Financial Advisor IQ (February 29, 2016) -- Winning a Finra arbitration case against an advisor is only half the battle for many investors, it seems. In 2013, up to a third of the awards went unpaid, according to a report cited by Law360.com.

Brokers didn’t pay up in 33% of the cases in which an investor was issued an award in 2013, according to a Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association report cited by the law website.

While that was a standout year for payout failures, even in the five years through 2014, 13% of awards, or almost $213 million, remain unpaid, according to Finra data cited by the Wall Street Journal.

This has led investors waiting to collect to postpone retirement, return to work, or become dependent on government disability payments, the paper writes.

The trend also does little to help investor confidence in the industry during a time of heightened scrutiny on advisor conduct.

The brokers often simply don’t have the money to pay, according to the Journal, as there are no requirements on brokerages to carry insurance for such claims.

Meanwhile, more than a third of brokerages are only required to carry $5,000 of net capital for such cases – a minimum that was set in 1993, according to the publication.

And while most carry far more, more than one in five reported less than $50,000 in net capital, according to a Journal analysis of regulatory filings.

More than half of the approximately 4,400 broker-dealers had less than $500,000 in net capital at the end of 2012, according to PIABA data cited by InvestmentNews. Furthermore, filing for bankruptcy often puts a hold on award claims, the Journal writes.

A Finra spokesperson tells the Journal that its arbitration awards go unpaid much in the same way that court settlements often do as well, and the agency claims it does kick out firms that don’t pay on time.

And in 2013 the regulator considered requiring brokerage firms to carry insurance, but a spokesman at the time said it would be “prohibitively high” for the companies, the Journal writes.

Finra chief Richard Ketchum set up a task force in December to review the system but the regulator could not agree with the industry on whether to consider insurance requirements again, the publication writes.

In the meantime, PIABA is lobbying for the creation of a “national recovery pool” funded by Finra member firms to pay out investor awards, InvestmentNews writes.