NAPLES, Fla., May 24, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The investor rights law firms of Vernon Healy and Dovin Malkin & Ficken have come together to launch a nationwide investigation of GenSpring Family Offices, formerly Asset Management Advisors (AMA), a wealth management firm that caters to high net worth individuals and families.
Vernon Healy has broad and deep experience representing high net worth families in investment disputes and securities fraud matters. Dovin Malkin & Ficken has already secured a $1.3 million award against GenSpring in a case involving a high net worth individual. The Arbitrator in that case sided with the investor because GenSpring used hedge funds instead of bonds for much of the bond risk portion of the portfolio.
The Arbitrator found that this constituted a breach of GenSpring's fiduciary duty because these hedge funds would not reasonably be expected to perform like bonds. In fact, some were Fund of Funds with multiple layers of managers and opaque investment strategies that included equity-based funds. The portfolio lost 24 percent in value from September 2008 to December 2008, more than double the amount of downside protection that GenSpring promised as part of its wealth management and financial advisor services.
"More and more high net worth families and institutions are re-evaluating the opacity of hedge funds as we've seen major frauds perpetrated against wealthy investors in recent years," investor rights attorney Christopher Vernon said. "There are many problematic disclosure and misrepresentation issues that we're seeing in general in relation to the risks of investment vehicles that were billed as conservative products that would generate fixed income."
GenSpring Family Offices is owned, in part, by a wholly-owned subsidiary of SunTrust. According to GenSpring, it has more than $17 billion under management and its clients are among the wealthiest families in the world. It has offices in Miami, Florida; Wazata, Minnesota; Nashville, Tennessee; Memphis, Tennessee; Jupiter, Florida; Orlando, Florida; Denver, Colorado; Costa Mesa, California; Atlanta, Georgia; Chevy Chase, Maryland; Greenwich, Connecticut; Charlotte, North Carolina; Saint Petersburg, Florida; Sarasota, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; New York, New York; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Hickory, North Carolina.
The securities attorneys at the Vernon Healy and Dovin Malkin & Ficken law firms collectively have more than 60 years of experience representing investors who are victims of securities fraud and all manner of financial fraud and negligence.
Based in Naples, Florida, Vernon Healy has conducted aggressive nationwide investigations of structured products, reverse convertibles, fixed income products, bond funds, hedge funds, non-traded REITs, and various securities fraud cases and Ponzi schemes. The firm's advocacy on behalf of Lehman note investors was recently featured in a March 2011 AARP Magazine article "The Time Bomb in Your Nest Egg" discussing the dangers of investing in structured products.
Release: http://www.protectinginvestors.com/2011/05/vernon-healy-and-dovin-malkin-ficken-genspring-under-investigation-for-hedge-fund-investments-sold-a.html