The Public Record of David W. Weigel and the “Family Court Fraud Warrior PROJECT”

The Family Court Fraud Warrior Project solicits participation and financial support from parents involved in custody and family-court disputes: people who are often under significant financial and emotional strain, and who are being asked to trust the person soliciting them. Its founder, David W. Weigel, is also the principal of a registered investment advisory firm that manages client money.

People considering either relationship deserve to know what the public record shows. That record is available to anyone, but it is scattered across four separate regulatory databases, so a parent deciding whether to send money would have to know all four exist before they could even start looking. This piece pulls the record together into one story, with every source cited at the end.

A note on method before we begin. Everything factual here comes from primary public records: CFP Board, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, published trade journalism, and the project’s own website. We have deliberately left out allegations we could not verify from primary sources. We have also left out matters concerning Mr. Weigel’s family and children, which are not relevant to the questions this piece addresses.

Start with the most recent entry in the record, because it is the one a donor or a client would least expect to find. On July 24, 2026, CFP Board, the national body that administers the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification, announced that it had revoked the CFP® certification of David William Weigel of New York, New York. [1]

Per CFP Board’s published account of the order, the complaint alleged violations of its Code and Standards, including violations arising out of his 2023 bankruptcy filing and a pattern of unprofessional, abusive and profane social media activity. The order also states that in some of his online posts, he sought to bolster his credibility by citing his CFP® certification. The revocation was entered on default after he did not file an answer. Counsel to CFP Board’s Disciplinary and Ethics Commission granted the order on May 21, 2026, effective June 20, 2026. [1]

For a sense of how severe that outcome is, look at the company it kept: in the same announcement, another CFP® professional received a one-year suspension for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing alone. Mr. Weigel received revocation.

The revocation is the end of a longer arc. Mr. Weigel spent twenty-five years as a registered broker, from 1995 to August 2020, at D.H. Blair, Citicorp Investment Services, UBS, Morgan Stanley, and finally RBC Capital Markets. He is no longer registered as a broker. He continues to operate Weigel Fiduciary Asset Management LLC (CRD #310903), a registered investment advisory firm. [4] [5] [6]

The break with RBC did not end quietly. In July 2022, a three-arbitrator FINRA panel ruled in RBC’s favor in a dispute over unpaid promissory notes from his recruitment package (FINRA Case 20-04094). The panel awarded roughly $2.5 million, more than double what RBC had requested, including $1,117,656.38 in compensatory damages and $215,854.85 in attorney fees, and it granted RBC’s motion for discovery sanctions. Mr. Weigel had filed counterclaims alleging violations of New York City and New York State Human Rights Laws and sought $1.5 million; in May 2022 he asked the panel to dismiss his own counterclaims, without prejudice, and the panel did so. [3] It is worth saying plainly what this was and was not: a contract dispute over loan repayment, not a finding of fraud, theft, or harm to any client.

When he did not comply with the award or respond to FINRA about it, FINRA suspended him in all capacities on September 16, 2022, under FINRA Rule 9554. The suspension was lifted December 8, 2022, 82 days later. On his regulatory record, he attributes the suspension to a failure by legal counsel to meet a filing deadline. [4]

A year after that, on November 20, 2023, he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Case No. 23-11841). On his regulatory record he states the filing resulted from expenses accumulated over twelve years of divorce proceedings. [4] That bankruptcy is one of the matters CFP Board’s complaint grew out of.

Against that backdrop, consider what the Family Court Fraud Warrior Project tells the people it asks for money. The project’s own website describes it as having a “501(c)(3) in process” while also referring to an “equity raise happening.” [7]

Those two descriptions are difficult to reconcile. A 501(c)(3) charitable organization has no equity and no shareholders. There is nothing to raise equity in. We do not know how the project is actually structured, and we make no allegation about it. What we do know is that anyone asked to contribute deserves straight answers to four questions before a dollar moves:

There is one more name a reader doing diligence will run into, because much of what is written online about the project comes from him. The project has been promoted extensively by Richard Luthmann.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Luthmann “was sentenced today by United States District Judge Jack B. Weinstein to four years’ imprisonment for his convictions on one count of wire fraud conspiracy and one count of extortion conspiracy,” and was ordered to pay $500,000 in restitution and $130,000 in forfeiture. Then-U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue stated that Luthmann had used “his law practice as a launching pad for his schemes to defraud businesses in the United States and abroad, and to extort a former client.” [8] As part of his guilty plea, Luthmann stipulated that after his arrest he obstructed justice by sending a threatening letter to a potential witness he believed was cooperating with the government. [9] He was automatically disbarred in New York (Matter of Luthmann, 2020 NY Slip Op 07198, 2d Dep’t Dec. 2, 2020) and separately disbarred in New Jersey. [10]

We are not suggesting Mr. Weigel participated in Luthmann’s crimes. Nothing in the record indicates that. We report it because readers weighing the coverage that surrounds this project, on every side of it, should know who is writing it.

Fairness requires being just as clear about what this record does not contain. We found no SEC, FINRA, state securities, or criminal enforcement action against Mr. Weigel alleging fraud, and no finding that he harmed a client: his regulatory record shows three customer complaints between 2000 and 2017, one settled for $7,791.90 with no contribution from him and two denied as without merit. [4] What CFP Board revoked was a professional designation, not a license; his investment adviser registration appears to remain active, and his firm is a small fee-only adviser, not a hedge fund. We found no private fund, no Form D filing, and no pooled investment vehicle. This piece reports concluded regulatory actions and publicly filed records; nothing here concerns any pending matter.

We have also seen assertions about Mr. Weigel online that we could not verify from primary sources. We have not repeated them here, and we would caution readers against relying on them, whichever side of his disputes they come from.

You do not need to trust this page. Every source below is free and public. CFP Board’s verification tool will tell you the current status of any CFP® certification in under a minute. [2] FINRA’s BrokerCheck holds the full disclosure history of any current or former broker. [11] The SEC’s adviser database carries every registered firm’s Form ADV. [12] And CFP Board publishes each round of disciplinary actions as it happens. [13] Before hiring any financial professional, or contributing to any organization, five minutes in those databases is time well spent.

We are committed to accuracy. If Mr. Weigel or any representative of the Family Court Fraud Warrior Project believes any statement here is inaccurate or incomplete, we will review promptly and correct or update as warranted. We will publish a response of reasonable length alongside this piece on request. Contact help@properalegal.org.

If you have had your own experience with Dave Weigel or the Family Court Fraud Warrior Project, we would like to hear it, and we will treat what you share with care. Write to us at help@properalegal.org. And if you want to follow this story alongside other parents and court watchers, join the conversation in the Facebook group.