Soreide Law Group Files FINRA Arbitration Against MORGAN STANLEY and Their Former Broker, MICHAEL FITZ-GERALD

Soreide Law Group recently filed a FINRA arbitration on behalf of their clients (Claimants) against:
MORGAN STANLEY and their former registered representative, MICHAEL EDWARD FITZ-GERALD (MICHAEL EDWARD FITZGERALD) CRD# 209062 (Respondents) 
The Claimants are a retired, married couple living in California. MICHAEL EDWARD FITZ-GERALD, was an employee and registered representative of MORGAN STANLEY. The lawsuit alleges that the Claimants knew FITZ-GERALD for many years because he was the financial advisor for one of the Claimant’s father. In 2008, the Claimants retired after receiving approximately $450K inheritance from the Claimant’s father.  MICHAEL FITZ-GERALD then allegedly began to manage their money. The retired Claimants needed to live off of the inheritance for the rest of their lives. The lawsuit alleges that the Claimants were looking to generate a stable income stream to sustain them through retirement and relied upon FITZ-GERALD and the research of MORGAN STANLEY to select suitable investments that would preserve their capital while producing income.
On or about 2014, allegedly, FITZ-GERALD started to heavily push oil and gas investments to the Claimants and represented to the Claimants that they were all safe and secure investments. The lawsuit alleges that the Claimants were wholly reliant upon the MORGAN STANLEY broker, MICHAEL FITZ-GERALD, for all investment advice. Allegedly, FITZ-GERALD had already began purchasing a large concentrated position into Linn Energy that FITZ-GERALD only added to over the years and continually recommended to buy more and even sold $51K worth of Linnco to Claimants in early 2014. The lawsuit alleges that the Respondents over concentrated the Claimants accounts into over 60% oil related investments with no hedging strategy or downside protection.  Allegedly, the Claimants confronted FITZ-GERALD concerning their devastating losses in oil and gas related investments and FITZ-GERALD advised them that he considered them great investments and that MORGAN STANLEY believes they should continue to invest more and/or hold on to all their oil investments.
The lawsuit alleges that the Claimants fell victim to: negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligent supervision. 
The lawsuit further alleges that MORGAN STANLEY and their representative’s actions have caused Claimants damages of approximately $240,000.00.
MICHAEL FITZ-GERALD has six (6) reported customer complaints on his U4. The significance of FITZ-GERALD’S customer complaints is underscored in FINRA NOTICE to MEMBERS 03-49. In 2003, FINRA conducted a review of the CRD’s of all 663,000 registered representatives, only 2,751 (.41%) had been the subject of (3) or more customer complaints. In other words FITZ-GERALD’S customer complaints rank him in the top one-hundredth percent of all registered representatives for customer complaints.   
The following information is from MICHAEL FITZ-GERALD’S FINRA BrokerCheck.  These are, in part, the allegations from the six “Customer Disputes” on FITZ-GERALD’s report.  The first Dispute is pending, but the other five resulted in settlements to the Claimants.  The allegations were as follows: 

1. Unsuitability with respect to investments in accounts -2014 to 2015
2. Portfolio was not sufficiently diversified from 2012 to 2016.
3. Portfolio was not sufficiently diversified - 2010 - 2015.
4. Breach of fiduciary duty regarding purchases of stock from 12/88
5. Unsuitability, breach of fiduciary duty and misrepresentation of common stock. Failure to supervise.
6. Fitzgerald never advised Claimants of the risks of failing to diversity investments.

MICHAEL FITZ-GERALD, according to FINRA’s BrokerCheck was in the securities industry for 48 years and was listed with 6 firms, with the most recent listed below:
06/01/2009 - 06/01/2018  MORGAN STANLEY - SAN FRANCISCO, CA 
Morgan Stanley and their former registered representative, MICHAEL FITZ-GERALD deny all allegations. 
If you’ve suffered losses due to the actions or recommendations of former Morgan Stanley of San Francisco broker, MICHAEL FITZ-GERALD, contact Soreide Law Group for a no cost consultation with an experienced securities lawyer regarding the possible recovery of your investment losses through a FINRA arbitration at:  888-760-6552.
Soreide Law Group represents clients nationwide before FINRA.  We operate on a contingency fee basis, so fee if no recovery.  Let our experience work for you.