Articles Tagged with UBS YES Strategy

Third Yield Enhancement Strategy Investors Award for Seasoned Securities Fraud Law Firm

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas (SSEK Law Firm at investorlawyers.com) is thrilled to announce that on September 1, 2022, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel ordered UBS Financial Services (UBS) to pay $468,126 to two customers and their trust over losses they sustained in the firm’s UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy program. The award was a unanimous ruling by three FINRA arbitrators. It was a full recovery for the investors, including more than $343,000 in compensatory damages, more than $100,000 in legal fees, and over $24,000 in costs.

On September 2, 2022, InvestmentNews reported on SSEK Law Firm’s win against UBS and interviewed our Managing Partner Sam Edwards. This is our firm’s third UBS YES loss attorneys’ arbitration award that we’ve won for investors who were never fully apprised of the risks involved in the firm’s options overlay strategy, experiencing securities fraud. Our securities attorneys’ earlier wins were a $400K Yield Enhancement Strategy award on behalf of Maryland investors and another award on behalf of a Texas investor.

Investors Allege Unsuitability and Misrepresentations

Our UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy (UBS YES) investment loss attorneys are speaking with customers of UBS Financial Services broker William Word Huthnance in Houston, Texas. Huthnance, who has worked for 20 years in the industry, is accused of allegedly unsuitably recommending the firm’s risky iron condor strategy to customers while purportedly making misrepresentations and omissions to them. 

Already, one claimant reached a $580K settlement over their UBS YES losses, as well as losses involving purportedly unsuitably recommended hedge funds, structured notes, and private equity fund recommendations. 

Firm Accused of Inadequate Training And Poor Supervision of Brokers That Sold YES   

UBS Financial Services has consented to pay about $25M to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges related to the firm’s Yield Enhancement Strategy (YES). The regulator contends that the broker-dealer, which marketed and sold $2B of UBS YES to about 600 high-net-worth individual investors between February 2016 and February 2017, allegedly failed to adequately train its financial advisors in and supervise this complex iron condor strategy. 

This purportedly included the firm knowing about— documenting—the “possibility of significant risk” but not notifying many of its brokers and clients about this. 

FINRA Arbitration Ruling Grants Largest UBS YES Award to Date  

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel has awarded a deceased investor’s family trusts $1.857M in their securities case against UBS Financial. The broker-dealer had involved the late Irving Siegel’s QTIP Trust and generation-skipping transfer trust in its UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy. This is the largest award to claimants over UBS YES losses to date. 

Siegel passed away in 2013. He left the trusts for his family. The trusts accused the broker-dealer of misrepresentation, negligence, and fraud in their investor claim. A FINRA arbitration panel in Boca Raton, Florida, awarded Siegel’s QTIP trust $1.171M and his generation-skipping trust $517K. The rest of the award was for prejudgment interest and other fees. 

Claimants Are Seeking Over $4M in Damages Over UBS YES Strategy

If you suffered investment losses while working with UBS Financial Services broker and investment advisor Roderick K. Von Lipsey, you may have grounds for filing a FINRA arbitration claim to recover damages. 

In the last 2.5 years, between September 2019 and January 2022, the Washington DC financial advisor has been named in four pending customer disputes over alleged losses sustained in the UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy (UBS YES).

FINRA Arbitration Panels Award Damages To UBS YES Claimants

Two Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) panels have ordered UBS Wealth Management (UBS) to pay investors over $1.1 million for losses they sustained from the firm’s Yield Enhancement Strategy (YES). 

This complex options trading strategy that promised investors stable, incremental returns has cost wealthy UBS customers significant losses. Many of them are now contending that misrepresentations and omissions were made about the degree of risk involved. Additionally, these investments were unsuitable for their investment accounts. 

$400K UBS YES FINRA Arbitration Awarded to Investors in Baltimore, Maryland  

In one of the first in-person arbitration in the last 18 months, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel has awarded two investors $405K in their UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy claim against UBS Financial (UBS).  

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas (SSEK Law Firm at investorlawyers.com) represented these UBS YES strategy investors in their FINRA arbitration case, which was heard in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Florida Arbitration Panel Refuses To Expunge Advisors’ Record of Options Overlay Case

In December, a  Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel in Boca Raton, Florida awarded a UBS Wealth management client and retiree $89,675 in his UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy (YES) claim over significant losses he sustained in the brokerage firm’s options overlay strategy. 

The award was for his unsuitability claim against UBS Financial Services. He also alleged negligence, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, omissions, failure to supervise, and breach of contract.

Lincoln, Nebraska Stockbroker Named In Multiple Six-Figure Options Overlay Claims 

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel has awarded two claimants over $1M in their UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy (YES) claim against respondent UBS Financial Services (UBS). 

Their broker, Jason Mathew Dworak, was not a respondent in the customer dispute. However, according to the FINRA award, the panel did not grant the broker-dealer’s request that the case be expunged from his CRD records. Dworak also is named in other pending options overlay claims involving UBS YES.

New York Stockbroker and Investment Advisor is Accused of Misrepresentations and Unsuitability  

Eric Andrew Wittenberg, a managing director and private wealth advisor at UBS Group AG (UBS) in the New York metropolitan area, is being blamed by a number of the firm’s customers for investment losses they suffered after he recommended the UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy (YES) to them.

Wittenberg is one of many UBS registered representatives named in Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration claims over this program.

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