PIABA President Brian Smiley speaks about arbitration and investor protection. Brian Smiley, a partner in the Atlanta law firm Smiley Bishop & Porter LLP, also serves as the president of the PIABA, which promotes the interests of investors involved in arbitration disputes against brokerage firms. He spoke to Judith Schoolman about his group’s goals and […]
Will You Finally Be Able to Sue Your Broker?
Brian Smiley comments in Smart Money on investor choices. In this great litigious nation, you can sue just about anyone – your doctor, your mechanic, even your dog walker. Just not your stockbroker. Angry brokerage customers – and these days, there are plenty of them – have long been forced to take their complaints before […]
Securities Arbitration Is Faulted
Brian Smiley comments in Wall Street Journal on PIABA’s petition to the SEC. Attorneys who represent investors have asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to drop a requirement that a securities-industry representative sit on arbitration panels.
Selling Toxic Debt to Seniors
Business Week quotes Brian Smiley on toxic debt in bond funds sold to seniors. The subprime securities that created carnage on Wall Street are bringing new pain to Main Street. Regulators in five states are investigating whether Memphis brokerage Morgan Keegan failed to disclose the risks of seven mutual funds stuffed with toxic debt and […]
Arbitration Tilting More Against Investors
Bloomberg quotes Brian Smiley about ‘institutional misconduct’ on Wall Street. Let’s say you had $50,000 in auction- rate securities that your broker said were as safe as money- market funds. The market collapsed and you sold at an 80 percent haircut. At your arbitration hearing, one of the three panel members works at a firm that also […]
CWA Retiree’s Investment Nightmare A Cautionary Tale for Members Taking Lump Sum Pensions
Brian Smiley mentioned in Communications Workers of America Like many CWA members, Gwen Sims had a lump sum pension option, and she chose the cash payout instead of a monthly pension benefit when she retired from Bell South in 2000 at age 50.
$700K Closes the Door on A.G. Edwards Fraud Case
Brokerage firm settles with state over sales practices at Proctor & Gamble plant in Augusta Brokerage firm A.G. Edwards & Sons will pay a $500,000 fine and reimburse the state $200,000 for its investigation into stock fraud, bringing to a close a case that resulted in the largest securities settlement ever in Georgia.
Client Wins First Round Against Brokerage
Atlanta Business Chronicle reports on a punitive damage award for a factory worker. The arbitration panel that heard the first of about 75 cases against the Augusta office of the brokerage firm A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. has awarded the former client in the case nearly $1 million.
Panel Finds Brokerage Defrauded GA. Retiree
Large award for defrauded Proctor & Gamble worker. Fulton County Daily Report
Investors Growl as Bear Market Losses Sink In
Columnist Andrew Leckey cites Brian Smiley on a broker’s duties. Investing is not a game. That point is brutally driven home during every bear market, when dreams are shattered and investors doubt themselves, their brokers and even the financial system.
