Texas Lost Wealth Information: Seeking Back an Investment, Savings, and Wealth from Financial Advisors, Investment Brokers, Wealth Managers and other Financial Professionals by Texas Lost Wealth Lawyer Jason S. Coomer
It is a common occurrence, a family decides that they want to invest or protect their wealth and seeks assistance from a financial professional. As such, they go to a financial advisor, wealth manager, investment broker, or other financial professional for advice and to invest their wealth. After receiving several statements regarding their investments, they notice that a significant amount of wealth is missing or even worse their investment is gone. In other situations, the family is no longer to obtain information regarding the account because the wealth is transferred to a new financial professional, new security protocols are put in place by the financial institute, or the family member who invested the money has passed away. In many of these situations, the bank, financial advisor, broker, wealth manager, or other financial professional starts acting like it is their wealth and not the wealth of your family.
What do to When Wealth is Taken by a Financial Professional?
The first step in reclaiming wealth is to gather proof of what wealth existed in the past, what wealth should currently exist, and who owned the wealth. The best evidence to prove the existence and ownership of wealth are typically copies of past account statements or inventories. These account statements or inventories can be hard copy or sometimes can be obtained electronically. Though commonly difficult to read, these account statements are usually a great starting point to prove the existence of wealth. Communications with and any contracts with financial professionals as well as transfer documents are also important and can be useful.
The second step is to make copies of these documents. The copy will be a working copy that can be highlighted and written on to identify important information and proof. Overall, the goal is to keep the original documents clean from highlighting and writing as they may be needed for future litigation. Further, it is extremely important not to send original documents to anyone else while seeking back your wealth. A common trap is for companies is to request documents to prove ownership and then when the original documents are sent the original documents are lost and the person seeking wealth no longer has proof of ownership or existence.
The third step is to determine what wealth was taken. Sometimes it is clear what wealth has been taken such as two statements that show 10,000 shares of stock are missing from a transfer and from the statements a specific date, time, and amount of lost wealth can be determined. At other times it is not always clear how much wealth has been taken. It is typically best to make two categories of missing wealth including 1) the wealth that can be shown was clearly taken and value that can be easily determined and 2) the wealth that might have been taken or may be difficult to determine value. For the each category, it is best to tally the amounts.
The fourth step is to contact the bank, financial advisor, wealth manager, or investment broker for an explanation as to the status of the wealth. It is often best to make sure that there is a record of all communications that are made. For telephone communications, it can be helpful to write down the date, telephone number, and full name of the person that was involved. It is often also beneficial to obtain an e-mail address, fax number, and address for follow up communications.
The fifth step is to obtain an explanation from the financial professional. A written explanation is best as you have a record as to what happened to the wealth. If the financial professional will not provide a written explanation, it can be helpful to send a follow up written communication that on X date X advised that this is what happened to my missing wealth.
The sixth step is to determine if the explanation is reasonable or if a formal demand and potentially litigation is necessary.
Texas Investment Fraud Lawyer and Texas Wealth Management Fraud Lawyer
Sometimes there is a simple explanation for missing wealth, however, at other times wealth is taken by financial professionals and financial institutes when they believe that they can get away with the theft. If you believe you or your family has lost significant wealth through investment fraud, financial professional fraud, negligence, or breach of fiduciary duty, it is important to gather and review your financial records to determine what has happened to your family's wealth. If you are unable to obtain a satisfactory explanation, it may be time to contact a lawyer to explore potential litigation to reclaim your family's wealth. For more information on Texas Investment Fraud Lawsuits and Texas Financial Professional Fraud Claims, please go to the following web pages: Texas Wealth Manager Fraud Lawyer, Texas Investment Fraud Lawyer, and Texas Elder Financial Fraud Lawyer.
