JPMorgan Chase & Co. is taking legal action against one of its former brokers who left the firm in August to join UBS Wealth Management USA, reports Advisor Hub.
JPMorgan filed a lawsuit in federal court in Michigan against Brandon M. Love, accusing him of improperly encouraging clients to move to UBS. Love, who worked as a private client advisor in a bank branch, allegedly took customer contact information with him and violated one-year non-solicitation clauses, according to the lawsuit.
It marks the third time in recent months that JPMorgan has gone to court seeking temporary restraining orders against former brokers accused of trying to take clients to rival firms, enticing them with assurances that their fees would be lower. The firm’s latest complaint asserts that Love transferred about 19 households with $27.7 million in assets to UBS.
“[T]he vast majority of which were either pre-existing JPMorgan clients at the time they were assigned to Love, or were developed by him at JPMorgan with JPMorgan’s assistance,” the complaint alleged.
Prior to his resignation, it is alleged that Love accessed dozens of client files and that since leaving he has called clients on their cell phones and told them he was promoted at UBS.
Love did not respond immediately to a request for comment. A UBS spokesperson declined to comment.
Love had been with JPMorgan since 2012.
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