The Wall Street Journal (Updated August 30, 2002 11:01 pm) -- At the height of the tech boom, Joe and Janet Janssens say they took the advice of their Salomon Smith Barney broker and plowed much of their life savings, including money earmarked for their dream home, into technology stocks.

Today, the couple says they have lost $276,000 -- nearly a third of their portfolio -- and their plans to build that home on a 3-acre lot in Santa Ynez, Calif., are on hold. Their attempts to bring an arbitration claim against the financial powerhouse are also in limbo thanks to an increasingly...