FINRA Arbitration
On May 13, 2019, after a four-day hearing, an arbitration panel of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”), sitting in Chicago, Illinois, held that a claimant broker who won a FINRA arbitration seeking expungement from the broker’s Form U-5 (Uniform Termination Notice for Securities Industry Registration) filed by the broker’s respondent ex-employer upon the broker’s termination, of specified employment-related information…Read More
How And Why Brokerage Firms Disparage Brokers On The Brokers’ Form U-5s Form U-5 (Uniform Termination Notice for Securities Industry Registration) is a form that, within 30 days, brokerage firms must complete and file with securities regulators to report the termination of a broker’s employment. On Form U-5, the brokerage firm must report the reason for the broker’s termination and…Read More
A dispute that brokerage firms frequently arbitrate, before FINRA, against brokers concerns “transitional compensation” payments to brokers whom the firms have fired within a predetermined period of time. Such disputes are promissory notes, up-front bonuses, recruiting bonuses, forgivable loans, or forgivable employee loan (“EFL”) cases. It is difficult, but by no means impossible, for a broker whose brokerage firm has harmed…Read More
On July 6, 2011, after an 11-day hearing, an arbitration panel of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. ("FINRA"), sitting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, awarded compensatory damages of $4,300,000 to broker Gregory P. Kipple ("the claimant broker," "the broker," or "Mr. Kipple"), who allegedly was fired by respondents Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC ("Wells Fargo") and Wachovia Securities, LLC ("Wachovia Securities") for writing a…Read More
“I could have been a contender.” — Marlon Brando as Terry Molloy in On the Waterfront When, in a promissory note arbitration brought before FINRA in Manhattan, NY, the respondent broker’s promissory note contains a merger clause or integration clause, the question arises: Does the merger clause prohibit the broker from successfully maintaining a counterclaim against the claimant brokerage firm for fraudulently inducing him to…Read More
On May 6, 2011, after an eight-day hearing, an arbitration panel of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”), sitting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, held that a discharged broker of Bank of America Corp. (“BAC”)’s Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (“Merrill Lynch,” the “brokerage firm,” or the “firm”) need not pay Merrill Lynch $3.3 million due on a forgivable loan.…Read More
To successfully sue a brokerage firm or other former employer in the securities industry in New Jersey for defaming him or her on a Form U-5, a broker or other registered employee must prove the usual elements of defamation, plus that the former employer acted with malice. Form U-5 (Uniform Termination Notice for Securities Industry Registration) is a form which brokerage…Read More
In Wells Fargo Investments v. Shaffer, FINRA Arbitration No. 10-00773 (Jan. 18, 2011), claimant/counter-respondent Wells Fargo Investments, LLC (“Wells Fargo,” the “brokerage firm,” or the “firm”) had made to respondent/counter-claimant Kenneth C. Shaffer (“Mr. Shaffer,” the “respondent employee,” or the “employee”) a forgivable loan when he began employment with the brokerage firm. In January 2008, the respondent employee had signed a promissory note apparently stating that if Wells Fargo terminated…Read More