Stifel faces up to 19 additional claims tied to barred financial advisor Chuck A. Roberts, according to the broker-dealer's annual report filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and continues to fight a cash-sweep lawsuit lodged against the firm last March.
Stifel experienced a setback in court on Feb. 9 when a magistrate judge recommended against overturning a roughly $133 million arbitration award against Stifel tied to Roberts. At the present time, prejudgment interest has increased the $133 million award to approximately $143.5 million, Stifel said in its 10-K.
Stifel's bills to compensate clients for complaints against Roberts topped $195 million in early January.
The $133 million award is "the third adverse arbitration award against Stifel by former customers of the same former private wealth advisor relating to substantially similar investment activities," the filing states. "The firm has resolved some additional arbitration claims making similar allegations that were filed by other customers of the same advisor, but nineteen additional such claims have been filed that are yet to be resolved or adjudicated."
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority barred Roberts in July after the broker refused to appear for on-the-record testimony. Numerous customers have claimed violations such as breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, fraud and breach of contract over Roberts' investment recommendations, which included risky structured notes.
As of Dec. 31, 2025, Stifel says it estimated the upper end of the range of reasonably possible aggregate loss for matters tied to Roberts and for "any other matters ... where management has been able to estimate a range of possible aggregate loss" to be approximately $100 million.
Other Regulatory Issues
Stifel declined to accept a settlement offer with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in August 2024 over off-channel communications violations. The matter, Stifel said in the filing, "has been dormant since that time," and Stifel said it "has no reason to believe the matter will proceed further."
Last March, Stifel Financial Corp. was hit with a class-action lawsuit to recover alleged damages related to its Automatic Cash Investment Service, which offers two automatic cash sweep programs — the Stifel Insured Bank Deposit Program and Stifel Insured Bank Deposit Program for Retirement Accounts. Stifel is still fighting the suit.
The BD is also fighting two lawsuits — filed July 4, 2025 and February 20, 2026 — alleging fiduciary duty violations tied its 401(k) plan. The first case accuses the plan of charging excessive fees, and the second says Stifel failed to remove two poorly performing funds from the plan's investment lineup for more than a decade.
"The cases are at an early stage," according to the filing, "and while there can be no assurance that we will be successful, the Company Defendants intend to vigorously defend these cases."
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