PIABA ANNOUNCES NEW PRESIDENT FOR 2026-2027

Joseph Wojciechowski Named New President; Term to Focus on FINRA Modernization, Fraud, Crypto and Mandatory Arbitration.

WASHINGTON, DC – October 29, 2026 – The Public Investors Advocate Bar Association (PIABA) is pleased to announce that Joseph Wojciechowski, the managing partner of Stoltmann Law Offices, P.C. in Chicago, Illinois, has been sworn in as the new president of PIABA.

As PIABA President, Wojciechowski intends to press PIABA’s support of Main Street over Wall Street. PIABA’s focus to start the 2026-2027 term includes:

• Press for a Modernized FINRA that Actually Supports Main Street and Not Exclusively Wall Street: So far, FINRA Forward has been all about making things easier for brokerage firms, leaving investors to wonder whether FINRA has a dual purpose at all. PIABA stands for ensuring FINRA meets its mission of investor protection and market integrity. PIABA will push for a modernized FINRA where, instead of refunding $150 million to its members, FINRA creates an investor recovery pool to compensate the victims of investment frauds perpetrated by FINRA’s members, who do not pay arbitration awards. PIABA also supports a modernized FINRA that requires, as a condition of membership, that all of its member-firms be either self-insured or maintain liability insurance. PIABA sees a modernized FINRA as one that has a Board of Governors that is public, accountable, and includes investor advocates. PIABA will aggressively advocate in opposition to any adoption of FINRA RN 26-06 that tips the scales further in favor of FINRA’s members and SIFMA.
• Push Financial Services Companies to Combat Fraud and Protect Americans: Financial frauds and scams continue to increase at an exponential rate. According to the FBI, in 2025, financial scams, including cryptocurrency-related fraud, accounted for a reported nearly $21 billion in losses, a 26% increase over 2024. Elder fraud was reported as being over $7.7 billion in losses. The numbers are almost certainly underreported. PIABA will continue to work with legislatures and other stakeholders to press financial companies, brokerage firms, investment advisers, banks, custodians, and crypto exchanges to make meaningful changes to protect Americans from frauds.
• Hold the Line Against the SEC and its Directive to Expand Access to Crypto and Alternative Investments, Without Guardrails to Protect Investors: Whether its liberalizing the definition of “accredited investor,” expanding access to “alternative investments,” or creating new rules around the issuance, sale, and trading of cryptocurrency-related assets, PIABA will impress upon the SEC the urgent need to ensure any expansion include common sense protections for retail investors. The alleged “democratization” of the alts and private investment markets is just another way of ensuring that mistakes made in the past are ignored as opposed to addressed and fixed.
• Fight for Change in Investment Adviser Arbitration: Mandatory arbitration by fiduciary investment advisers continues to be a problem for retail investors. Even though the SEC has the statutory authority to fix the problems – after all, the Commission just invoked that very statute in issuing rulemaking to allow RIAs to materially change the way they are compensated by their clients – it has sat on the sidelines of this pressing issue for over two years. Continuing to force retail investors into unfair dispute resolution contracts and being allowed to price Americans out of justice should be a thing of the past.

Joseph Wojciechowski is the managing partner at Stoltmann Law Offices, P.C., an investor rights and consumer rights law firm in Chicago, Illinois. As an advocate and trial lawyer, he dedicates his practice primarily to representing retirees and investors in securities and investment fraud litigation, arbitration against cryptocurrency exchanges, and has recovered tens of millions of dollars for his clients.

Wojciechowski said: “American retail investors – Main Street as I like to refer to them collectively – have not been under attack like they have been under Trump 2.0 since before the Great Depression. FINRA seems beholden to its members like never before, doing SIFMA’s bidding at every turn. The SEC has pushed through alleged reforms that do not seem to square with an investor protection mandate in any way. Likewise, despite the dual-regulation of the investment and securities markets resulting in the greatest capital markets in the history of mankind, the rights of States to separately and independently regulate and enforce protections on behalf of their citizens are being winnowed away. I am eager to get to work and fight alongside PIABA’s members and other stakeholders, and to ride out and meet these challenges head-on for America’s Main Street investors, seniors, retirees, and veterans.”

PIABA also announced that Courtney Werning will serve as the Executive Vice President / President Elect. Jon Furgison was elected as the incoming Vice-President along with August Iorio as Secretary and Joshua Kons as Treasurer.

PIABA also welcomed its new Board member: Keith Griffin.

ABOUT PIABA

The Public Investors Advocate Bar Association is an international, not-for-profit, voluntary bar association of lawyers who represent claimants in securities and commodities arbitration proceedings and securities litigation. The mission of PIABA is to promote the interests of the public investor in securities arbitration, by seeking to protect such investors from abuses in the arbitration process, by seeking to make securities arbitration as just and fair as systemically possible and by educating investors concerning their rights. For more information, go to http://www.piaba.org.

CONTACT: Max Karlin, (703) 276-3255 or mkarlin@hastingsgroupmedia.com.