Home Capabilities Investigation Morgan Stanley AFG Expense Lawsuit

Morgan Stanley AFG Expense Lawsuit

Have you worked as a Financial Advisor or similar role in California and participated in a business expense reimbursement program? If so, we would like to talk to you about your rights under California law.

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Case Background

We represent California Financial Advisors in litigation against Morgan Stanley to recover the cost of expenses borne by FAs through Morgan Stanley’s Automated Flexible Grid (“AFG”) program from April 23, 2013 to the present. We have been litigating this case, called Chen v. Morgan Stanley, in Orange County Superior Court, Case No. 30-2014-00724866-CU-OE-CXC, since 2014.

The Chen lawsuit alleges that the AFG program passes the cost of various business expenses—such as support staff compensation, IT infrastructure, and marketing—from the company onto employees. These policies may violate California laws protecting employees from covering the overhead and other expenses of their employers and protecting against improper pay deductions.

The Chen lawsuit was set to go to trial in 2019, but the trial was delayed by the settlement of an overlapping case, called Harvey v. Morgan Stanley, Case No. 18-cv-02835-WHO, in federal court in San Francisco (the Northern District of California).

The outcome of the Harvey settlement, if it is approved by the court, may impact our lawsuit (Chen). We will provide additional information on this website as it becomes available.

Regardless, we understand that the AFG program is continuing. If you are interested in learning about your rights to challenge that program, please contact us.

Case Documents:

Summary Adjudication Order

First Amended Complaint

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