Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Advisors Win $2 Million Award Against NRP

Two financial advisors won $2 million in arbitration from a retirement-plan advisory firm they left Merrill Lynch to join in 2008, only to be let go the following year.

According to this article in FA Magazine, National Retirement Partners sought to have the Indianapolis advisors, Wade Walker and Jeffrey Bafs, return funds the company said they owed through a corporation NRP purchased to buy their practice. It also accused them of violating transition agreements. But a panel of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ruled that the claims by the company and two subsidiaries were "frivolous, unreasonable, groundless, and made in bad faith," according to the award document.

The panel awarded a total of $2 million to the two advisors, who had filed their own claim accusing the company, based in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., of defamation, theft of clients, disclosure of confidential information and other offenses. More...