Bill Ard: $6.5 Million Complaint Against Short Hills Broker

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) records show that Morgan Stanley broker and investment adviser Bill Ard (CRD# 1133673) has received multiple pending customer complaints in recent years, one alleging damages that exceed $6 million. Ard is based in Short Hills, New Jersey.

Bill Ard’s BrokerCheck report lists two pending customer complaints against him. One complaint, filed in December 2020, alleges that as a representative of Morgan Stanley, he recommended unsuitable investments between 2018 and 2020. The pending complaint alleges damages of $6.5 million.

A second complaint, filed in 2018, alleges that as a representative of Morgan Stanley, Bill Ard recommended unsuitable equity investments between 2017 and 2018. The pending complaint alleges unspecified damages.

Bill Ard’s current member firm, Morgan Stanley, has itself received 97 customer complaints that ended in arbitration awards granted to the investor, according to the firm’s BrokerCheck report. A complaint filed in 2018, for instance, alleged the firm breached its fiduciary duty, committed elder abuse, committed fraud, made misrepresentations and omissions of material facts, breached contract, executed unauthorized trades, made unsuitable investment recommendations, failed in its supervisory responsibilities, and acted negligently; the complaint ended in an award to the investor in 2019 of $173,202. Another 2018 complaint alleged the firm breached its fiduciary duty, breached contract, and acted negligently, ending in a 2019 award to the customer of $127,000. A 2017 complaint alleged the firm breached its fiduciary duty, committed fraud, misrepresented and omitted material facts, recommended unsuitable products, failed to supervise its representatives, and acted negligently; in 2019 the complaint ended in an award to the customer of $3,261,420.65.

FINRA records show that Bill Ard holds 38 years of experience as a broker. He has been a registered representative of Morgan Stanley in Short Hills, New Jersey since 2009. Before that he was registered with Citigroup Global Markets in Westfield, New Jersey; UBS Financial Services in Westfield, New Jersey; Wheat First Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina; and Butcher & Singer. He has passed four securities industry qualifying examinations: the Uniform Investment Adviser Law Examination, or Series 65; the Uniform Securities Agent State Law Examination, or Series 63; the Securities Industry Essentials Examination, or SIE; and the General Securities Representative Examination, or Series 7. He currently holds 38 state securities licenses. (Information current as of June 7, 2021.)