A once-wealthy JPMorgan Chase client whose portfolio crumbled as he slid into dementia lost a legal battle seeking to recoup his fortune from the bank.
A federal judge in Boston threw out a lawsuit filed by Peter Doelger, 87, and his wife, Yoon, accusing the firm of keeping him in an inappropriate investment. In a ruling unsealed Friday, the judge said it doesn't appear JPMorgan knew about Peter's deteriorating cognition over the years in which he lost a fortune the firm had pegged at more than $50 million.
Although the ruling blocks their complaint from going to trial, the couple is still faced with a countersuit from JPMorgan seeking to recoup its costs from the three-year legal fight. A family attorney said they are interested in appealing the judge's decision.
The rise and fall of the Doelger family fortune, chronicled by Bloomberg in December, tested whether Wall Street firms can be held responsible for losses by clients whose ability to understand their portfolios wanes. Financial firms screen customers to ensure they're sophisticated enough to make complex investments — but the industry's practices for monitoring their cognition as they age are less regimented.
...
The judge said that the Doelgers, their family and other representatives didn't notify JPMorgan that Peter had been diagnosed with a mental health condition. Yoon's testimony that she told their main contact at the bank that her husband was having memory difficulties wasn't enough to trigger the lender's internal policies meant to protect elderly clients, the ruling found.
...
www.americanbanker.com