The Public Investors Advocate Bar Association (PIABA) announced that Adam Gana, a nationally recognized securities arbitration attorney, is the new president of the association.
Mr. Gana outlined a far-reaching agenda to start his 2024-2025 term, which includes:
- Advocating for mandatory insurance for investment advisers and broker-dealers. Solving the financial crisis requires access to financial advice. Yet financial professionals often operate without insurance, collecting fees and commissions from customers and leaving them penniless when substandard advice causes harm. Insurance coverage would provide protection for investors and allow the market to discipline misconduct.
- Reforming investment advisory arbitration. Forced arbitration is unfair to investors. Investors should not be forced into expensive, foreign venues without better choices. Current arbitration agreements price investors out of justice and they need to be fixed.
- Tackling the problem of fraud facilitators. Financial scams are becoming one of the biggest problems for Main Street Americans. Broker-dealers are the gate keepers of investor money. They must do a better job of protecting that money from scams.
- Updating the FINRA Discovery Guide. FINRA has used the same discovery guidelines since 2013. It is time that FINRA updated those guidelines to reflect the changes in technology and the need for documentation in FINRA arbitrations.
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Adam Gana is the managing partner of Gana Weinstein LLP. His practice focuses on all aspects of securities arbitration, complex commercial and business litigation.
Adam has served as an adjunct professor for New York Law School in its clinical securities department and has published multiple peer-reviewed securities arbitration papers.
Outgoing PIABA President and New Orleans attorney Joseph Peiffer said: “I am excited to see the important work that PIABA does for Main Street investors continue.”
Mr. Gana said: “As I take over the role of PIABA president, I feel an overwhelming sense of joy. I have served as a board member of this organization for nearly ten years. I take investor protection seriously and hope to have a lasting and meaningful impact on this association.”
PIABA will also continue its outreach and support of the Department of Labor (DOL)’s Retirement Security Rule. This outreach includes PIABA President Joseph Peiffer’s testimony before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions over the DOL rule proposal, citing dozens of examples of hard-working American retirees who lost their life savings due to conflicted advice from their financial advisors, and his presentation at the White House Older Americans Month Convening about the Retirement Security Rule to protect retirement savers from conflicted financial advisor advice.
PIABA also announced that Michael Bixby will serve as the Executive Vice President / President Elect. Joe Wojciechowski was elected as the incoming Vice-President along with Courtney Werning as Secretary and Lance McCardle as Treasurer.
PIABA also welcomed its new Board members: August Iorio, Joshua Kons, Richard Lewins, and Scott Silver.
