Editor's note: The following story was updated from its original version to reflect new court filings.
Court filings reveal that J.P. Morgan Securities has filed two additional lawsuits against former advisors in an attempt to stop what it alleges to be client poaching.
J.P. Morgan Securities filed lawsuits against three former advisors last week asking for temporary restraining orders and injunctions to keep them from luring clients to Ameriprise Financial Services and Wells Fargo.
The court actions came the same week the firm sued David Anderson for allegedly moving clients to Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.
The firm on Tuesday put dually registered Seth Chamberlain, now at Ameriprise, in its crosshairs, and then on Thursday did the same with married duo Samira Arikat and Brian Armstrong, who had jumped to Wells Fargo. Both lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court of Arizona.
In all the cases, the firm asked the court to stop the advisors from taking clients pending a resolution of the dispute by Finra arbitrators.
The asset manager reached an agreement with Arikat and Armstrong yesterday and the request for a temporary restraining order was considered moot, according to court documents. Under the agreement, pending the Finra proceedings, the couple will refrain from soliciting any J.P. Morgan clients or employees to join them at Wells Fargo. In addition, they will return any records or documents pertaining to those clients and employees within two days, the agreement said. However should clients reach out to Arikat and Armstrong, the couple is entitled to return phone calls and emails, set up meetings and process account transfers.
The suit against Chamberlain alleged that after he resigned on May 27 to join Ameriprise he successfully convinced 66 clients with assets under management of $53 million to transfer their accounts to Chamberlin at Ameriprise.
Chamberlain held the title "private client advisor" and worked in a bank branch office of JPMorgan Chase Bank in Mesa, Ariz., where he served about 272 clients with total AUM of $131 million, according to the complaint.
J.P. Morgan argues in the lawsuit that Chamberlain breached non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements, disregarded the firm’s code of conduct and violated his common-law obligations to the firm.