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Nadia Cavner was permanently barred from acting as a broker or selling securities last May.
Nadia Cavner was permanently barred from acting as a broker or selling securities last May.

Lawing Financial sues Cavner for breach of contract

Posted online
Overland Park, Kan.-based Lawing Financial Inc. yesterday filed suit against once-prominent financial adviser Nadia Cavner for breach of contract.

Lawing Financial, which purchased Nadia Cavner Group in January 2014, alleges Cavner broke an agreement with the firm by continuing to contact and pursue its clients after being permanently barred from acting as a broker or selling securities by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority last May, according to a news release.

In the acquisition with Lawing, Cavner agreed to work in a temporary role during the transition, serving as a consultant to Lawing and its clients.

According to Lawing’s April 15 lawsuit - filed in the southern division of the Western District of Missouri - Cavner was required to cease contact with clients, even for limited transition purposes, when she was barred from the industry by FINRA on May 30.

According to the suit, Cavner allegedly did not stop, instead encouraging clients to disregard Lawing’s advice. She’s also accused of allegedly providing them with her own advice and recommendations.

At the time of Lawing’s acquisition of Cavner’s firm, the company added roughly $300 million in assets under advisement.

Lawing further alleges that in late 2014, Cavner opened a new office across the parking lot from her former Cavner Group, 2620 E. Normandy St., according to the release.

At the new office, Cavner allegedly met with Lawing clients, monitored the Lawing office and its staff, and sent text messages to former clients when they visited Lawing about the company’s advisers and staff and messages to Lawing employees about those same clients.

“This lawsuit was filed because our relationships and ultimately our ability to advise our clients are not only being interfered with, but are also being actively undermined by Ms. Cavner,” Lawing Financial CEO Kerry Lawing said in the release. “It is not only our right to, but is also our duty to, protect the relationships with our clients, so we may fully serve them without continual interference and harassment."

Lawing has operated a Springfield office since 2008 at 3271 E. Battlefield Road, Ste. 100. Lawing employees also had operated at the former Cavner Group office on Normandy Street until last week, according to the release.

Attempts to reach Cavner for comment were unsuccessful. Public relations firm 2balance, which had once represented her, no longer has a contract with Cavner, according to an official with the company.

On April 15, 2013, Cavner pleaded guilty in federal court to a felony interstate stalking charge in Memphis, Tenn., acknowledging intentions to injure, harass or intimidate her college-age daughter’s ex-boyfriend Patrick McFarland. Two weeks later, Tupelo, Miss.-based BancorpSouth severed ties with the financial adviser who managed some $490 million for roughly 1,100 household clients, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.

She set up the Nadia Cavner Group in May 2013. In August that year, Cavner was sentenced to five years probation and six months of home detention.[[In-content Ad]]

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