My first encounter with David Lerner Associates came in July 2011. That month I spoke with a pleasant woman who had invested heavily with a David Lerner Associates broker in an Apple REIT (real estate investment trust). She was calling for advice on whether she accept their offer to buy back her REIT investment. “At […]
Merrill Lynch Gets "Unsportsmanlike Conduct" Award
by Brian Mahany Walter Schlaepper (a/k/a Phil Scott) has been a broker with Merrill Lynch since he received his general securities license back in 1984. Apparently he has built quite a book of business. Along the way, however, he picked up some complaints. One of those complaints was from former Boston Red Sox world series […]
Angry Investors!
by Brian Mahany Jason Zweig is one of my favorite columnists at the Wall Street Journal. Minutes ago I read his column in today’s WSJ, “Too Flustered to Trade: A Portrait of the Angry Investor.” Zweig’s premise is that as flustered and angry as individual investors are today, many are simply sitting on the sidelines […]
Class Action vs Pursuing Your Own Securities Fraud Claim (2.0)
Less than 24 hours after posting “Why Sue Your Broker,” one reader sent me a link to a Reuters article announcing the settlement of a class action against Ameriprise. The facts aren’t as important as the lesson – class actions often result in low recoveries. In the Ameriprise case, clients of Ameriprise Financial Inc. sued […]
Why Sue Stockbrokers if the Court Already Appointed a Receiver?
Frequently Ponzi scheme victims ask us, “Why should we sue our broker?” Often in a Ponzi scheme the court or a regulatory agency like the SEC will try to collect assets on behalf of victims who lost their money. Many clients believe that it is easier to wait for a court appointed receiver to collect […]