Theresa Stone’s LinkedIn page describes her current position as a recruiting professional for financial advisors at Raymond James with a coverage area of Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, South Texas and New Mexico, although she and her husband reside in St. Petersburg, Fla. In her bio, Stone notes that she and her husband purchased Summit in April 2019.
In August of that year, Terry dropped her registrations, and in September, Kerr and Rivera left the firm and severed their relationship with Raymond James, according to BrokerCheck.
But just two months later, in November 2019, Kerr and Rivera reappeared as managing partners under a new banner, Stonemark Investment Group, and as affiliates of Securities America. Stonemark’s address remains 130 Camino Escondido.
Whatever happened between April and September, the three-person Finra panel considered the following award breakdown appropriate:
- Terry owed Stone and Waked $1,589,570 in compensatory damages, plus 15% interest until it is paid in full
- As a group, Terry, Kerr and Rivera owed the couple $2,872,473 in compensatory damages, plus 15% interest until it is paid in full
- Securities America will pay Stone and Waked $100,000 in compensatory damages, plus 15% interest until it is paid in full
- Terry also will pay another $1 million to Stone and Waked in punitive damages
- Terry, Kerr and Rivera will pay $723,559 to Stone and Waked for attorneys’ fees, plus $600 for the non-refundable portion of the Finra filing fee
- The three will also pay nearly all the hearing session fees, totaling $42,700
- And finally, Terry and Kerr will pay Waked $250,000 in emotional distress damages, and another $250,000 to Stone for the same
Laurence Landsman, a founder at Chicago’s Landsman Saldinger Carroll, a law firm specializing in representing brokers and advisors in all areas of career transition, including practice sales, reviewed the Finra award and said while he has no direct knowledge of the case, there are aspects to the award that speak volumes.
“Those compensatory damages are pretty significant, so this was an active, revenue-generating practice,” he said. “It’s a significant award that reflects the wrongdoing.”
Especially notable is the presence of damages for emotional distress, which is highly unusual, Landsman said. “When you’re talking about the sale of a practice, it’s about contracts,” he said. “To get emotional distress damages, the wrongdoing has to almost have been personal in some way. That indicates to me there’s more going on than you can glean from the award alone.”
The panel also gave Terry, Kerr and Rivera two weeks to return to Stone and Waked all information, materials, documents, files, data, etc., relating to the business. All former Summit web addresses now point to Maestro Financial Partners, Waked’s current advisory firm in St. Petersburg.