Paul Hewitt and Lillian Lee have filed a negligence, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty complaint against Merrill Lynch Life Agency, Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (also known as Merrill Lynch & Co.), Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., Bank of America Corporation, NB Holdings Corporation, UBS Financial Services Inc., Dane Urie, and Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada. The complaint was filed in the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in Pinellas County, Florida on May 23, 2024.
According to the complaint, Paul Hewitt and his wife Lillian Lee allege that their longtime financial advisors at Merrill Lynch failed to manage their accounts properly. The plaintiffs claim that they suffered significant financial losses due to the defendants' negligence and mismanagement. The case centers around a financial strategy proposed by Dane Urie and his team at Merrill Lynch in 2005. This strategy involved rolling over $695,000 from Hewitt's Individual Retirement Account (IRA) into an annuity to satisfy required minimum distributions and using the annuity premium to pay for a life insurance policy with Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada. This policy was intended to provide a death benefit of approximately $1.6 million for Lillian Lee.
Hewitt alleges that he was assured by Urie and other representatives that all necessary payments would be managed by Merrill Lynch without requiring any action on his part. However, it later emerged that payments were missed in 2008 and 2012. These missed payments led to a substantial increase in the annual premium for the life insurance policy from $69,800 to $205,820 starting in 2024.
The plaintiffs argue that these failures constitute negligence and breach of fiduciary duty on the part of Merrill Lynch and its agents. They also claim that UBS Financial Services Inc., which employed Urie after he left Merrill Lynch in 2012, shares responsibility for failing to ensure proper management of their accounts.
The lawsuit seeks actual damages exceeding $50,000 along with punitive damages, attorney’s fees, costs, and any other relief deemed appropriate by the court. The plaintiffs emphasize that both Paul Hewitt and Lillian Lee have standing in this case due to their roles as contracting party and intended beneficiary respectively.
The attorneys representing Paul Hewitt and Lillian Lee are George K. Rahdert, Joseph F. Milligan, and George A.D. Thurlow from Rahdert & Mortimer PLLC based in St. Petersburg, Florida.