An age discrimination lawsuit filed by a former advisor with Hightower Holdings is being revived in a new venue, Advisor Hub reports.
The plaintiff is 69-year-old Glenn E. Frank, who sued Hightower in August 2024 in Massachusetts Superior Court over allegations the firm tried to force him to retire due to his age. While the court initially granted Frank a temporary restraining order to prohibit Hightower from enforcing non-solicitation agreements against Frank, his case was then dismissed in December when the court ruled that he must litigate his claims in Illinois, since Hightower is based in Chicago.
Last week Frank filed a new complaint in federal court in Chicago with similar allegations as the initial filing. He alleges that he was continually phased out of working with his clients over a period of several years, in order to benefit younger advisors in the firm. Frank contends the firm also cut his pay and hours in half as part of the effort to push him out.
Frank’s new claim accuses Hightower of retaliating against him by firing him one week after Massachusetts dismissed his claim. The suit also names Lexington Wealth Management, which Frank joined in 2010. He joined Hightower in 2019 after the firm acquired Lexington.
Frank’s complaint alleges that Lexington reclassified his role without warning, changed his title to “member emeritus” on client services teams, removed him from a firm committee and portrayed to clients that he was missing meetings because he “was spending a lot of time in Florida and elsewhere.” He claims the firm directed his clients to a younger advisor and that he was restricted from contacting them without going through the junior advisor. “Mr. Frank was told that if he did not take a role subordinate to that of the younger advisors, he would be removed from his clients’ service teams completely,” according to his complaint.
After Frank brought age discrimination concerns, he alleges that he was suspended, cut off from clients and internal systems and subjected to a retaliatory investigation. He was reinstated in May 2024 but his new role required him to assist in transitioning clients to younger advisors.
Frank is asking the Illinois court to grant him attorneys’ fees and costs, back pay, emotional distress damages, lost wages and punitive damages. He is also asking for reinstatement of the temporary restraining order granted in Massachusetts that would block Hightower from enforcing the non-solicitation agreements and allow him to continue working with his customers.
A Hightower spokesperson declined to comment on pending litigation. Frank and his lawyer, Aaron Benjamin Maduff with Barrett & Farahany in Chicago, did not respond to requests for comment.
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