David Bruce Greiner – Beckman Investments Securities

In response to Kevin, unfortunately «inactivity fees» are common place in the brokerage industry. Ridiculous if you ask me. What should never be common place is lack of communication, respect and desire to provide excellent service and advice. I use to work for Mr Greiner at Beckman about 6 years ago and I’m sorry to hear of your experience. Mr Griener operates as a stock broker not a financial advisor. The distinction is: a broker sells you something and moves on, leaves the responsibilty of the investment on you the investor. You call him he does not call you, this is Beckman’s business model. A financial advisor is a fiduciary, and if good is proactive for clients. Not only do they recommend investments based on your risk tolerance and goals they help monitor their recommendations, provides ongoing consulting, and guide you through market activity. They also help you with all things financial that may progress your goals and needs. Mr. Greiner does not operate as an Advisor he is interested in selling as a Broker.
I remember your Mom, nice lady, considering the relationship he had with her he should have ate that inactivity fee, helped you understand the fee going forward, and see if he could assist you further with your financial needs.
Hopefully you have found a good replacement, if not feel free to contact me. My office is in Livermore. I would love the opportunity to show how clients service and advice is handled.

It’s unfortunate that after nearly two decades of a relationship, the result is a 1-​star review on Unilocal.But such is merited based on a recent situation with David Greiner and staff.
My mom had used Mr. Greiner for many years as her financial advisor. After she passed away, I retained his services, first at Beckman and later at Sterne Agee. My primary holding for these last few years was a few shares of Microsoft stock my parents bought me on 8^th grade graduation. Therefore, I was about 13 years old when I first worked with this group.
There was zero communication from Mr. Greiner to me about this holding for many years. It wasn’t the top of my mind either. Until recently that is, when Mr. Greiner assistant called to ask how I’d like to pay the inactivity fee that had been accruing for the last few years. INACTIVITY FEE? This was news to me, and I asked why they hadn’t sent me any information on this topic.
Turns out they had… to an address I never lived at! Granted, my dad had lived at the address for a period, but he is not in the habit of going through (or always remembering) my mail.
Mr. Greiner’s office is small — familiarity is meant to be one of the advantages of working with a small team. However, instead of giving me a call at any point over the last few years to ask about activity, remind me of the fee, discuss longer-​term investment plans, they called me to ask how I’d pay a fee accrued over the last few years. When I asked to speak to Mr. Greiner, he lectured me about changing my address with the post office (I had). And was resolute on the $ 114 fee on $ 380 worth of stock that never did anything. We spent 20 minutes on the phone arguing about this, until I resolved that «my time is worth more than the matter at hand, and I hope yours is too. Sell it all, pay the fee with the proceeds, and this is the end of our relationship.» To which Mr. Greiner seemed more than pleased at an outcome.
He doesn’t want my business. He probably doesn’t deserve yours.