Yield Enhancement Strategy

Two More Wins for UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy (YES) Customers, Fourth and Fifth Awards in 2021

Published on: September 20, 2021 | by Iorio Altamirano

First, on September 15, 2021, a FINRA Dispute Resolution Services arbitration panel in Houston, Texas, ordered UBS Financial Services, Inc. (“UBS”) to pay customers over $357,000 in compensatory damages. Then, on September 17, 2021, arbitrators in Boca Raton, Florida, awarded customers over $691,000 in compensatory damages, more than $115,000 in prejudgment interest, and nearly $41,000 in expert witness fees.

The cause of action in both arbitration cases arose out of investments in UBS’s Yield Enhancement Strategy (“YES”), a complex and highly risky options strategy.

Customers across the country have filed securities arbitration claims against UBS, alleging that the brokerage firm misrepresented the options strategy as a safe way to obtain marginally higher yield on a portfolio of securities. In actuality, the complexity and nature of YES exposed customers to a significant risk of loss. Customers have also alleged that UBS and its team of options traders conducted the YES program with virtually no supervision or compliance oversight and with inadequate risk controls.

Another Win for UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy (YES) Customers, Second Award in March 2021

Published on: April 1, 2021 | by Iorio Altamirano

On March 31, 2021, a FINRA Dispute Resolution Services arbitration panel in Columbus, Ohio, ordered UBS Financial Services, Inc. (“UBS”) to pay customers over $372,000 in compensatory damages and fees. The claimants, Matthew and Lisa Fisher alleged that UBS and brokers Ortal Shachar and Richard Mark Held presented the Yield Enhancement Strategy (“YES”), an options strategy, as low risk. In actuality, the complexity and nature of YES exposed the Claimants to a significant risk of loss.

This order is the second arbitration award against UBS in March 2021 concerning YES and the third since December 2020. On March 5, 2021, another FINRA arbitration panel in Denver, Colorado, ordered UBS to pay customers over $1 million in compensatory damages. In December 2020, a FINRA arbitration panel in Boca Raton, Florida, awarded a customer nearly $90,000.

UBS has faced numerous lawsuits from customers in the form of FINRA securities arbitrations related to YES, a complex managed options strategy that UBS marketed as safe and market-neutral. The customers have claimed that the strategy was not suitable for them and that UBS materially misrepresented and omitted the risks of the strategy.

UBS Profits Double as Investors in UBS’s Yield Enhancement Strategy Suffer Losses

Published on: October 20, 2020 | by Iorio Altamirano

Today, UBS Group AG announced that its net profit almost doubled in the third quarter to nearly $2.1 billion from $1.05 billion from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, as UBS and other large investment banking firms continue to rake in huge profits, UBS’s Yield Enhancement Strategy investors continue to suffer avoidable losses.

UBS’s Yield Enhancement Strategy, or YES, is a complex managed options strategy that UBS marketed as a safe, market-neutral overlay that would provide incremental returns to an investor’s portfolio.