Heyo!
Quite wild story i heard from our Grandmother in the family.
Apparently she had $100K with Merill Lynch back in the late 70s/Early 80s
Her “Advisor” at the time apparently was mentioning/selling her on some “American Candle Factory” and trading on Margin, she states she told him she wasnt interested/didnt want this.
Was it super easy to play fast and loose at Merill Lynch Back in the day? I assumed they would/should only be investing in index/Group Stock funds or similar?
This is one of the sweetest women on the planet, I 100% believe this story, she is not very financially understanding of things but has always had some good amounts of money due to inheritances/husband and working for decades.
The “Advisor” apparently ended up losing all the money ($-99500 in 1980ish dollars) , only $500 was left.
She was asked by another local accountant who had referred her if there was gonna be a problem/pursuit of the funds and she said no because idk “honorable/respectable” thing to do was just accept the loss and move on…she seems to have also felt embarrassed and it was just a huge life struggle. (Ugh)
I realize that realistically and given statute of limitations, possibly no recourse can happen here but:
\- Is there anyway to request records of hers from that long ago and see what transactions actually unfolded? – This whole thing is SO Sketchy to me and I really want to know what the “advisor” did with her funds.
\-Are there any NY laws that apply maybe due to finance things occuring inside that state with trading?
Unfortunately this isn’t the very first time we’ve heard Grandma being taken advantage of financially and I’m not surprised this happened back then but given the size/stature of Merill Lynch, really want to see if there is any existence at all of this paper trail.
Also if it helps, located in FL.
Thanks for taking any time to read this!