The Schultz Group Morgan Stanley – Accused of impersonating and professional incompetence
The Schultz Group Morgan Stanley is a financial advisory firm based in Miami Beach, Florida. It has a long history of facing lawsuits from its clients for misrepresentation, unsuitability, breach of contract, and professional negligence.
In the following review, you’ll learn about these disputes as the firm wouldn’t tell you about them by itself.
Did You Know/
Breach of contract is a violation of any agreement. It is considered as a legal crime and a type of civil wrong.
About the Schultz Group Morgan Stanley
The Schultz Group Morgan Stanley is a financial advisory firm in Miami Beach, Florida. Its office is located at 1691 Michigan Ave Suite 550, Miami Beach, FL 33139, US and its contact number is 305-695-6116.
The Schultz Group claims to act as an extended family of its clients. It also claims to work alongside its clients and their families to understand their goals and grow their wealth. Some of the services available here include alternative investments, comprehensive wealth planning, pre-liquidity planning, fixed income, tailored lending, sustainable investing, estate advisory, family governance, lifestyle advisory, and consolidated reporting.
The managing director of this firm is Andrew Schultz who is also the senior portfolio management director. Other notable people at this firm include Peter Collazo and Amanda Molina.
Even though this firm makes plenty of major claims about its expertise, the Schultz Group Morgan Stanley has quite a rocky history with its clients. Thanks to its leadership, the firm has attracted a ton of lawsuits from its disgruntled customers. In the following points, I have expanded on these disputes so you can understand why they aren’t as reliable as they claim to be.
The Questionable Leadership of the Schultz Group Morgan Stanley
First Dispute of Andrew Schultz
In his career as a financial advisor, Andrew Schultz has faced a total of seven disputes from his customers. The first dispute occurred in 2002 when the client alleged unsuitability regarding one or more investments.
They requested $20,000 in damages but Andrew’s firm denied the claim. Note that his firm has kept most of the information about this dispute hidden, which is a huge red flag.
Moreover, the firm hasn’t shared as to why it denied the claim.
Most disputes of unsuitability and misrepresentation tend to end in the advisor’s favor because of the waivers they make you sign at the beginning of your professional relationship with them.
Andrew Schultz has used this tactic quite frequently in his career as you’ll see when you read about his following disputes.
Second Dispute
The second dispute with Andrew Schultz occurred in 2003. Again, a client alleged unsuitability regarding one or more investments and the requested damages were $23,000.
However, Andrew’s firm denied the claim by saying that the recommended investments aligned with their investment objectives.
The Schultz Group Morgan Stanley isn’t the only firm that uses this method to get away with paying tens of thousands of dollars in disputes. There are plenty of other advisors who employ this method to avoid responsibility. The Reim Group Morgan Stanley is another firm that uses this tactic for this purpose.
Third Dispute
This dispute occurred on 4-28-2004. Here, the client alleged, inter alia, law and statutory securities violations in connection with transactions for 2001-2003. They requested $83,852 in damages.
However, like the last two disputes, Andrew’s firm denied the claim. This time, they haven’t cited the reason as to why they denied the claim.
Fourth Dispute
The fourth dispute of Andrew Schultz Morgan Stanley occurred in 2004. Here, the client alleged unsuitability, breach of contract, violation of Chapter 517, professional negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and unauthorized trading of equity transactions between 2001 and 2003.
The client requested $250,000 in damages and settled the case for $45,000.
Fifth Dispute
This dispute occurred in 2007. Here, the client alleged unauthorized trading, misrepresentation, and unsuitability. They requested $25,000 in damages and settled the matter for $9,500.
The Schultz Group Morgan Stanley responded to this dispute by saying that they settled the case to avoid the costs and uncertainties of potential litigation.
Like most of the disclosures of Andrew Schultz, there isn’t much information available for this dispute. It seems he has deliberately tried to omit as many details as possible to mitigate damage.
Sixth Dispute
This dispute occurred in 2009. Here, the client claimed liquidity of the auction rate security purchased in March 2008 was misrepresented. They requested $50,000 in damages and settled the case for the same amount.
However, Andrew’s firm has responded to this dispute by saying that they settled the matter only to comply with the FINRA Regulatory Notice 09-12.
Seventh Dispute
The last dispute listed on the FINRA BrokerCheck profile Schultz occurred in 2010. Here, the client alleged that her account was mismanaged and was invested in speculative securities. However, she withdrew the dispute later.
There is no information available on why she withdrew the dispute.
Skilled financial advisors rarely face a legal dispute in their career and the Schultz Group leader has faced seven so far. Keep in mind that many clients avoid filing a dispute because of the complications present in this process and its low success rate.
Conclusion
After going through these disputes, one thing is clear: The Schultz Group Morgan Stanley is not a reliable firm. Its leadership has a history of misrepresentation and giving unsuitable recommendations.
It would be unwise to trust them with your financial future. You would be better off with someone else.
No respect for a client’s time and schedule. Extremely rude and pretentious staff. They provide better service at an independent RIA. Morgan Stanley should fire these guys.