He Hired a Fiduciary Because He Knew What Was Coming.

My father, Lawrence J. Weiner, hired Oppenheimer after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and later with stage four lung cancer. He knew his mind was going to deteriorate. He chose Oppenheimer for one reason: he wanted a fiduciary he could trust.

After my father passed, my mother removed his Oppenheimer advisor, Jerald Hymen, from managing her accounts — our family’s inheritance. Mr. Hymen came back to her home and announced that my father had given him a bonus. The next day I reported that statement to his supervisor.

The “bonus” was a fee increase from 1.25% to 1.95% — a 56% increase — obtained while my father was in documented cognitive decline and dying of two terminal illnesses.

I filed a formal complaint. Oppenheimer’s complaint department answered in writing, and its own email shows the higher fee was charged for the full quarter beginning January 1, 2021 — before January 12, 2021, the date my father wrote on the authorization. Oppenheimer closed the complaint.

We could not take Oppenheimer to court. The client agreement my father signed required arbitration before FINRA. So we filed there.

In that arbitration, my father’s physician and his Parkinson’s trainer both testified that he was in cognitive decline when the increase was signed — first in written reports, and then live, because Oppenheimer opposed accepting the written medical report. Three of us testified under oath that Mr. Hymen said he had been given a bonus. Under oath, he denied it.

Oppenheimer agreed to produce the fee and commission records for my father’s accounts. What it produced instead was a log of account logins. We went to the hearing without our discovery. A week before a key conference, Oppenheimer’s counsel wrote to me that we had “alienated the Chairman.”

The arbitrator awarded zero. He was not required to explain why, and he did not.

We asked a federal court to vacate the award. That is when we learned what the arbitration clause had really taken from us: a federal court cannot re-decide an arbitration on the merits. The court confirmed the award.

We have decided not to appeal. Not because the record is weak — every document on this site came from Oppenheimer, from FINRA, or from sworn testimony — but because the system my father was contractually bound to offers no path to correct a result like this one.

This site exists so that the record is public.