Products November 24, 2010

Pershing Offers Practice Management Forums

Pershing Advisor Solutions, a BNY Mellon company, will be hosting a series of practice management forums in Atlanta, Seattle, and Boston in the next few weeks.  
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The forums are designed to help investment professionals, registered investment advisers (RIAs), and dually-registered advisers navigate through economic, regulatory, and market challenges, according to a press release.   

The sessions will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on November 30; Seattle, Washington on December 2; and Boston, Massachusetts on December 7.  The speakers will include:

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  • Paul Begala, Political Analyst and CNN Commentator, who will discuss the 2010 midterm election results and what they mean to both investors and the U.S.;
  • George Walper, President of Spectrem Group, who will share exclusive data on the changing expectations and attitudes of high-net-worth clients and the implications for financial professionals;   
  • Mark McCray, Executive Vice President of PIMCO, who will address portfolio challenges during periods of high volatility and low growth; and   
  • A panel of CEOs from leading financial services companies, who will offer insights about the current economic and regulatory environment, including Dodd-Frank legislation and the impact on global markets.

The series is open to all pre-registered investment professionals. To register online or for additional information, visit www.pershing.com/ria/practice_management/forums/index.html.

Compliance November 24, 2010

Calif. Bank Hit with Stock-Drop Suit

FirstFed Financial Corp. employees have filed a stock-drop suit alleging the bank kept company stock in its employee-stock ownership plan (ESOP) after it was no longer prudent to do so.
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The suit, filed in federal court in California, charged that the bank was incurring heavy mortgage losses tied to the subprime mortgage industry meltdown and, by keeping the company stock, FirstFed breached its Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) fiduciary duties.

Plaintiffs also charged that it was imprudent to keep a heavy concentration of FirstFed stock because the company’s real estate loan portfolio was heavily concentrated in the volatile Southern California market. They also claim the bank had adopted less stringent underwriting standards and accepted loan applications with little or no income or asset verification

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“As a result of defendants’ breaches of fiduciary duty, the Plan suffered devastating losses, losing essentially all of its assets,” the suit declared. “A prudent fiduciary facing similar circumstances would not have stood idly by as the Plan lost the near entirety of its value.”

First Federal Bank of California was closed December 18, 2009, by the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation became receiver of the bank, according to the complaint.

The case is Young v. Heimbuch, C.D. Cal., No. 2:10-cv-08914-ODW-MAN.

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