Ian Filippini, the young president of Montecito-based Filippini Financial Group, filed for personal bankruptcy in April, listing $4.4 million in liabilities. Along with his firm, he faces five civil lawsuits asking for more than $3 million in damages.
 

Filippini’s legal troubles come just a year after formally taking the family firm over from his father, who died in June 2009. Since then, Filippini Financial Group has faced lawsuits from elderly former clients alleging breaches of fiduciary duty and financial elder abuse. The Better Business Bureau of Tri-Counties and its owners are also suing Filippini’s firm for professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duty.

Ian Filippini said he started taking over the financial planning firm from his ailing father in 2008 after Alfred Filippini was diagnosed with cancer.

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