{"id":680368,"date":"2026-05-19T20:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/680368\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T20:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:28:12","slug":"stifel-settles-structured-notes-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/680368\/","title":{"rendered":"Stifel Settles Structured Notes Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Stifel Financial has reached a confidential agreement to settle with investors who won a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration award in early 2025 related to former Stifel broker Chuck Roberts. The Jannetti family filed a stipulation of dismissal with prejudice, and withdrew their motion for entry of judgment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Court documents did not reveal the amount of the settlement, but it stemmed from a <a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wealthmanagement.com\/regulation-compliance\/stifel-promises-court-appeal-after-133m-finra-arbitration-award\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">nearly $133 million FINRA arbitration award<\/a>, with the Jannetti family claiming Roberts misrepresented structured notes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Jeff Erez, the attorney representing the Jannettis, declined to comment. A spokesman for Stifel did not immediately return a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">While the family originally sought a $5 million penalty, FINRA arbitrators opted for the far higher award, claiming they believed Stifel had \u201cactual knowledge of the wrongfulness of the conduct\u201d and knew there was a \u201chigh probability\u201d the Jannetti family would face damages. Stifel argued the clients were \u201csophisticated\u201d and knew the risks, and <a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wealthmanagement.com\/regulation-compliance\/stifel-promises-court-appeal-after-133m-finra-arbitration-award\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">appealed<\/a> FINRA\u2019s decision last year.<\/p>\n<p data-component=\"related-article\" class=\"RelatedArticle\">Related:<a class=\"RelatedArticle-RelatedContent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wealthmanagement.com\/regulation-compliance\/finra-launches-review-of-higher-risk-structured-products\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">FINRA to Review of &#8216;Higher-Risk&#8217; Structured Products<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">In March, the court judge <a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wealthmanagement.com\/ibd-news\/court-upholds-133m-finra-award-against-stifel\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">affirmed the arbitration award<\/a>; then, in April, the Jannettis gave notice that they had agreed to a settlement in principle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Stifel has had several settlements and arbitration awards involving Roberts, a former rep who was barred last July for failing to cooperate with a FINRA investigation into clients\u2019 complaints that he made unsuitable recommendations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">In April, the firm settled another customer complaint for $1.175 million, and one in March for $1.2 million, also involving Roberts\u2019 sales of structured products.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">In a recent regulatory filing, Stifel said it faced various proceedings and claims from securities business activities, and estimated that aggregate losses could be upwards of $100 million in excess of the aggregate reserves for these matters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">\u201cWhile we continue to believe that Stifel has viable defenses to at least limit its liability in these additional cases, we can provide no assurance that we will be able to settle these claims or will be successful in defending them on the merits, or that these claims will not result in material liability to the company,\u201d the filing said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Just this week, FINRA launched a review of how firms handle higher-risk structured products, including \u201cworst-of\u201d structured notes that can threaten principal investments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finra.org\/media-center\/newsreleases\/2026\/finra-announces-review-higher-risk-structured-products\">According to a notice released Tuesday<\/a>, FINRA\u2019s review will examine firm conduct from January 2022 through the end of last year, focusing on how companies supervise the oversight of structured notes\u2014particularly their compliance with Regulation Best Interest and FINRA rules.<\/p>\n<p data-component=\"related-article\" class=\"RelatedArticle\">Related:<a class=\"RelatedArticle-RelatedContent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wealthmanagement.com\/regulation-compliance\/sec-ends-decades-old-gag-rule-in-enforcement-settlements\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">SEC Ends Decades-Old \u2018Gag Rule\u2019 in Enforcement Settlements<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stifel Financial has reached a confidential agreement to settle with investors who won a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":["post-680368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}