Suing The Brokerage Firm I Want To Sue My Stockbroker

If you have lost more than $50,000 due to bad investment advice, contact a securities fraud attorney today at ELK-OHIO or contact us online. We have the resources and experience to take on Wall Street for Main Street investors like you. But negligent advisors will sometimes steer you towards risky or unsuitable investments to obtain higher commissions. If your financial advisor placed you in an unsuitable investment for any reason, you may be entitled to monetary recovery. It should be pointed out that most financial advisors provide value to their clients. Unfortunately, many investors were not given proper advice from financial advisors, resulting in massive losses due to rising inflation and the recession.

Furthermore, the less of a case the firm has, the more they will resort to such tactics. Despite legal and ethical obligations to treat complaints fairly, this is also a theoretical ideal that is often totally disregarded in practice. The unstated and sole objective of the broker is to avoid (or evade) liability by any means available. It is also human nature that people are reluctant to admit they are in the wrong, no more so when this affects their pocket. Last, but very definitely not least, the civil law system has some intrinsic flaws that can be exploited by the unscrupulous and/or desperate. To be hollow, clients often (and justifiably) become angry and wonder if there’s anything they can do.

Obviously, if you were to consult a lawyer, you would need to present more detail. From your letter, however, it seems you are upset about your paper losses, and your adviser is taking the blame. But notwithstanding the conditions for suing your adviser as laid above, there are two people in this relationship, and in many cases the responsibility works both ways. Financial advisors are obligated to only recommend suitable investments. The legal term fiduciary refers to an individual who has either a legal or ethical relationship of trust with another individual. When an individual has a fiduciary duty to another individual, that fiduciary is required to conduct themselves according to the benefit of the other individual, who is often their client.

Why You Need an Experienced Investors’ Rights Attorney to Sue Your Financial Advisor for Losses

Eventually, too many trades will incur too many fees to be profitable for the investor. Yes—Kurta Law has successfully secured settlements for investors who have signed documents acknowledging risks. FINRA lawyers may point out inconsistencies in these agreements and may be able to argue that the firm should have never produced such a document in the first place. Morey Stettner, a columnist for MarketWatch, told me it’s standard practice for advisers to document their communication with clients for compliance. “The adviser typically drafts an ‘investment policy statement’ that covers the goals of the investment strategy — and the client signs off on it and that’s documented,” he said. However, it’s been different with the market in this timeframe insofar as tech stocks are taking a major hit, as well as others.

Often, investors assume that because investments inherently carry a degree of risk, that you are precluded from seeking to recover investment losses. While normal market fluctuations should be expected and are not actionable, the manner in which your portfolio is positioned is actionable. Yes, there are some possible legal defenses a financial planner may have against a malpractice or financial planning lawsuit.

Investors who lost a substantial amount of money often ask, Can I sue my financial advisor? The answer is yes, if the investor lost money based on the investment adviser’s misconduct. If you’ve lost a significant amount of money in your investment portfolios, you could be wondering if you can sue your financial advisor or broker to help recover those losses. Excessive trading, commonly called “churning,” happens when a broker trades within their client’s account with the intent to generate commissions rather than investment gains.

Perhaps you instructed your broker to purchase a certain investment product for you and they failed to do so. Or, maybe you requested that your representative sell a certain portion of your portfolio and they failed to sell as requested. Maybe your broker’s research into a particular stock or company was inadequate or simply never done at all.

Making suitable investment recommendations is the cornerstone of proper investment advice. All brokerage firms and financial advisors have a duty to recommend suitable investments that are consistent with the needs and objectives of the investor. Brokerage firms and financial advisors must learn all material can i sue my financial advisor facts about an investor before making any recommendations and must match all investments with a customer’s stated investment profile. Failure to recommend suitable investments may result in a claim to recover attenuating investment losses. Registered financial advisors owe a fiduciary duty to their clients.

Ethical Duties of a Financial Advisor or Broker

The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship. Last year, you would have been on the pig’s back, and consequently been a big fan of your financial adviser’s strategy.

This type of misconduct often precipitates unsuitable investment recommendations or broker theft. To secure an investment (and perhaps a commission for themselves), brokers have been known to manipulate investors by misrepresenting an investment or omitting essential information about the risks, tax consequences, or fees. The recoveries, verdicts, favorable outcomes, and testimonials described on this site are not an indication of future results.

A financial planner or stock broker cannot be held responsible for a client’s loss if the advisor did not do anything wrong compared to any other advisor. Do not underestimate how helpful these types of notes can be, but be sure that you label this properly as a memo to a lawyer. Are you looking for a financial advisor negligence attorney Boca Raton? The prospect of having to address that reality with someone you once liked and trusted as a professional can be extremely uncomfortable. Well, there’s good news, you don’t have to do that, it’s not how the securities industry works today.

