On Motions for Summary Judgment, a Minnesota District Court raised significant issues involving various sales and financial persons at Dain Rauscher regarding whether or not these employees were exempt from overtime payments. An employee of Dain Rauscher, a sales person in the international fixed income group, was claimed to be a professional as he held a master’s degree. The Court found significant problems with whether or not this person was a learned professional, as it was really a question of whether his credentials were “customarily required” for his position. The same person was also claimed to be an administrative employee, together with other financial consultants and sales persons. The determinative issue for the Court required evaluation of primary duties which is relevant to the administrative exception in two places: the primary duties must 1) be to perform work directly related to management or general business operations; and 2) also must include “discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.” Specific regulations and opinion letters make it clear that financial consultants might qualify, but their primary duties must go beyond simply selling financial products. The Court said it would be an issue of determining whether the primary duty of the employee was selling financial products or collecting and analyzing information regarding customers’ income and assets and determining which financial products best met that customer’s needs and circumstances as well as advising the customer regarding the advantages and disadvantages of different products. In regard to highly paid employees, the regulations only require that they customarily and regularly perform the responsibilities of an administrative employee. The Court was able to find that these high paid employees were in fact regularly performing these critical functions, not that this be their primary duty. The other cases will go to trial as summary judgment was denied. This case certainly points out that plaintiff’s lawyers are taking aggressive positions in promoting overtime claims by persons that we would have normally thought were exempt. In Re: RBC Dain Rauscher Overtime Litigation (Minn. D.C. 2010).