National investment loss attorneys KlaymanToskes continues investigating William (Bill) King of Merrill Lynch on behalf of customers who suffered investment losses due to King’s unsuitable recommendations to invest in Nuveen closed-end funds, including the Nuveen Quality Municipal Fund (“NAD”) (NYSE: NAD) and the Nuveen Municipal Credit Fund (“NZF”) (NYSE: NZF).
If you suffered losses with William Worthen (Bill) King, or have concerns regarding your investment portfolio at Merrill Lynch, contact KlaymanToskes at 888-997-9956 or fill out a short contact form for a free and confidential consultation.We do not collect attorney’s fees unless we are able to obtain a financial recovery for you.
KlaymanToskes previously announced the filing of a FINRA arbitration claim (Case No. 23-02047) against Merrill Lynch on behalf of a customer of William (Bill) King, who is seeking to recover $4 million in connection with King’s unsuitable recommendations to invest in Nuveen closed-end funds and options trading. The funds include the Nuveen Quality Municipal Fund (“NAD”) (NYSE: NAD) and the Nuveen Municipal Credit Fund (“NZF”) (NYSE: NZF).
According to the claim, in 2021, the customer decided to set money aside to later pay taxes due from the sales. Upon sharing his plan with King, the customer was advised to invest the tax money in Nuveen closed-end funds at Merrill Lynch, which were misrepresented by King as earning tax-free income.
King failed to disclose to the investor that Nuveen Quality Municipal fund (“NAD”) may invest up to 35% of its managed assets in municipal securities, rated at the time of investment as BBB and below. This rating is considered just one notch above junk bonds. King also falsely represented that the dividend of the NAD fund would be paid out on the fund’s value at the time of investment, meaning that it would never decline.
KlaymanToskes’ investigation found that in 2022, when the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates, bonds with longer durations and the funds that contained them, such as the Nuveen funds, declined drastically due to the leverage in the funds. In 2022, as a result of King’s unsuitable and unauthorized trading, the customer’s portfolio had losses of over $4 million.
In addition to unsuitably recommending that the customer invest in Nuveen closed-end funds, William (Bill) King engaged in an unauthorized strategy of selling put options which caused the customer to lose millions.
King falsely stated that the customer had 20 years of experience in options and desired “Speculation” as an investment objective. In reality, the customer had never traded options prior to Merrill Lynch and did not want to speculate with his retirement savings.
In April of 2023, King was permitted to resign from Merrill Lynch’s King-Conley Group after receiving numerous customer complaints alleging similar misconduct to that raised by the customer, including unauthorized trading, the selling of put options, unsuitable recommendations, and material misrepresentations.
If you suffered losses with William Worthen (Bill) King, or have concerns regarding your investment portfolio at Merrill Lynch, contact KlaymanToskes at 888-997-9956 or fill out a short contact form for a free and confidential consultation. We do not collect attorney’s fees unless we are able to obtain a financial recovery for you.
KlaymanToskes is a leading national securities law firm which practices exclusively in the field of securities arbitration on behalf of retail and institutional investors throughout the world in large and complex securities matters. The firm has recovered over $250 million in FINRA arbitrations and over $350 million in other securities litigation matters. KlaymanToskes has office locations in California, Florida, New York, and Puerto Rico.
KlaymanToskes, P.A.
Lawrence L. Klayman, Esq.
888-997-9956
lawrence@klaymantoskes.com
www.klaymantoskes.com