Finra panel orders adviser to pay $333,000 to Morgan Stanley

A former broker for Morgan Stanley must pay the wirehouse $333,000 in damages for failing to pay back money he owed when leaving the firm in 2013, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. Morgan Stanley will recoup money tied to four promissory notes issued to Louis D. Dworsky in 2007, 2008 and 2009, according to a Finra dispute resolution document released on Monday. Promissory notes are a form of compensation that brokers receive from their employer. Mr. Dworsky now works at Zermatt Wealth Partners in Raleigh, N.C, a wealth management business that he formed in 2013. He merged the firm with Richmond, Va.-based Thompson Davis & Co. the following year, according to the firm's website. Mr. Dworsky didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the Finra arbitration panel's decision. He began his career as a financial adviser at Merrill Lynch in 1987, becoming a registered broker at Morgan Stanley in Raleigh, N.C. in 2007, according to Finra's BrokerCheck. At the arbitration hearing in North Carolina, Mr. Dworsky asked for a total $6.15 million in lost commissions in a counterclaim against Morgan Stanley. His counterclaims were dismissed, with the arbitration panel agreeing with the firm that Mr. Dworsky failed to comply with North Carolina's statutes of limitations. The panel also ordered him to pay Morgan Stanley's attorneys' fees of about $232,000 as well as $13,248 of additional costs. Shanahan Law Group in Raleigh, N.C. represented Mr. Dworsky in the dispute with Morgan Stanley. The firm's founder, Kieran Shanahan, and Christine Jockle, a spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley spokeswoman, declined to comment.