First Technology Federal Credit Union is suing LPL Financial, Osaic Wealth and other defendants over alleged misappropriation of confidential client information by former First Technology financial advisors.
The complaint alleges the defendants orchestrated a coordinated scheme to steal information for 683 clients, resulting in the transfer of approximately $205 million in assets.
In the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, First Tech seeks a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction prior to a hearing on permanent injunctive relief in Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration.
The case alleges the former advisors, Alfred “Jack” Jackson, Kristina Hernandez and Sage Kendall, deliberately misappropriated trade secrets and recklessly breached or interfered with First Tech’s contracts.
Jackson, Kendall and Hernandez were longtime employees of First Tech, working as financial advisors exclusively with First Tech’s member-customers through a collaboration with Raymond James, according to the suit.
"After conspiring for months between themselves — and with their soon-to-be new firms — the Ex-Employees resigned on Sept. 9, 2025 — by email and without notice," the suit states.
Jackson and Hernandez "immediately affiliated with the LPL securities firm and Jackson’s own newly formed company, Riverside," while Kendall "immediately affiliated with the Osaic securities firm and Family Tree," referring to Family Tree Financial, a financial services firm offering securities and investment advisory services through Osaic Wealth.
The ex-employees, however, "did not leave cleanly or properly," the suit contends. "Instead, they took detailed client lists, along with other highly confidential trade secret information owned or possessed by First Tech."
The client lists contained the names and contact information for all 683 of their assigned customers, whose assets held by First Tech totaled more than $520 million, the suit states.
The defendants have attempted to justify the ex-employees’ misappropriation of First Tech’s customer lists "based on the Protocol For Broker Recruiting," the suit states.
"This supposed justification is a reference to an agreement among a relatively small number of securities firms in which they prospectively waive claims against an ex-employee’s use of a client list if the employee complies with certain requirements and leaves to go to work for another firm that is also a Broker Protocol member," the suit continues.
"First Tech, however, has never seen the benefit of waiving its rights and has never joined this industry club."
The former advisors, the suit states, "have contractually agreed with First Tech not to use the very customer information at issue" via an agreement that each signed at the start of their employment.
Further, Kendall has yet another agreement not to use/disclose confidential information and to not solicit or divert away any customer he serviced at First Tech for two years following his termination, according to the suit.
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