"Clients who were invested in a proprietary fund were entitled to know about defendants' competing interests that caused them to make self-interested investments on their clients' behalf," the complaint alleged.
Plaintiffs are being represented by Franklin D. Azar & Associates and John R. Garner of the Garner Law Office.
The suit also uses Edward Jones’ own 2017 SEC filing against the firm. In the filing, the firm cites "a 36 percent increase in asset-based fee revenue due to the increased investment of client assets into advisory programs." In that filing, Edward Jones said the movement of clients' assets into fee-based programs was due to the expanded menu of investment products available only through the advisory channel, as well as the move away from commission-based retirement investments following the DOL’s fiduciary rule.
The class action suit was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of California.
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