By Audrey Parente

For someone whose father told him he'd never make it on Wall Street, Joseph E. Meyer is a very sought-after consultant.
The Ormond Beach man is more than a Florida-registered investment adviser. He also is a New York Stock Exchange and National Association of Securities Dealers arbitrator/mediator and has judged more than 100 securities arbitration cases for the Exchange and the NASD in the past five years.
When it comes to losing money on Enron stocks, Meyer said all may not be lost, stressing that brokers have obligations to protect their clients.
Recently, he has become a popular financial-talk-show guest and has heard from many callers about the Enron debacle.
"We are getting more and more calls because of Enron. Everybody is concerned with his or her retirement," Meyer said.
While everyone must take responsibility for their own financial we-being, Meyer said unsophisticated investors investors who feel they have been taken advantage of in the market have recourse and might be able to get their money back.
"The first thing is to ask themselves: Was this a properly suited investment? Was this what I should have been doing with my hard-earned money? And even if the answer is yes, in what amount?"
Meyer said the onus is on the broker.
"The New York Stock Exchange Rule 405 says 'know your customer'-- their income, their status, their ability to handle risk in the market place. A broker/dealer has responsibilities to know that information," Meyer said.
"If an investor was depending on the income from Enron, then they might have the basis to bring a claim (against the broker/dealer). A broker has an obligation to protect the equity in a customer's account. John Q. Public is considered a novice investor unless proven otherwise. A broker has an obligation not to let him do reckless things."
In bringing information to the public on how to file claims, Meyer, the sole employee of Meyer and Associates, www.meyerassoc.com, found himself to be in great demand. He has made appearances recently on such shows as ABC News Smart Money, cable TV shows for Time Warner Cable in South Florida and Comcast Cable Network in New Jersey.

Meyer has been interviewed in the L.A. Times, the Wall Street Journal, Business Week Online and Investment News.
Locally he has broadcast often on WELE-1380 AM in Ormond Beach with host and executive producer Bobbie Thomas.
"I have had calls in the last two weeks from three TV producers," Meyer said.
This surge of popularity for Meyer was unexpected and comes at a time when he thought his public career was basically finished and he would remain behind the scenes. His motivation was to serve an an arbitrator to "give back" the wealth of experience he had gained in his long career in the securities business.
His career began when the Queens, N.Y., native got out of the army in 1969 after six years of service as a cryptologist for American security forces in the Pacific. But his interest in securities started earlier.
"I had always been enticed by the prestige of those associated with Wall Street. The very wealthy lived out on Long Island. As a child I would see people who had far more than I did," Meyer recalled. "I asked what they did for a living and was told there were Wall Street brokers and bankers."
Meyer had a high school education and described his own family as "Working class." He said his father lacked confidence in him.
"I can still hear him now. 'You have some big ideas. You will never make it. And a man has to know his limitations.' That made me more determined to make it," Meyer said. "My mother was very supportive and encouraging."
He paced Wall Street asking for a job opportunity and was hired in the early 1970s by a regional firm that existed at that time, Edwards & Hanly, members of the New York Stock Exchange with offices in New York and New Jersey.
"They hired me and entered me in their training program. It started with 32 candidates who wanted to become licensed stockbrokers. After six months of intensive training, we had 16 who got through all the rigorous testing and were qualified to sit for the New York Stock Exchange exam," he said.
He was one of them.
"In those days, the exam was very tough and you took two simultaneously -- the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers -- and you had to pass both or you wouldn't be licensed for either. I also took the exam to be a licensed insurance agent," Meyer said.

He passed, went to work, but in a few short months made the decision to join Merrill Lynch in their Garden City, Long Island office. He built a client base of more than 100 people within a year.
In 1974, Meyer relocated with his family to Ormond Beach, but Merrill Lynch did not have an office.
"I spent four or five months selling insurance, but then relocated to Fort Lauderdale and joined what then was Shearson Hammill Inc.," Meyer said. He later switched to Paine-Webber, but returned to Ormond Beach when his father became ill in 1976.
Meyer returned to selling insurance and became an investor in the market until 1980 when he registered with the Securities Exchange Commission as an investment adviser.
In 1986, when Meyer turned 40, he decided to put the rigors of the market behind him and once again just handle his own money.
In 1989, he re-registered with the Securities Commission and began helping in the disposition of troubled thrift institutions as a contractor for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
By the mid-1990s, he became an arbitrator for the NASD and the Exchange.
"I did that because at that point, haveing been a part of Wall Street for more than 20 years, I wanted to give back something to the industry," he said. He also serves as a volunteer mediator for Volusia County Mediation Services.
"When I turned 50, I literally felt my career might be over, but one thing has led to another," he said. Involvement in securities industry arbitration has let to radio and TV, where he is often asked to talk about Enron and the future.
"The question now is, how much of this has spilled over to companies who were well positions? What I think people have to understand is that this could be the first of many similar corporate situations. They may not be to the extent of Enron, but there very well could be more Enrons out there waiting to happen," he said.
This, he added, is the result of a decade of brokers "coming ahead and being as aggressive in the market place as the can be. People were misled from an accounting standpoint as to what companies can do.