San Juan, Puerto Rico (HISPANICIZE WIRE) – September 30, 2016 – The Securities Arbitration Law Firm of KlaymanToskes (“KT”), www.klaymantoskes.com, continues to pursue FINRA arbitration claim [FINRA Case No. 14-01090] against Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) for sales practices violations in light of information disclosed in $4.7M settlement the firm reached with the state of Mississippi evidencing the firm’s mishandling of critical client profile information.
The consent order contains details of the settlement between Morgan Stanley and the state of Mississippi which suggests that client investment objective and risk tolerance information were entered incorrectly while transferring numerous client accounts from Smith Barney to Morgan Stanley. According to the consent order, “in order to transfer the accounts from Smith Barney to Morgan Stanley, new customer information was required to be entered into Morgan Stanley’s system. This information included customer investment objectives, risk tolerances, financial and other personal information used, in part, to aid in the determination of whether certain investments ….were suitable for the customer.”
According to securities attorney Lawrence L. Klayman, “Our investigation is focused on whether Morgan Stanley and its brokers conducted reasonable diligence for its Puerto Rican customers to ascertain their appropriate investment objective and risk tolerance. The sales practice violations uncovered by the state of Mississippi appear to be consistent with the violations our firm is investigating for Morgan Stanley clients from Puerto Rico.” Mr. Klayman continues, “We are also investigating whether Morgan Stanley failed to supervise its brokers in conjunction with potentially unsuitable investment advice being made to clients from Puerto Rico, despite incorrect or inaccurate information contained in their investment profile.”
The sole purpose of this release is to investigate, on behalf of our clients, the sales practices of Morgan Stanley in connection with unsuitable recommendations being made by its brokers. Current and former customers of Morgan Stanley from Puerto Rico who have information related to our investigation are encouraged to contact Lawrence L. Klayman, Esq. or Raymond Gentile, Esq. of KlaymanToskes at (888) 997-9956, or visit our website at www.klaymantoskes.com.
