There are few, if any, legal issues affecting the investment industry that are more cloudy and less certain than whether investment firm clients belong to the investment advisor or to the investment firm. And there are arguably few issues more important.  An investment firm’s financial bottom line is tied to the number of clients and [...]

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Competition is fierce among investment firms for top producing brokers and, more importantly, their books of business. Often this competition rears its head in the form of litigation against departing brokers and the new firms that employ them.

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Contributing Authors: Kenneth A. Dekker , Paul Emerson, and Angela Yadav The future of shareholder class actions in Ontario The times are changing for shareholder class actions in Ontario. Last year, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice rendered Canada’s first-ever shareholder class action judgment arising from misrepresentations on an initial public offering (“IPO”) (Kerr v. [...]

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Morgis v. Thomson Kernaghan & Co. (2003), 65 O.R. (3d) 321 (C.A.) In a recent decision, Ontario’s highest Court considered whether liability can be imposed on the Investment Dealers Association of Canada (the “IDA”) for the economic losses sustained by investors in their margin accounts with an IDA member. As a result of sustaining substantial [...]

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