Brokerage firms that recommended investors buy Easterly RocMuni High Income Municipal Bond Fund may face regulatory action as fallout continues over
A handful of law firms have filed or are preparing to file Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration claims on behalf of bond buyers they say were misled about the risks of buying the high-yield fund. Stifel, Janney Montgomery Scott and Osaic Wealth have been named as potential targets.
FINRA arbitration claims aim to resolve disputes between investors and brokers, typically within a year of the claims being filed. The regulatory claims come as Easterly and a host of related entities face a
Last June, the Easterly fund startled the muni market when it saw a
Investment and securities fraud law firm Zamansky LLC has already filed FINRA claims against Stifel and Osaic and is considering similar claims against Janney Montgomery Scott, said Jake Zamansky.
"It's a fund that we believe never should have been sold to retail investors," Zamansky said.
Zamansky said one of his clients is an 86-year-old widow "with a third-grade education" who Osaic "moved out of a safe bond fund and put her into this," he said. "She lost half her retirement savings," he said. "There have to be several hundred of these investors around the country and we expect to hear more people wanting to file claims after they prepare their tax returns for 2025 and realize how much they lost."
Law firm KlaymanToskes is preparing to file FINRA claims within the next month or so, said Lawrence L. Klayman. He declined to name the broker dealers.
"I don't think this should have been sold to conservative, income-oriented investors who are typically retired," Klayman said. "You have unsuitability, and you may have concentrations where people have big positions in this and they didn't think they needed to own other municipal bonds because they thought they were diversified," he said. "This was diversified all right, but in extremely high risk and low quality [bonds]."
Klayman said FINRA claims often lead to higher recoveries than class action lawsuits, which can take years to resolve.
Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas said last August that it had filed a FINRA lawsuit against Stifel on behalf of its investor.
"At no point did this Paducah, Kentucky investor's Stifel broker let him know there were concerns about the Easterly Fund,"
Iorio Law PLLC and Altamirano PLLC have also put out press releases looking for investors for potential claims.
As of Dec. 30, 2025, the fund had net assets of $8.8 million — down from $232 million as of March 31, 2025 — and its NAV was $2.18, down from $6.36 in June 2025 ahead of the sell off.
Easterly Trust filed a Dec. 29, 2025
"The fund currently holds certain illiquid investments, which Easterly will seek to dispose of in an orderly manner," the filing said. "Easterly cannot currently predict how long it will take to accomplish the disposition of these assets. In addition, the fund is a named defendant in a putative class action lawsuit, creating a contingent liability of the fund. It is not currently possible to predict when the fund will be able to resolve or provide for this contingent liability in order to begin liquidating distributions to shareholders."
On the lawsuit front, Easterly and related defendants have until the end of March to file a motion to dismiss a
Osaic declined to comment. Stifel, Janney and Easterly did not respond to requests for comment.
