A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. arbitration panel has awarded $800,000 in compensatory damages in a case which charged a Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. broker with fraud.
Merle L. Buzzotta claimed that her estranged, and now deceased, husband and a Stifel rep, John Hoff Russell, intentionally used subterfuge to obtain consent to transactions that removed assets from joint accounts to benefit a third party. Buzzotta also alleged that as a result of Russell not providing her with material information, she and her children were left substantially disinherited from the majority of the financial assets that had been provided for them under the couple’s estate plans.
Buzzotta, of St. Louis, had requested compensatory damages in excess of $3 million and punitive damages of more than $1 million.
Russell’s request for expungement of the matter from his Finra record was denied.
FINRA barred the advisor, Sung Moo Cho, last month.
A new MetLife survey finds real estate professionals are increasingly steering clients toward tax experts as rising property values leave more sellers facing significant capital gains.
The independent broker-dealer expands its business development bench with a new recruiter and an internal promotion in the West.
The leading ultra-high-net-worth RIA joins other large wealth firms, including Raymond James and LPL, in creating executive roles focused on artificial intelligence strategy
New Preqin-powered benchmarks add transparency to private equity and credit performance across BlackRock's platforms.
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
Direct indexing is on pace to outgrow ETFs and mutual funds. Northern Trust's Ken Lassner explains why the advisors who get it wish they had started sooner.
