My last post addressed BofA’s failure to join The Broker Protocol. Entering into the Protocol would severely limit BofA’s ability to sue departing financial advisors for violations of non-compete and non-solicitation agreements.
A few days later, BofA sued several departing financial advisors who left for Kansas City based UMB Financial Services, Inc. The lawsuit claims the advisors are improperly soliciting former clients and attempting to hire other BofA employees. BofA alleges:
In essence, UMB has attempted to cripple BOA’s Kansas City trust and investment services through its unfair, anti-competitive and tortious actions.
BofA has been losing employees in the Kansas City area since it announced it was cutting its salesforce after its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. It doesn’t appear BofA will be joining the Protocol any time soon when it can use litigation to attempt to mitigate losses it sustains from the departure of financial advisors.
