Collateral Yield Enhancement Strategy (CYES) Damages Investigated

Collateral Yield Enhancement Strategy (CYES) Damages: SSEK Investigating Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor

Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas (SSEK), a law firm specializing in representing wronged investors is looking into allegations against Gordon Harper, a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch out of Upper Montclair, New Jersey. Prior to that, he worked at Banc of America and Edward Jones.

According to allegations in a recent Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) claim, Gordon Harper recommended something called Harvest Volatility Management CYES (also known as collateral yield enhancement strategy). Harvest is a money manager which, as the name implies, attempts to manage volatility.

The alleged recommendation by the Merrill Lynch agent touted Harvest’s supposed ability to limit losses and create incremental income for the client. In essence, it was recommended as something safe for the client, when in actuality, it was not as safe as touted.

What Is The Collateral Yield Enhancement Strategy (CYES)?

According to its website, Harvest asserts that its CYES strategy provides a “defined maximum loss potential and conservative position risk.” Allegedly, CYES utilizes options, specifically a strategy known as the “Iron Condor.” They also reportedly work with Morgan Stanley, UBS and JP Morgan.

This strategy was touted as market neutral. However, if the underlying securities trade out of a certain range, it can negatively impact the investor. That is what happened in the present case. The claim further alleges the Merrill Lynch agent targeted wealthy clients with the assertion that CYES was a low-risk strategy designed to manage volatility. The FINRA claim is still pending.

Inappropriate And Unsuitable Investments: Next Steps

SSEK has experience in representing customers of financial advisors who unsuitably recommend obscure options strategies. Such actions are usually unsuitable, and as such, may violate industry standards and rules.

SSEK’s experience shows that before a financial advisor begins soliciting customers for inappropriate investments, he or she often does other things that are wrong for clients such as:

Misrepresentations & Omissions
Churning
Unauthorized trading
And other forms of broker misconduct

Even after the bad acts are uncovered, those other wrongs often go unnoticed and are never addressed without a customer hiring a law firm like SSEK.

Securities Fraud Lawyers

If you were a victim of securities fraud or negligence, it is not your fault. The experienced attorneys at SSEK are experts at FINRA arbitrations and dealing with financial advisors who have fallen under FINRA and SEC scrutiny.

For the last 30 years, SSEK has filed thousands of FINRA claims on behalf of consumers wronged by unscrupulous brokers and brokerage firms.

If you were a client of Gordon Harper, Merrill Lynch, invested in CYES or a similar strategy with another firm, contact our office for a free no-obligation consultation.