thanks, that is great advice!!!  What was I thinking offering 50 cents.  I planned on dragging out the fight of the payback for as long as possible as I plan on going independant and will need some breathing room in the begining.  I still owe over 130k, so I would be real happy to settle for anything less than 50 cents.

You can always tell them to take you to Judge Wapner, Judge Mary or whatever “peoples court” is on tv.  Tell them they ruined you, and you only have 2.97 cents to your name!! What can they do Would play it be ear and hope for the best, got to be thousands of guys leaving these firms, cant imagine what a mess it is.

Good Info. I’ve been interested in this question. I’ve spent a lot of the money trying to build a fee based book from scratch and or lost a lot in the market like everyone else, so I defenitely can’t repay the whole thing, but wouldn’t want the interest tacked on every year that it wasn’t repaid. Supposedly we had a guy leave a few years ago and he sends them a check for $50 a month on the $115,000 up front bonus he had. Never have heard if they’d pursued him or not. I just can’t imagine that with billions in writedowns that they’d worry about thousands from advisors, but I’m sure I’m wrong.

deleted  ----  tmi  -----  per attorney

I got the letter from their attorney about 3 days after I left.  Are the notes really negotiable?  Have any of you actually negotiated with BAI, or is this just hearsay?  Everyone I know that has left (which is only 4 people) have had to go to arbitration and lost.  They ended up owing not only the note, but the lawyer fees, and the interest.  If the note is negociable who do you negociate with? 
It feels great to be free.

as far as i know you can negotiate a payback schedule.  example 12-24 months and negotiate the interest rate.  i havent heard of anyway settling for 1/2 of the lump sum or less than the amount actully owed.  please tell me if anyone has heard of anything else.

I left Banc of America in July of 2008.  I owed them about $92,000 for the last year of a forgivable loan.  I was very tempted because of the circumstances not to pay them (yeah, yeah, bla, bla, bla.. everybody’s got something).  <?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

They initially over-nighted me a letter requesting their money two days after I had left.  After this initial contact, they then called me every week to inquire about their payment. 

Then in September, unprompted by me, they said they would like to settle for $80,000 and allow me to spread out the payments over 12 months with no interest due. 

I contacted them and said I understood their new offer and they would hear back from me with my counter-proposal.

I then contacted an attorney in late October and we proposed to them a settlement of $42m for a variety of reasons.

They countered offered with $48m.  We essentially accepted this offer.  I need to have a check and a signed acceptance document to them by the 9th to finalize it.

So yeah, I think you can do a "50 cent on the dollar" settlement. 

Now my question to you or anybody that would like comment is; do you sign and pay or do you just roll the dice and hope they die in their own vomit?

Oh yeah, the retainer for the attorney was about 2,000 bucks.       

Dont know about of BofA specific, but have seen about 20 guys leave places Ive been at and I only know of 1 guy who they made pay something back.  But he went to another firm, but he played hardball and dragged it out for awhile.  He only owed about 80k, and eventually paid them back 10K.  That was at MS.  Most of the guys ive seen have left the business or got fired for doing very low numbers.  They did not ever pay back anything.  I would think in these times its a total mess and could easily settle for 25% or less…if you get fired or leave the biz I would think if you have the fortitude, drag it out for as long as it takes.

How about promissary notes? I came to BAI about a year ago on a backend deal. Within two months the manager who brought me over left, my CM got fired, and the platform that was sold to me no longer exists.  Everything that I was told was all BS. I have a promissary note coming to me with a 6 year forgivable period. I'll hit my numbers, but with how things are shaping up with Merril, the future doesn't look to bright.  If I end up leaving the biz, do I have any rights to any of the $? Talk about about getting royally F'd!!  I am not looking for any sympathy, but all comments and advice would be appreciated.

I don’t know how much this helps,  but that was a 6 year <SPAN title=“To see spelling suggestions, click word” =“squiggly” splc=“splc” state=“new” word=“promissary”>promissary note I was talking about.

I came to BAI a little while ago and quite frankly it was the best place. My book grew, I hit my numbers, and the work environment is awesome. But know it is a circus. All my CM’s were laid off, and what is even more hilarious is that my branch has gone through over 7 Branch managers in 2 years. What kind of firm thinks they can run a succesful operation with out good leadership. Anyway, I got my upfront money and and my bonuses. Had I known they werent going to keep the referral platform I would never have accepted the money. I feel as if this a breach of verbal contract. My strategy is simple. Who the hell knows whats going on in this environment. If the market goes to 5000 we are all f**ed. Fee based will get crushed and no one will be trading. I figure for know I might as well go get a check somewhere else, (Morgan, JP Morgan, UBS) and if it does not work out than I give the money back. But hell in this market haveing a couple hundred grand in the bank to pay the mortgage and the tuition bills is a hell of alot smarter than staying at a firm that will becme a whirehouse anyway with a sht payout. So I say f*** these firms, they want to take 70% of your hard work and give us a bad name than I will f*** them by taking there money.    Does anyone know if Brokers are leaving for JP Morgan?