California barber taught himself stock trading and built $19 million fortune; now court revives family’s elder abuse claims against Morgan Stanley

Maurice Voce spent decades learning the stock market on his own, building a $19 million fortune through stock-options trading while working as a barber. But in the final years of his life, as his family became concerned about his declining cognitive health, questions emerged about whether the financial professionals managing his investments were adequately protecting his interests. Now, more than a decade after his death at 93, a California appeals court has revived key claims brought by his family against Morgan Stanley and financial adviser John Privitelli.In an opinion filed on October 8, 2026, and certified for publication on October 29, the California Court of Appeal ruled that the family’s financial elder abuse claim and parts of its breach-of-fiduciary-duty case should not have been dismissed. The decision in 'DeVone v. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC' sends the dispute back for further proceedings, although it does not establish that Morgan Stanley or the adviser committed wrongdoing.From barber to self-taught investorAccording to the court opinion, Voce began investing in the 1960s and trading stock options in the 1970s. He worked with financial adviser Joseph Privitelli in t...