A FINRA arbitration panel ordered a financial adviser who had been fired by Merrill Lynch to repay more than $1 million of his recruiting bonus to the brokerage firm.  The Fort Lauderdale-based adviser, Charles Bishop, had been with the firm for only 8 months, when he was fired for having allegedly attempted to inherit assets from a firm customer who had died.  Merrill advisers are required to notify the firm whenever they're named in client wills.

All told, Bishop will repay $993,000 of the recruiting bonus he received when he joined the firm in August 2008, plus interest at the rate of 3.95% from April 2009, and has to pay $125,000 for Merrill's attorney fees.

It's unusual for a FINRA panel to require an adviser to repay their whole recruitment award in a situation like this, unless his behavior really warranted it."  -- Lawyer Thomas Lewis, with Stark & Stark. 

Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Bishop had spent a decade at Morgan Stanley, also in Fort Lauderdale.    [Reuters, 1/7]