Erez Law recently filed a FINRA arbitration against Ameritas Investment Company, LLC related to Colorado Bankers Life (CBL) annuities by brokers Patrick Kenney (CRD #1449448) and Thomas Geissler (CRD #2962412).
The Erez Law client alleges the following in the newly filed FINRA claim:
The two brokers operate as a team that provides investment advisory and other financial services to Ameritas Investment Company, LLC customers. The brokers were longtime acquaintances of the Erez Law clients. The elderly retirees placed a great deal of trust in the brokers and entrusted the brokers with the vast majority of their irreplaceable retirement savings. The Erez Law clients were conservative investors who were not interested in investing their irreplaceable retirement savings in high risk investments or strategies. On the contrary, the investors sought safe and low risk investments that would preserve their irreplaceable retirement savings.
Erez Law alleges that the brokers assured the clients that they understood their investment objectives and conservative risk tolerance, and would only recommend secure and low risk investments.
Regrettably for the Erez Law clients, the brokers allegedly recommended a high risk and unsuitable investment strategy involving Colorado Bankers Life annuities. Despite numerous warning signs about Greg Linberg’s business, the brokers implemented a high risk and grossly unsuitable investment strategy that recklessly concentrated the clients’ irreplaceable retirement savings in two Colorado Bankers Life annuities, needlessly exposing the clients to a high degree of concentration risk which only exacerbated their losses.
It is alleged that the brokers should have recommended the clients diversify their annuity investment into multiple annuities issued by different issuers in order to reduce their concentration risk and also reduce the dollar amounts of each annuity so that each contract would then be fully protected by applicable state insurance guaranty association which exist to protect investors. According to the claim, had the brokers simply diversified their annuity recommendations in this manner, the clients’ losses could have been completely avoided.
The claim alleges that the brokers failed to adequately disclose to the the clients that the strategy they recommended resulted in only a fraction of the the clients’ investment receiving the protections afforded by the state insurance guaranty association.
Erez Law alleges that the clients have suffered significant losses as a result of the investment strategy that the brokers recommended.
The complaint alleges that despite brokerage firms being required to perform due diligence on the investments and products approved for sale to customers, Ameritas Investment Company, LLC failed to satisfy its due diligence obligations by, amongst other things, approving CBL annuities for sale without conducting adequate due diligence and without making adequate disclosures of the risks of loss.
Erez Law alleges that the brokers failed to adequately disclose to the clients the risk that their investment in the CBL annuity would not be returned to them, which is exactly what ultimately occurred.
On the contrary, the complaint alleges that the brokers led the clients to believe that the investment products they recommended and sold were safe and secure investments that would preserve their principal.
The clients have not only suffered the loss of their principal, they have also failed to generate any return on their investment since 2018 and have been deprived of the opportunity to participate in an historic bull market or otherwise generate any return on their investment during this period. As such, it is alleged that the clients are entitled to receive the promised rate of return on their CBL annuities or in the alternative, a reasonable market return for the relevant time period.
Patrick Kenney Investigation
He has been registered with Ameritas Investment Company, LLC in Toledo, Ohio, since 2006.
Thomas Geissler Investigation
He has been registered with Ameritas Investment Company, LLC in Toledo, Ohio, since 2007.
How to File a Claim Against Patrick Kenney and Thomas Geissler
Erez Law represents investors in the United States for claims against brokers and brokerage firms for wrongdoing. If you have experienced investment losses, please call us at 888-840-1571 or complete our contact form for a free consultation. Erez Law is a nationally recognized law firm representing individuals, trusts, corporations and institutions in claims against brokerage firms, banks and insurance companies on a contingency fee basis.
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