Baird had sought $74 million in compensatory damages against a team of its former advisors who left for Raymond James.
Robert W. Baird has prevailed in an arbitration claim against several of its former financial advisors and Raymond James, for which they left Baird, though Baird only recovered a fraction of the damages it had sought.
Baird filed a claim in October 2022 accusing Raymond James' employee advisor channel, Raymond James & Associates, and seven advisors known as The Wise Investor Group of committing an illegal "raid" of Baird's branch office in Reston, Virginia, "leaving Claimant Baird without an ability to fairly compete for the clients it had been serving," according to an award document published Monday.
The Wise Investment Group managed $2.9 billion at Baird.
Baird sought a total of $74 million for allegations including breach of fiduciary duty of loyalty, breach of contract, business conspiracy, and misappropriation of trade secrets and/or conversion, Finra said.
Baird discontinued claims against four of the WIG advisors at an evidentiary hearing last month, according to the award document.
In a counterclaim, Raymond James and the advisors accused Baird and 10 Baird advisors of defamation, trademark infringement and false advertising, claiming that the firm and the advisors "set out on a vicious, multi-pronged, ongoing campaign to damage and defame WIG and its members," according to the document.
WIG ultimately discontinued its claims against the 10 Baird advisors, according to the award document. Against Raymond James, WIG requested between $1.1 million and $5.5 million, Finra said.
Last week, arbitrators Jane C. Carney, Alan Barry Cohen and David H Marx ordered Raymond James to pay Baird $4,215,230 in total compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages while also holding the three WIG advisors at Raymond James liable for compensatory damages: $282,564 in the case of Gregory Smith, $248,104 for Simon Hamilton and $158,511 for Christopher Aime.
The panel also held Raymond James and the three advisors jointly and severally liable for interest, Finra said.
But the advisors will only be responsible for a fraction of the damages against them, as the panel awarded them a total of $500,000 in compensatory damages against Baird for a violation of the Broker Protocol. The net award, excluding interest, was $4,754,409 in favor of Baird.
The arbitrators denied all other claims, Finra said.