Cornerstone Securities: Lawsuit Alleges POAI Over-Concentration

A recently filed lawsuit alleges that Overland Park, Kansas-based investment advisory firm Cornerstone Securities alleges that the firm concentrated investments in elderly customers’ accounts. According to a report published by Financial Advisor IQ on January 12, 2026, the lawsuit describes conduct by former Cornerstone advisor Christopher Burch, though it does not name him as a defendant.

The lawsuit describes recommendations Mr. Burch allegedly made to three elderly investors, including a married couple and an unrelated woman. they allegedly met Mr. Burch sometime “between 2018 and 2019,” having received mail advertisements regarding his services. He allegedly The married couple are “retirees who rely on their pensions, Social Security benefits and personal savings for their living expenses,” according to the complaint. In spite of this, he allegedly “allocated 96% of their joint account” to a shares of a microcap stock issued by Predictive Oncology, a so known as POAI. Between 2018 and 2024, unfortunately, the stock suffered losses of roughly “99% of its value,” according to Financial Advisor IQ, causing the customers’ joint account to suffer $212,413 in losses.

As the report describes, the lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and is still pending. It names the firm and its CEO and CCO, Russell Edward Fieger, as defendants. The plaintiffs allege violations of Florida law, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract, and they seek damages of $400,000.

Failure to diversify, also referred to as over-concentration or concentration, denotes a broker’s failure to invest a customer’s portfolio among a variety of investments, market segments, and/or asset classes, . “A diversified portfolio,” FINRA states in its investor resources, “tends to be harder to achieve than simply following the mantra: don’t put all your investment eggs in one basket.” To avoid the risks of over-concentration, investors are advised to diversify their portfolios across and within major asset classes, rebalance their portfolios on a regular basis, educate themselves about the underlying investments in their mutual funds or exchange-traded fund holdings, and keep track of their investments’ liquidity.

Mr. Burch’s BrokerCheck report discloses one investor complaint against him. Filed in 2023, it alleged that as a representative of Wealth Advisory Board, he recommended unsuitable stock investments. The pending complaint alleges damages of $361,136. (Information current as of January 17, 2026.)

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