Fiduciary Expert Witness Litigation Support

You wouldn’t go to a gun fight with a knife would you?

FiduciaryFORENSICS™

Call the Fiduciary Expert when the case involves

Breach of Fiduciary Duty;

anything less may be just “unsuitable.”

Stock Brokers Fiduciary Duties, Breach of Fiduciary Duty and Investment Advisors Act of 1940

A recent court decision requires some stock brokers to register and comply with the Investment Advisors Act of 1940.  Prior to this decision (FPA v. SEC) what was the brokers' responsibility to customers' accounts?  Over 1 million customers may find new customer account agreements in the mail.  Customers should read and understand potential liability-shifting and the gravity of the decision on previous, current and future investment advice and recommendations.  Some customers especially trustees, unwittingly relinquish rights even before investments occur; fiduciary duty appllies before and during review and monitoring of the account agreement with the broker dealer or investment adviser and any changes thereto.

Establishing Fiduciary duty and how to focus a panel or court on your claim for breach of fiduciary duty.

Stock brokers and or investment advisers in control of a customer's account bear responsibility and potential liability.  The Fiduciary Expert Witness can educate an arbitration panel on the specific steps a broker dealer, stock broker and or investment adviser should follow when acting as a fiduciary; essential to winning claims for breach of fiduciary duty.

Claimants and class members can benefit if they prove a stock broker or broker dealer should be held to more than the suitability standard of care (commonly referenced as NASD rule 2310 and NYSE Rule 405).
Fiduciary Expert Analysis draws a brighter line for the arbitration panel to assign fiduciary liability, a much higher standard.  A Fiduciary Expert Analysis may expand the time period for damages and or support related fees in customer and class action disputes including but not limited to:

• Broker Dealers, BD employees, Investment Advisers, Managers, etc. - licensed and unlicensed,
• ECN's - best execution, commissions, order flow, order routing, agency, principal, riskless, trade reporting;
• Products - securities, commodities, futures, options, mutual funds, unit trusts, insurance, annuities;
• Services - financial planning, investment consulting, brokerage, prime broker, stock lending, margin accounts;
• Registered and unregistered - hedge funds, equity index annuities, private placements;
• Domicile - US and offshore;
• ERISA, Custody - soft dollars, master trusts, reporting, regulatory requirements, record keepers, third party administrators;
• Insured - FDIC, SIPC, Excess SIPC, Broker dealer self insurance
• Related areas >
• Employment - Recruitment, Training, Supervision, Compliance, Wrongful termination, Raiding;
• Compensation - Stock brokers, traders, branch and regional managers, senior management, support personnel.

The Center for Fiduciary Studies and the AICPA released Prudent Practices for Investment Fiduciaries in 2002 and 2006 applicable to Trustees, Financial Advisers and Investment Managers.  Over 20 practices are defined based on law, case law and or regulatory opinion letters including the Uniform Prudent Investor Act (UPIA), ERISA, recently introduced Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA), and Uniform Management of Public Employees Retirement Systems Act (UMPERs).  As of late 2007, 43 states, D.C and US VI have adopted UPIA since 1994.

Types of Customer’s accounts subject to Fiduciary Practice* standard often include , but are not limited to:

·          Trusts including revocable, irrevocable and charitable, IRA accounts

·          ERISA Defined Benefit Pension, Defined Contribution Profit Sharing, 401k plans and 403b Plans

·          Public Employees Pension and Retirement Plans

·          Union Pension and Retirement Plans

·             Non profits, Foundations and Endowments

* Note: Fiduciary Expert Analysis applies to any type of account, investment or asset subject to fiduciary standard of care.