Stifel ordered by FINRA to pay $132.5 million damages to US family

Jonathan Stempel

Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 9:02 AM 2 min read

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - Stifel Financial was ordered by a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration sheet to wage a household $132.5 cardinal for misrepresenting the hazard of analyzable structured notes, causing what their lawyer called "staggering" losses.

The three-member sheet connected Wednesday awarded $26.5 cardinal successful compensatory damages, $79.5 cardinal successful punitive damages and $26.5 cardinal for ineligible fees to David Jannetti, of Miami Beach, Florida, and his children Sarah, Adam and Leah, from New York.

Stifel said connected Thursday it volition appeal, calling the Jannettis "a blase household of experienced and assertive investors" who understood the risks, helped take the investments, monitored them intimately and complained lone aft losing money.

The Jannettis asked a Miami national justice to corroborate the award, which was imposed against the Stifel, Nicolaus wealthiness absorption and concern banking unit.

A $132.5 cardinal grant equals 19% of the St. Louis-based parent's nett successful 2024.

In an interview, the Jannettis' lawyer, Jeffrey Erez, said the lawsuit acrophobic alleged auto-callable contingent coupon notes.

He said the Stifel broker did not recognize the risks of the notes, whose worth was linked to the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF and stocks specified arsenic DocuSign, Dynatrace, Palantir Technologies and Twilio.

The Jannettis ended up losing "a staggering magnitude of money" - astir $60 cardinal implicit 3 years, the immense bulk of what they invested - aft Stifel overconcentrated their wealth successful the notes, Erez said.

"We're highly pleased" with the award, Erez said. "This is simply a beardown connection to Stifel and different broker-dealers that if you don't enforce manufacture and compliance rules, determination volition beryllium accountability."

Stifel ended 2024 with 2,229 fiscal advisers and $501 cardinal of assets nether management.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel successful New York and Pritam Biswas successful Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Matthew Lewis)