Smiley Bishop & Porter has been engaged to represent former clients of Blake Richards, a Buford, Georgia broker who has been barred from the securities industry for fraud and misappropriation. Richards was employed by several firms including H&R Block Financial Advisors, Ameriprise Advisor Services, Inc. and LPL Financial, Inc. Richards defrauded his clients, who included […]
Brian Smiley Receives PIABA’s 2014 Distinguished Service Award
On October 24, 2014, the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA), an international bar association comprised of attorneys dedicated to the representation of individual investors in disputes with the securities industry, announced the 2014 PIABA Distinguished Service Award recipient, Brian N. Smiley. Brian is a former president of PIABA and member of its board of […]
Smiley Presentation Receives National Press
Brian Smiley moderated a panel discussion on “The Arbitrator’s Perspective” at the 2014 PIABA Annual Meeting in La Quinta, California. Brian has spoken over 15 times at PIABA meetings on topics ranging from brokerage misconduct to arbitration strategy and techniques. This most recent presentation was the subject of a 10/27/2014 article http://www.thestreet.com/story/12927272/1/fighting-your-broker-in-arbitration-finra-judges-give-some-tips.html in TheStreet by […]
Smiley Gets Second Term on Securities Industry Conference on Arbitration
At its meeting in New York City held on April 16, 2014, Brian Smiley was re-elected as a member of the Securities Industry Conference on Arbitration (SICA). SICA was established in 1977. It brings together representatives of the SEC, FINRA, state securities agencies, stock exchanges, and securities industry representatives in order to evaluate securities arbitration […]
LPL Financial Faces Scrutiny
Although you may not have heard of it, LPL Financial is a big brokerage firm with big problems. LPL is the nation’s fourth largest brokerage, after Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. According to a March 21, 2013 article in the New York Times, LPL is facing a flood of complaints from state regulators […]
Wells Fargo Broker and Poet Sanctioned for Defrauding Widow
Adorean Boleancu was a Wells Fargo Private Banker and Senior Vice President who the San Francisco Sentinel described in 2008 as the “Hottest Financial Advisor to the Swells.” One of his clients (but maybe not one of the “Swells”) was a woman the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) characterized as an elderly, inexperienced and unsophisticated […]
TICs That Bite Investors
Smiley Bishop & Porter is pursuing claims against stock brokerage firms that made unsuitable recommendations that their clients invest in tenancy in common (TIC) properties. A TIC is a form of property ownership in which several people individually own an undivided part of an entire income producing property like an office building, warehouse or retail […]
TICs That Bite Investors
Smiley Bishop & Porter is pursuing claims against stock brokerage firms that made unsuitable recommendations that their clients invest in tenancy in common (TIC) properties. A TIC is a form of property ownership in which several people individually own an undivided part of an entire income producing property like an office building, warehouse or retail […]
Mike Bishop elected president of North Fulton Bar Association
Smiley Bishop & Porter partner J. Michael Bishop has been elected president of the North Fulton Bar Association for 2012-2013. The NFBA consists of approximately 130 members who are primarily lawyers practicing or living north of the Chattahoochee River in the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area. Its membership also includes judges whose jurisdictions include North Fulton County. […]
FINRA Head Explains Perils of Complex Investment Products
Richard G. Ketchum, Chairman and CEO of FINRA, appeared before the securities industry trade group SIFMA at its Complex Products Forum on September 27, 2012 in New York to admonish brokerage firms about the perils and obligations involved in marketing complex investment products to investors. According to Ketchum, while there is no legal definition of […]
