Wells Fargo Advisors Ordered to Pay

A FINRA arbitration panel has ordered Wells Fargo Advisors to pay a former client more than $262,000 for failing to promptly liquidate his brokerage account, according to a recent FINRA filing.

Jeffrey Ball, a Los Angeles psychologist, allegedly gave the firm written instructions to close the account because he had decided to transfer the assets to a new adviser at another broker-dealer, according to the filing.

The account allegedly consisted of highly liquid mutual funds totaling more than $3 million.

Rather than liquidate the account, the firm sent Ball’s liquidation instructions to India, a process which took six days, and then were rejected because the Indian representative and the instructions “bounced around” for more than a month before his client’s request was finally honored, according to FINRA report.

In the meantime, the value of the client’s account dropped by almost $75,000, an amount Ball and Wells Fargo stipulated in arbitration documents.

In FINRA’s filing, the panel criticized the firm’s procedures to process a liquidation request, saying they were “seriously flawed and should be improved.”

The panel held the firm liable for almost $75,000 in compensatory damages and more than $187,000 in punitive damages.

Recovery of Investment Losses

FINRA Dispute Resolution is an arbitration venue for investors with claims against their brokerage firm or financial professional. It provides investors with an opportunity to attempt to recoup their investment losses and is an alternative to filing such claims in court. If you suffered losses investing with Wells Fargo Advisors please call The White Law Group at 1-888-637-5510 for a free consultation.

The foregoing information is being provided by The White Law Group. The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Franklin, Tennessee.

For more information on the firm and it’s representation of investors, visit http://whitesecuritieslaw.com