Law and legal issues

JPMorgan has a habit of taking its former private client advisors to court and accusing them of trying to steal clients they met through bank referrals. An industry recruiter says such suits aren't necessarily a sign of recruiting deals gone bad.

Brooke Pilant, who was at Ameriprise from 2017 to 2024, accused the firm of turning against her after she raised concerns about "unethical practices."

JPMorgan wants a judge to overturn the FINRA arbitration award it was hit with after firing one of its brokers over expenses stemming from a Super Bowl-timed client meeting.

As brokerage firms keep getting sued for allegedly not providing clients fair returns on their uninvested cash, the SEC tells investment advisors they also have legal liabilities.

Oppenheimer said it had calculated its potential liability in its cash sweeps lawsuit at more than $440 million. Rather than face a jury, it's settling the class action lawsuit.

A series of settlements and arbitration awards since late 2022 require Stifel to pay hundreds of millions over recommendations made by its former broker Chuck Roberts.

Defendants who've reached settlements with industry regulators complain their First Amendment rights are breached by orders forbidding them to talk about their cases.

A lawyer representing a former UBS investor said he proved to FINRA arbitrators that his client would have been much better off simply putting her money into the stock market.

Thirty advisors recruited by LPL Financial from Ameriprise had objected to a court order that they turn over their cell phones, computers and other devices to be searched by a third-party forensic examiner.

As judges have shown in other recent cases involving UBS and Stifel, firms have a high bar to clear if they want an arbitration award vacated.

A federal judge finds that the embattled brokerage Alpine Securities' argument that FINRA should answer to the federal executive branch amounts to " wishful thinking" that "collapses under the weight of spiraling aspiration."

A California man's complaint alleges that Morgan Stanley's website enabled tracking tech from Google and Microsoft to collect web visitors' browsing data for targeted online ads.

A three-judge panel on the Fourth Circuit Appeals agrees with Merrill that its deferred compensation policies are a bonus used to reward brokers for loyalty to the firm.

SEC regulators instead take aim at their predecessors in the Biden Administration, saying the outsized fines were partly the result of a desire to "pursue media headlines and run up numbers."

The investment recommendations from a now-barred broker may ultimately cost the St. Louis-based firm more than $200 million in various penalties and awards.

Commonwealth was hit with the landmark penalty over its advisors' mutual-fund recommendations the year before its acquisition by LPL Financial. But it will pay only a fraction of that now.

Andrea Bethune contends in federal court that Carson Group moved her into a new role to make way for a woman 20 years her junior. Eventually, her position was eliminated.

Punitive damages, disclosures over employment terminations, the statute of limitations for bringing claims — FINRA is asking about it all in a series of more than 60 questions about revamps to its arbitration procedures.

Federal Judge David Nye sides with a broker fired over five years ago for placing trades without first obtaining his client's permission.

Dynasty accuses Merrill of acting in distorting the court record in its attempt to force a dispute over a giant breakaway team before FINRA arbitrators.