Ex-Cetera branch manager wins $500K over breakdown of M&A deal
April 28, 2023 By Tobias Salinger, Financial Planning Nearly seven years after a Cetera Financial Group branch's succession plan fell apart, FINRA arbitrators held its regional directors liable for damages of more than a half a million dollars. Betsy Jo Merritt won an award of $512,500 in compensatory damages from Janice G. and John D. Cartwright of Long Beach, California-based CLG Wealth Management after accusing the Cetera Advisor Networks regional directors of tortious interference with contract, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, negligence and state business laws. Financial Planning obtained the arbitration filing alleging that an agreement for Merritt to sell her branch, also known as an office of supervisory jurisdiction, to a then-Cetera financial advisor named Joseph E. Singleton for $2.1 million was undercut when the Cartwrights recruited two advisors from Merritt's group to their own firm....