As managing partner of Meyer Wilson, David Meyer was asked to weigh in on Ohio’s new proposed Rule 1301:6-3-471, which seeks to implement the Ohio Investor Recovery Fund. The Fund would allow Ohioans to claim from the Fund up to 25% or $25,000, whichever is less, of their investment losses, if they are identified in a final order issued by the Enforcement Section of the Ohio Division of Securities.
While Meyer and his team are generally supportive of the implementation of Proposed Rule 1301:6-3-471, but he raised concerns that it does not go far enough to have a meaningful impact on the investment fraud problem in Ohio – both because the recovery limit is too low, and because it will not reach enough Ohioans impacted by securities fraud.
Meyer outlined some of the issues with the Recovery Fund as designed and called for lawmaking that requires mandatory insurance for the people who handle clients’ life savings:
“Financial advisers are a rare exception in the professional world. They assume a tremendous responsibility for the life savings of their clients, and yet Ohio does not require that financial professionals managing Ohioan’s life savings carry any kind of professional liability insurance. Most people are shocked to learn that advisors who manage many millions (and often billions) of dollars of investor dollars are not required to carry any liability insurance...My firm, my clients, and I are ready to stand with the Division to do whatever is necessary to enact a minimum insurance mandate for all Ohio broker-dealers and investments advisers.”
You can read the entirety of his letter here.
Meyer is the managing principal of Meyer Wilson, an Ohio-based law firm that focuses on the recovery of investment losses for individuals who were harmed by the misconduct of their financial advisors. Meyer Wilson has represented over 1,000 individual investors in these cases since 1998. Meyer is the immediate Past-President of the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association (PIABA), the current President of the Ohio Association for Justice (OAJ), and the author of the #1 Best Selling Book, The Investor Protector, Stories of Triumph Over Financial Advisors Who Lie, Cheat and Steal.