Can You Sue Your Broker?

If you lost money because a Los Angeles financial professional acted carelessly, knowledgeable investment fraud lawyer Steve A. Buchwalter may be able to help you. Our attorneys have handled securities disputes in state and federal courts throughout the country, but we primarily represent investors in FINRA arbitration proceedings. Our firm has represented over 1,000 investors who lost money because of wrongful conduct by their brokers, financial advisors, or brokerage firms.

We place a great deal of trust in the financial advisors who are tasked with helping us achieve and maintain financial security. Most of the time financial advisors and stockbrokers are honest folks who work diligently in their client’s best interests. If you believe that your stock broker https://trading-market.org/ has acted negligently in managing
your investments, you may be able to bring a legal action against them. In order for the claim to be successful, you must demonstrate that the
broker had a duty of care towards you as their client and breached it
through negligent behavior.

You might be the victim of financial advisor fraud, misconduct, or negligence. Legal claims against brokers or financial advisors tend to be very complex not only in the claims themselves but the rules and requirements of the FINRA arbitration forum. Therefore, investors are often best served when they utilize an experienced attorney to help pursue the claim. Those cases may be resolved by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Last year, 51 percent of securities fraud claims were resolved by direct settlement.

First, it is important to realize that liability for your investment losses may not be the sole responsibility of your individual stockbroker or financial advisor. It may be the case that their brokerage firm could potentially be held legally responsible for misconduct. The negligence of a brokerage firm is often a key factor that allows individual financial advisors to commit fraud. If either a broker or a financial advisor negligently breaches one of the
duties owed to a client, they can be liable for any harm caused by the
breach. Instead, an investor who alleges harm due to negligence must show
that the broker or financial advisor who allegedly caused the harm owed
the investor a duty, and the duty was breached.

You will have the option to file a case in court if there is no binding arbitration clause in your brokerage agreement. Additionally, courts expect strict adherence to all procedural rules, which also slows the case down. A financial damages claim is not for the fainthearted, but it may be worth it in the end. Make sure you think things through very carefully before the cost “clock” starts ticking away, and bear in mind that you will probably not get objective advice from a lawyer who is keen to sell (or mis-sell) litigation.

• You would first need to prove that you entered into a fiduciary relationship with her.
• Unfortunately, these merits may not be enough to get you fair compensation with a fair amount of financial outlay.
• Failure to recommend suitable investments may result in a claim to recover attenuating investment losses.
• Thus, you must review your portfolio with a seasoned investment loss recovery attorney right away if you notice something amiss.
• In theory, if you have lost money because your broker (or any financial institution) gave you bad advice, mismanaged your investments, misled you, or took other unlawful or unethical actions, you can sue for damages.

For example, questions such as whether or not the investor “sat on their rights” or possibly took a “wait and see” stance are not criticisms, they may actually serve to de-value an investor’s potential claim. You must consult an attorney with vast knowledge and experience representing investors who sustained huge losses to protect your rights. A jury made of people from the community might sympathize with an individual investor over an all-powerful investment brokerage. However, any lawyer who has tried cases before will tell you it is incredibly difficult to predict what a jury might do.

Suing a large firm is certainly difficult, but it is not impossible and it may be worth trying. The more level the playing field in terms of resources, the better your chances. Note that the court will not review or overturn the arbitration award unless you prove that the arbitrators were biased, did not apply the law to the facts, or failed to consider the evidence you put before them. Generally speaking, you have to prove that the arbitration process was unfair, which is a difficult standard to meet. In other cases, negligent brokers steer an investor’s money into risky, inappropriate (unsuitable) financial products in order to obtain higher commissions. After you speak with a securities attorney, your next step is to file a statement of claim.

Have a candid conversation with your attorney before deciding between filing a lawsuit and pursuing the claim through arbitration. An investor who is successful in winning their case and receives an award must then convert that award into money. There are a variety of ways to promote the collection, and an experienced attorney can help the winning investor navigate the steps following a successful award. Those who are considering hiring a new broker should check their background and history on FINRA’s BrokerCheck to ensure no prior history of FINRA violations.

With that said, if your financial advisor has recommended investment products or strategies that are a poor match for your stated objectives, you are likely to have a possible claim against him/her. To help dictate this, we would first review your portfolio and look for trading inconsistent with your stated objectives. Thereafter, we would see if there were demonstrably better alternatives than what was recommended to you. In general, individuals do not have a case against financial advisors if they lose money based on their advisor’s recommendations. In other words, they cannot be held liable for simply making recommendations or informing clients of their choices.