When Theresa Stone and her husband, Shawn Waked, decided to buy a financial planning practice in 2019, they were perhaps in the best possible position to make it a success.
Stone had been working for Raymond James Financial Services as a dually registered advisor since 2008 and in a business development role since 2013. And Waked, who joined Raymond James in 2017, had had a full career as a certified financial planner and expert in behavioral finance.
So the acquisition of Summit Investment Group, a Raymond James affiliate in Santa Fe, N.M., with roughly $120 million in assets under management, should have been an easy layup.
A $6.8 million Finra arbitration award to Stone and Waked disclosed this week, however, tells a different story.
The initial claim, filed by Stone and Waked in January 2021, accused the former owner of Summit, Jane Terry, and two employees, Kathleen Alexandrea Kerr and Timothy James Rivera, of fraud/fraudulent inducement, negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, solicitation of clients, misappropriation of trade secrets, interference with contractual relations and civil conspiracy, all in relation to the sale of the financial planning practice.
A March 2021 counterclaim filed by Terry, Kerr and Rivera as a group alleged breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and hostile work environment. Separately, Terry also accused Stone and Waked of conversion and fraudulent misrepresentation, and Kerr and Rivera alleged intentional misrepresentation and constructive discharge. An additional claim of sexual harassment filed by Kerr was later withdrawn.
The award denied the counterclaim.
None of the involved parties nor their attorneys returned calls to discuss the case, although Stone texted to say that she and her husband would not be commenting at this time.
According to BrokerCheck, Terry entered the brokerage industry in 1982 with a position at E. F. Hutton. For her last employment, she and Summit (which she had founded in 1989, according to a profile written by her alma mater, Eastern New Mexico University) joined Raymond James in 1998, taking space at 130 Camino Escondido in Santa Fe in 2005. At one point, she had as many as 20 employees, according to an online directory listing, and the firm serviced high-net-worth clients.
Kerr, who remains dually registered, joined the office in 2005, and Rivera, also dually registered, joined in 2016, according to BrokerCheck.