A Seattle man has accused Charles Schwab & Co. and Hamilton Capital Management with negligence, alleging they failed to protect his late father’s retirement portfolio from being depleted.
Daniel J. Means, in a complaint filed against Schwab and Hamilton Capital on Monday, contends the firms consummated numerous large outbound transfers of funds that landed with family members, including the plaintiff’s brother and the brother’s son, who at the time was an associate financial advisor with Hamilton.
Means sued the firms in U.S. District Court in Ohio’s Southern District over “multiple acts of violations and failure to act to protect” Johnston H. Means “from elder financial abuse, specifically facilitating the depletion and elimination” of the father’s retirement portfolio.
The $1.8 million initially invested was depleted when Johnston Means died at 93 in 2021, and the account also failed to realize a $700,000 investment increase, according to the lawsuit, which says Means and his brother were each designated as 50% portfolio beneficiaries.
Plaintiff Means alleges his brother, who had power of attorney on behalf of their father, repeatedly told the investment firms “that massive and repeated withdrawals” from the retirement portfolio were loans that he would repay, but never did. No family members were named as defendants in the case.
