio, Texas. Besides wrongful termination, the advisors alleged defamation, breach of contract, and negligent supervision. According to Finra, each advisor received $350,000 for punitive damages while Johnson and Przybyla were awarded an additional $500,000 and $350,000 in compensatory damages, respectively.
According to an InvestmentNews article, Bank of America’s recent decision to transfer 300 Merrill Edge advisors into its Merrill Lynch Wealth Management branch offices may be a turning point in the evolution of compensation for financial advisors at major brokerage firms.
On April 5, 2019, FINRA issued Regulatory Notice 19-10 to provide guidance to departing registered representatives on customer communications. This is the second in a series to address the key points in FINRA Regulatory Notice 19-10.
During the IAWatch compliance event in Washington D.C. this month, SEC officials emphasized that examiners will continue to focus on how RIAs serve their senior clients.
Wells Fargo has announced its 2019 compensation plan for the firm’s 9,400 financial advisors. According to the compensation plan, Wells Fargo will continue to guarantee its financial advisors 50% payouts of all fees and commissions produced after hitting monthly hurdles.
Edward Jones is suing two advisors who moved to Ameriprise for allegedly violating non-solicitation agreements, making this the latest case of a brokerage firm taking its former employees to court over client contacts.
