J.P. Morgan Securities is suing a former worker after he left for Raymond James, accusing the advisor of soliciting shoppers and violating contractual agreements.
The financial institution is searching for a short lived restraining order towards Matthew D. Sitarski, who till not too long ago labored at a financial institution department in Ann Arbor, Mich. When he left, Sitarski labored with about 250 households with roughly $132 million in managed belongings.
In accordance with the grievance filed in Michigan federal courtroom, Sitarski left J.P. Morgan on Jan. 31 and joined Raymond James later that very same day. The financial institution accused him of soliciting a minimum of 10 former shoppers nearly instantly. One shopper mentioned Sitarski pushed him to maneuver his account to Raymond James so the advisor may proceed working with him.
One other shopper informed the financial institution she acquired a name on her cellular phone from Sitarski urging her to do the identical and meet him for an appointment, which she declined.
“The shopper additionally knowledgeable JPMorgan that Sitarski had ‘downplayed’ the expertise of the JPMorgan Non-public Shopper Advisor who had been assigned to the shopper after Sitarski resigned (who has been with JPMorgan since 2016),” the grievance learn.
However Sitarski’s allegedly had some success in luring shoppers, in accordance with the swimsuit; about six households with belongings totaling roughly $3.9 million have already left for Raymond James.
Raymond James didn’t reply to requests for feedback on the grievance.
Within the submitting, attorneys for J.P. Morgan warned of the results if the courtroom didn’t grant the TRO.
“Until (Sitarski’s) misconduct is straight away restrained and enjoined, different opponents of JPMorgan will probably be inspired to have interaction in the identical form of improper habits with full impunity, the results of which is able to inflict extreme and everlasting damages on JPMorgan,” the grievance learn.
Sitarski joined J.P. Morgan in Nov. 2007, beginning on the financial institution aspect. He entered the securities portion of the enterprise as a monetary advisor affiliate in 2010 and have become an advisor two years later.
By the top of his time on the financial institution, Sitarski was a personal shopper advisor. In accordance with the grievance, the financial institution referred a whole lot of its shoppers to Sitarski for him to pitch funding alternatives. The financial institution didn’t count on Sitarski to chilly name for shoppers.
Via his employment, Sitarski allegedly may entry what J.P. Morgan deemed confidential data in shopper information, together with “shopper identification, handle, phone numbers, transactional historical past, tax data, private monetary knowledge, banking data and funding goals.” In addition they claimed all of Sitraski’s contacts in his advisory enterprise had been pre-existing financial institution shoppers referred or assigned to him.
J.P. Morgan additionally alleged Sitarski signed a number of non-solicitation agreements throughout his tenure, barring him from soliciting shoppers for one 12 months after his employment at J.P. Morgan ended. The contracts demanded Sitarski not use or retain the financial institution’s confidential data if he resigned.
The Sitarski swimsuit isn’t the primary time J.P. Morgan accused a former advisor of breaking their agreements. In January, J.P. Morgan sued Nader Joseph Al-Mooshi, a former financial institution department advisor who’d departed for Kestra the earlier fall. The financial institution accused him of bleeding the financial institution of $40 million in belongings by soliciting financial institution clients and utilizing proprietary shopper data.
Final fall, J.P. Morgan leveled comparable allegations towards Daniel Sutton, a Fla.-based advisor who left the financial institution for Commonwealth.
J.P. Morgan beforehand said that financial institution department advisors like Sitarski, al-Mooshi and Sutton don’t fall underneath the protections of the Protocol for Dealer Recruiting, established in 2004 to supply advisors larger flexibility (and fewer authorized jeopardy) when soliciting shoppers after transferring between wealth administration companies.
The financial institution claims these protections solely prolong in-house to registered reps within the J.P. Morgan Advisors division with the titles “wealth advisor” or “wealth companion.”
