Many investors approach me and say I complained and sent a letter about my stock broker's misconduct to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and they want to know how long it will be until they can get their money back.
What most people fail to realize is that there are two branches of FINRA.
FINRA dispute resolution and FINRA Regulation.
When you just complain that gets routed through FINRA regulation and they will investigate the complaint and decide whether or not to pursue disciplinary action against the broker.
Most investors just want their money back and the fastest most efficient way to do that is to file a complaint with FINRA dispute resolution.
This will get your case set for hearing in 12 months or less and this is an action for the recovery of money damages.
All brokerage accounts are subject to mandatory binding arbitration at FINRA.
Therefore securities attorneys who practice before the board can represent you in any state in the country because it is not a court room proceeding and all the conferences up until final hearing are done telephonically.
The final hearing is at the FINRA hearing location closest to the investor.
So some basic steps how to file a claim with FINRA are: 1.
Draft the complaint.
Can be in legal format or letter format.
2.
Sign the Uniform Submission Agreement.
3.
Send in the complaint with the applicable filing fee to FINRA dispute resolution's main office in New York.
4.
Make sure you have enough copies of the complaint and submission agreement.
Usually 5 copies of each.
This should get the ball rolling.