Investment adviser sued for allegedly poaching 26 employees
A local investment adviser is being sued by his former employer for allegedly convincing 26 co- workers to leave that company and join him at a rival investment firm.
Eric Jenson, of Highlands Ranch, led a team of 33 people at Transamerica Financial Advisors, a national firm with a downtown Denver office, according to a lawsuit filed Nov. 28 in Castle Rock. Two of his sons, Chase and Chandler Jenson, were also advisers there.
In Transamerica’s version of events, Eric Jenson grew unhappy with the compensation structure at the company last year and decided to leave for LPL Financial, another national firm. But first he held “secret meetings” with Transamerica’s top- earning advisers in Colorado, where he “stoked the fire of discontent” and encouraged them to leave, Transamerica said.
“On more than one occasion, the defendant told ( a colleague) that he will be able to ‘ carve Transamerica like a Christmas turkey,’ ” according to that company’s lawsuit.
So far this year, 27 investment advisers have left Transamerica for LPL, including 11 in the Denver area, the company says. The year before, only four did. Its lawsuit claims that this “mass departure” for LPL, coupled with Jenson’s actions, “is not a coincidence.”
Jenson and his two sons left Transamerica to start an LPL subsidiary on Sept. 1. They took with them lists of clients, in violation of their agreements with Transamerica, it claims.
In addition to monetary damages, Transamerica is also seeking a temporary restraining order that would require Jenson to return customer lists and to stop recruiting its advisers.
Jenson did not respond to BusinessDen’s requests to discuss the Transamerica dispute. Neither did spokespeople for his new employer, LPL Financial, which is not a defendant.
Transamerica’s legal team has moved swiftly against Jenson. The company put seven lawyers on the case: three with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, arguably the city’s top firm, and four others with DLA Piper, one of the largest and most powerful firms in the country.
Their lawsuit was filed at 11 p. m. on Nov. 28 and they served it to Jenson the next morning. By noon on Nov. 30, the two sides were before Judge Gary Kramer for a brief hearing.
“Your honor asked that we reach out to Mr. Jenson’s counsel to start negotiating and start having discussion. We have,” Tom Lin, a DLA Piper lawyer for Transamerica, said then. “Those discussions began last late evening and, I believe, have been pretty productive.”
As Kramer noted during that hearing, he is “somewhat familiar with these matters” because this is the third lawsuit that Transamerica has filed in the Denver area recently.
On Oct. 2, the company sued Marlys Nash, a Lakewood woman who left it for the rival firm Summit Global Private Wealth and allegedly took colleagues and clients with her. Nash has denied wrongdoing and is countersuing Transamerica for allegedly “using force, threats and intimidation” to prevent her from working. A trial has not yet been scheduled.
That same day, the company sued Anthony Knaubert, a Littleton man who also left for Summit Global. He similarly denies wrongdoing and is countersuing for intimidation.