Securities Lawyers Blog
Broker Brian Pfeifler (Pfeifler), currently employed at Morgan Stanley (Morgan Stanley) has been subject to at least two customer complaint during the course of his career. The complaints allege that Pfeifler made unsuitable trading recommendations, and recommending an overconcentration of high risk alternative investments including private placements and hedge funds.
According to a BrokerCheck report, in December 2023, a customer alleged that Pfeifler engaged in violations of the securities laws by, among other things, making unsuitable investments with respect to alternative investments from 2022 to 2023. The claim is currently pending.
In January 2024, a customer alleged that Pfeifler engaged in violations of the securities laws by, among other things, making unsuitable investments with respect to alternative investments from December 2021 to January 2024. The claim is currently pending.
Alternative investments include a number of different type of products including DDPs, non-traded REITs, oil and gas offerings, equipment leasing products, hedge funds, and other alternative investments. Depending on the type and structure of some alternative investments they can be configured in ways that virtually never profit investors and are almost always unsuitable for investors because of their high fee and cost structure. Brokers selling these products are paid additional commission in order to hype these inferior quality investments providing a perverse incentives to create an artificial market for the investments.