Schwab Loses $15 Million Arbitration Case Against Morgan Stanley

   By Matthias Rieker 
 

Arbitrators rejected a $15 million damage claim by Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) against Morgan Stanley (MS) over the hiring of at least 10 former Schwab advisers in California.

Schwab had accused Morgan Stanley of poaching the advisers from branches in San Francisco and Soquel in 2011 and inducing them to breach their contracts and take confidential information. A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel was not convinced, deciding that Morgan Stanley should pay only $71,578 in sanctions, according to the ruling dated Friday.

Schwab is not part of a brokerage industry protocol, signed by many major firms, that spells out important terms of brokers' job changes. It allows brokers to take names, phone numbers, and addresses of clients with them. Schwab's own rules are much tighter.

"We strongly disagree with the panel's decision and are evaluating our legal options," a spokesman for Schwab said. Morgan Stanley did "a steady raid on staff and clients," he said. "We think this arbitration decision is an anomaly."

A spokesman for Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

One of the brokers who joined Morgan Stanley was Peter Chen, who had about $1.6 million in annual production and managed $170 million in client assets when he left Charles Schwab. Morgan Stanley fired Mr. Chen earlier this year, alleging improper conduct related to his hiring, according to his BrokerCheck record.

Mr. Chen didn't answer a phone call and email seeking comment but, according to BrokerCheck, denied any wrongdoing.

--Write to Matthias Rieker at [e-mail]

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