Financial Firms Update: Morgan Stanley Now Owns Smith Barney, Wells Fargo & JPMorgan Defeat Estimates, MLB All-Star Sues UBS for $7.6M, & Ray Lucia, His Firm Fined Over “Buckets of Money” Strategy

Morgan Stanley Buys Smith Barney from Citigroup
Morgan Stanley (MS) now owns Smith Barney, which it just bought from Citigroup (C) for $9.4 billion. Smith Barney’s new name is Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Based on its new number of financial advisers, the deal makes Morgan Stanley the largest Wall Street firm and comes in the wake of Federal Reserve approval.

Wells Fargo & JPMorgan Defeat Analysts’ Estimates
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) says it experienced a 31% rise in second quarter earnings, surpassing analysts expectations it would garner $5.47 billion on $24.84 billion, and, instead generating, $6.5 billion in earnings and $25 billion of revenue. A year ago for the same period, revenue for the financial firm was at $22 billion.

Meantime, Wells Fargo (WF) is also reporting a 19% profit rise for Q2. This is its 14th quarterly profit increase in a row and 9th consecutive record report. While net income for the same period last year was at $4.6 billion, its net income second quarter for 2013 was $5.5 billion.

5-Time MLB All-Star Sues UBS for $7.6 Million
Retired fiive-time Major League Baseball All-Star Mike Sweeney is suing UBS Financial Services Inc. (UBS) and his former broker there for $7.6 million. Per the securities fraud case, broker Ralph A. Jackson III invested half of Sweeney’s portfolio, worth millions of dollars, in high-risk private placements that failed.

Sweeney contends that he was an inexperienced investor who trusted Jackson to make sure his money was being invested conservatively. He says that over a five-year period, the UBS broker put $6.85M of his portfolio in private-equity investments that were misrepresented to him as safe and suitable, as well $2.7M into other investments without his consent. Sweeney, who hit it big when he signed with the Kansas City Royals, claims he lost $4.9M.

Ray Lucia, His Firm Fined Over “Buckets of Money” Strategy
Financial adviser and nationally syndicated radio host Ray Lucia and his firm Raymond J. Lucia Cos. Inc. must pay fines for allegedly providing misleading information related to his wealth-management strategy known as “Buckets of Money.” The Securities and Exchange Commission is accusing the California adviser of causing retirees to believe that his approach would allow them to make income that was inflation-adjusted for life.

Now, an administrative-law judge has taken away Lucia’s adviser registration and fined him $50,000. His firm, which must pay $250,000, also has lost its license. Judge Cameron Elliot found that for years, Lucia misrepresented any purported back-testings’ validity in seminars about saving for retirement. The SEC contends that Lucia and the firm hardly, if at all, conducted any back-tests.

Morgan Stanley Completes Purchase of Smith Barney Venture, Bloomberg, June 28, 2013
JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo Beat Estimates, Crossing Wall Street, July 12, 2013

Retired Slugger Sue UBS for $7.6 Million, Courthouse News, June 17, 2013

Ray Lucia, firm fined buckets of money over investment claims, Investment News, July 9, 2013

More Blog Posts:
Ameriprise Financial, Securities America, & Three Other Brokerage Firms Reach $9.6M Non-Traded REIT Securities Settlement with Massachusetts Financial Regulator, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, May 22, 2013

Credit Suisse Must Face ARS Lawsuit Over Subsidiary Brokerage’s Alleged Misconduct, Says District Court, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, January 11, 2013

Securities Case Over Insuring The $160M in Disgorgement Paid to the SEC Goes Back to Trial Court, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, July 6, 2013