JPMorgan Chase is asking a Nevada federal court to block a former advisor from allegedly soliciting its clients to follow her to a new firm. According to Wealth Management, the bank filed a request for a temporary restraining order and injunction against Lorraine Calcote, a former Private Client Advisor who recently moved to Wells Fargo. JPMorgan is also pursuing the matter through FINRA arbitration.
According to the complaint, Calcote joined JPMorgan in 2016 and was promoted the following year. The firm asserts she operated out of a Las Vegas branch, serving clients referred through JPMorgan's internal channels. At the time of her resignation, she managed approximately 269 households with around $206 million in assets.
JPMorgan alleges that Calcote resigned on June 4 and, within hours, began contacting former clients to move their assets to Wells Fargo. One such client questioned how she obtained his non-public cell phone number. The bank claims Calcote called him again days later, offering a $3,500 incentive to switch firms.
According to the suit, Calcote also disparaged her JPMorgan successor, claiming he hadn't had a book of business in 15 years, despite the fact he had been her supervisor for six years. JPMorgan says that roughly 13 households representing over $24 million in assets followed Calcote to Wells Fargo.
"On information and belief, Wells Fargo provided Calcote with substantial financial inducements to join Wells Fargo, which incentivized her to breach her contractual obligations to JPMorgan," the bank stated.
Wells Fargo declined to comment on the litigation. Wealth Management reports that the current suit is the latest in a string of similar actions JPMorgan has filed over the past 18 months. The bank has pursued temporary restraining orders against former advisors who left for competitors including Morgan Stanley, Ameriprise, Raymond James, and Wells Fargo. As firms continue to compete aggressively for talent, legal disputes over client solicitation are showing no signs of slowing down.
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