Panel awards $3.8m to ‘mom and pop’ investors whose risky investments tanked

Florida investors featured in Guardian investigation claimed they lost most of their life savings after a financial adviser put their money into ‘alternative’ assets In a victory for everyday investors, arbitrators have awarded $3.8m to 13 Florida seniors who claimed a financial adviser squandered their retirement money by plowing it into risky investments. The award comes after the Guardian highlighted these investors’ losses as part of an investigation into dangers that so-called “mom and pop” investors face at a time when the Trump administration has thrown its support behind Wall Street’s efforts to sell them more higher-risk “alternative investments”. Many of the investors claimed they had lost most of their life savings after the adviser put them into “structured products” – a risky combination of bonds and derivatives that regulators have flagged as requiring “heightened supervision” by brokerage firms. An arbitration panel with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) ruled last week that three financial firms – Charles Schwab & Co, TD Ameritrade Clearing Inc, and TD Ameritrade Inc – should compensate the Florida investors, who had a