      |
|
Recent Cases: Physician's IRA account awarded $662,000 for unsuitable trading and failure to supervise. |
In early 2000, Dr. Payne, a urologist, decided to retire. At the time, he was over 60 years old. When Dr. Payne retired, the profit sharing plan and trust account that he had maintained for several years at A.G. Edwards and which had been somewhat aggressively invested over the years, was rolled into an individual retirement account at Edwards. At that time, Dr. Payne told his broker, Lee Dudley, who also happened to be the branch manager of Edwards' Richmond, Virginia branch office, that he could no longer afford to take any chances with his retirement assets. As a result, the investment objective selected for Dr. Payne's rollover retirement account at Edwards was "conservative growth." Unfortunately for Dr. Payne, Respondents made no changes at all to Dr. Payne's aggressive portfolio and made matters even worse by continuing to invest the account aggressively in technology stocks. As a result, Dr. Payne lost approximately two-thirds of his life savings. Although Dr. Payne argued that his account was unsuitably invested and not properly supervised, A.G. Edwards argued that because Dr. Payne left A.G. Edwards with more money in his account than when he first opened it back when he was still working that he was entitled to no damages. In 2005, an arbitration panel appointed by the NASD awarded Dr. Payne $500,000 in actual damages plus interest of 6% from April 1, 2000 until payment of the award. The panel also awarded Dr. Payne his costs and expenses. Ed Dovin and Sandra Malkin handled Dr. Payne's case. |
|
|