Anyone heard of this?

[philo]

I have all of my accounts at Wedbush.

There has been considerable loss of principle. I emailed the broker to call me.

His reply was " I will not talk to you. I will resign from the accounts on Monday morning. You must move your accounts to another brokerage firm".

What do you think of this ?? I'm in shock!

[ladelfina]

This is very odd! If a broker leaves I would expect one of two things: to be handed impersonally by the firm to another broker.. or to have the leaving broker cajole me into moving accts wherever he is going. That's what's always happened to me.

That he bothered to write "you must move" sounds like he screwed up or the firm is going under. OR the guy is just having a completely unrelated personal nervous breakdown.

What type of account and general complexion of investments do you have? What level of contact have you usually had with the broker? Is he actively managing the account for you? How were your investments chosen? Sorry, I guess none of the answers to these questions really address your immediate predicament.

I would be getting together every piece of paper relating to those accounts and planning to start dialing the head office for your acct. and this guy's supervisor, starting at 6 am Monday, dialing random extensions to get to a human if necessary. Someone will be there early. If the guy says flee, I would be prepared to flee.

I'd also read this:
http://www.wedbush.com/ClientSafety.pdf
and this:
Wedbush Morgan Securities
closely

[philo]

Thanks for the links. I think he had a personal meltdown.

Do I have to pay commissions to move all the stocks etc. to another broker?

[ladelfina]

I doubt that unless you want to hold the certificates yourself you will pay any fees.. maybe an account closing fee?. Check the firm's Fees and Pricing guide which is likely avail. online.

You are not buying and selling so it is not a "trade", thus no commissions at all per se... and you should not have to liquidate anything unless maybe you are in some private proprietary-type fund of theirs. That might make you incur commissions or even back-end fees, I think.

For me, moving was a matter of selecting the new brokerage first.. filling out their application giving NewBrokerage the authority to get the holdings from OldBrokerage. I did not need to speak to or do anything w/r/t OldBrokerage. Warning, these transfers are not instantaneous; it may take days or who knows exactly how long for the new acct. to be up and running. For that reason, if you want to make immediate adjustments to your positions because of these losses, you may want to do that BEFORE yanking your account.. Even after you close out you may still get some statements from OldBrokerage if dividends come in in the interim..

I would handle the situation differently for an account that I managed versus one I'd allowed a broker to manage!! But at the very least I would review exactly WHAT the culprit was in this "significant loss of principal" thing. It sounds like you are rather vague on the whole picture.. correct me if I am wrong. You need to know if these are losses in line with the market/sector/fund/whatever, or if there is something that is particularly unusual or bizarre.

If you picked or happened to approve unlucky purchases.. I'm not sure what moving the holdings will gain you. If, on the other hand, you feel you were steered into investments inappropriate for your level of risk (brokerages usually quiz you on this for their own protection), or the broker was given a free hand and made some kind of criminally disastrous moves, then you should pursue potential recourse with the firm.

I would def. try to see what the motivation is behind that warning shot.. besides just "personal meltdown".

[FIREdreamer]

A broker running away from money? It is suspicious. I had personally never heard of Wedbush before so I googled them and I was shocked at the number of results containing the word "fraud" in them. I am not saying that fraud is involved in your case, but that would make me very cautious. I would probably move my money to a more reputable brokerage firm regardless of what the situation might be. What I would do would be first to determine where the loss of principal comes from. If you know the underlying funds in which your money is invested, check with morningstar to see if your loss of principal is in line with the individual funds' losses. If there is a big discrepency, then there is a problem and you should report the problem to authorities. If your losses are simply due to underlying funds tanking, then there is not much you can do, unless you feel you were pressured to buy into these particular funds or the fund's risk factors were misrepresented by the broker.

[Helena]

All I know is I am unable to access
the website for Wedbush Morgan

www.wedbush.com


The page won't load ?


?

[Alan]

Originally Posted by Helena

All I know is I am unable to access
the website for Wedbush Morgan

www.wedbush.com


The page won't load ?

Try this WEDBUSH

aah, it doesn't load for me now either when i then select tab Wedbush Morgan

[Helena]

Originally Posted by Alan

Try this WEDBUSH

aah, it doesn't load for me now either when i then select tab Wedbush Morgan

Too much traffic ?... or... closed to too much traffic ?

I'm glad I have no money there !

[Notmuchlonger]

Hmm I never even heard of them till reading this thread. That is a weird response.

[ladelfina]

that is freaky...I was just there at their site a few hours ago. Wonder how many clients beside philo may have gotten "the e-mail". Or it could just be the guy running the server had a personal nervous breakdown. oh my..

They have a bank, and that site seems up, though:
https://www.wedbushbankdirect.com/home/home

philo, I hope things work out with your accounts..
Please check in and let us know how you are doing tomorrow!

---
It doesn't look all that good... NUNS! They sold mobile-home mortgages to nuns!
Wedbush Hit with Nun’s Complaint over CMO’s - May Have More Than Brokers in Common with Brookstreet :: Stock Broker Fraud Blog

[Helena]

Originally Posted by philo

I have all of my accounts at Wedbush.

There has been considerable loss of principle. I emailed the broker to call me.

His reply was " I will not talk to you. I will resign from the accounts on Monday morning. You must move your accounts to another brokerage firm".

What do you think of this ?? I'm in shock!

Well... it's Monday eve, what happened ??