Securities Lawyer Serving Wyoming

Investing wisely can help you plan for big purchases, higher education, or retirement, and the right financial professional can lead you toward smart decisions. Unfortunately, some advisors abuse that power and cause tremendous economic harm to their clients.

If you have incurred losses of over $100,000 due to the actions of a broker or investment advisor who involved your money in a questionable scheme, you have the right to seek justice. Our securities lawyers serving Wyoming can help.

At Meyer Wilson, our team of nationwide securities lawyers has recovered over $350 million for our clients since 1999. We can help you hold those responsible accountable for their actions. Contact us today for a free consultation and tell us what happened. 

What Should I Do If I Suspect Broker Misconduct?

If you believe you are the victim of advisor misconduct, you must take the correct steps to preserve your rights and give yourself the best chance of recovering your securities. 

Contact an Attorney

You can file a complaint with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to report your suspected unauthorized trading. However, it is very important to speak with an attorney who deals with securities and financial matters first.

While your complaint may result in actions against the advisor, it won’t likely help you recover any of your losses. To do that, you need to file a civil case. Our securities attorneys serving Wyoming can help you understand your rights and file your civil suit. 

File a Complaint

Your attorney can help you sort out what may have happened with your trades and advise whether you have a case. If you do, and you wish to pursue it, we can help you file a complaint with FINRA.

FINRA will investigate your claim, and if it finds a reason, it may take disciplinary action against your advisor. 

Pursue Compensation

With the assistance of our lawyers, you can seek compensation for your financial losses due to the misconduct of your advisor. Typically, this is accomplished via FINRA arbitration. Our team can represent you through the process.

Arbitration is a faster and easier way to resolve disputes compared to a civil trial, and is often required based on your agreement with your brokerage firm. FINRA arbitration is usually the path to financial restitution when your advisor is found in breach of their fiduciary duty. 

What Is Fiduciary Duty?

Fiduciary duty is a legal and ethical obligation of one party to act in the best interests of another. This relationship is based on trust and requires the fiduciary to prioritize the beneficiary’s needs over their own. Many, but not all, financial advisors have a fiduciary duty to their clients. 

If your advisor is a Registered Investment Advisor, they have a fiduciary duty to you. That means they must act without personal conflict and avoid benefiting at your expense. They must avoid conflicts of interest and share all relevant information. 

A breach of fiduciary duty occurs when the fiduciary acts in their own interests or neglects their responsibilities, causing you harm. This can lead to legal action, restitution, or removal from their role. 

Breach of Fiduciary Duty

If a broker or advisor is found to have engaged in misconduct that violates their fiduciary duty to their client, they can face discipline. This includes criminal penalties as well as professional sanctions such as revocation of credentials.

With the help of our securities lawyers serving Wyoming, your advisor can also face civil penalties in the form of compensatory damages owed to you and full restitution for your losses, such as:

• The value of the securities you’ve lost
• Lost interest and dividends
• Penalties you’ve incurred
• The costs of pursuing action against your advisor

In some cases in Wyoming, when a jury finds they acted maliciously, your advisor may face punitive damages. Punitive damages are designed to punish them for their behavior and prevent them or others from committing the same acts in the future. 

Types of Financial Advisor Misconduct

Because of their easy access to capital and ability to manipulate their clients’ funds, brokers and advisors can engage in an almost endless array of financial misdeeds. Some of the most common types of misconduct we see include: 

• Ponzi Schemes: In a Ponzi scheme, new capital is used to pay earlier investors, creating the illusion of a profitable security. 
• Overconcentration: Investing excessive amounts of a client’s fund in a single security or investment type, usually to benefit the advisor.
• Unsuitable investments: Executing trades or purchasing securities that are not appropriate for a client’s goals or risk level.
• Misrepresentation: Hiding important information from a client, where, if known, the client may have made different decisions. 
• Unauthorized Trading: Making trades or moving money against the client’s direction or without their knowledge, often to the benefit of the trader. 
• Margin Abuse: The improper use of margin trading, often without disclosing the potential risks and dangers to clients
• Lack of Supervision: Occurs when a firm does not provide appropriate oversight for its traders and advisors.
• Churning: When an advisor executes frequent and unnecessary trades for the sole purpose of increasing their commission. 
• Cherry picking: When an advisor saves profitable securities for specific clients and steers other clients away from them
• Failure to Execute: When an advisor fails to buy or sell a stock as per their client’s orders 

If you believe your advisor engaged in one of the above behaviors or any other illicit activity regarding your finances, it is important to speak with an attorney before considering action against them. 

Get Help from a Securities Attorney Serving Wyoming

You trusted your advisor to guide you down the right path, and instead, they took advantage of you and your money. It may feel hopeless when everything you worked for disappears because of the actions of one person’s misconduct, but you can fight back. 

Our securities attorneys handling cases in Wyoming can work to hold your former advisor accountable so you can get the compensation you deserve. It’s your money and your future. We can help you take the steps necessary to get it back. 

Our team at Meyer Wilson has over 75 years of combined experience defending the rights of people harmed by their brokers and advisors.

Contact us today to schedule your free consultation and discuss your case.