Published
August 17, 2026
This settlement resolves claims that inadequate cybersecurity at Stockpile, the Palo Alto fractional-share investing platform, allowed a 2020 data breach to expose customers' personal information. If your information was caught up in it, you can claim an equal share of a $600,000 fund, capped at $90 per person, on a single short form.
Current Status
Claims are open. The deadline to file is October 6, 2026, and the Notice gives that date without a cutoff time or timezone, so do not assume one. The same date is also the deadline to opt out or object, which is unusual: one date decides all three choices. The Los Angeles Superior Court granted preliminary approval on July 31, 2026 and authorized notice, but it has not ruled on final approval — the Final Approval Hearing is set for November 10, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. No payment date had been announced as of August 17, 2026. If your information was involved in the 2020 breach, file now rather than waiting on the hearing.
Status
Claims Open
Preliminary approval granted July 31, 2026 · final approval hearing set for November 10, 2026 · no ruling yet
Claim Deadline
October 6, 2026
Online submissions and mailed forms postmarked by that date · the opt-out and objection deadlines fall on the same day
Estimated Payout
Up to $90
An equal share of the net fund, capped at $90 per person · $600,000 gross fund · the share drops below the cap if enough valid claims are filed
Proof Required
Yes
Have the Notice ID from your notice email to hand before you file online · the printable paper Claim Form marks that field "if known" and is signed under penalty of perjury
What Changed Recently?
On July 31, 2026 the Los Angeles Superior Court entered an order granting preliminary approval of the settlement in Winzig v. Stockpile, Inc. and Stockpile Investments, Inc., Case No. 21STCV45067, conditionally certifying the settlement class and approving the notice plan. That order is what opened the claim process. The court appointed Angeion Group, LLC as the settlement administrator and set the notice date for August 7, 2026, by which point individual notices had to be emailed to class members and the settlement website had to be live.Stockpile, Inc. and Stockpile Investments, Inc. have agreed to pay $600,000 into a settlement fund if the court grants final approval. The lawsuit alleges that the companies' inadequate cybersecurity resulted in a 2020 data breach that exposed and compromised the sensitive personal information of the named plaintiff and the class. Stockpile denies all of the claims and denies all charges of wrongdoing or liability, and the Notice states plainly that the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing or an indication that the defendants violated any law. The court has not decided in favor of either side.
The action was filed on December 9, 2021 and is assigned for all purposes to Judge Samantha P. Jessner in Department 7. Both the notice and the preliminary approval order describe the incident only as "the 2020 Data Breach." Neither document states how many people were affected, and neither lists the categories of personal information involved, so this page does not either. Breaches at investing and wealth-management platforms have drawn a run of similar filings — the AssetMark data breach lawsuits are a current example — but each case turns on its own facts.
Who Qualifies?
The settlement class is all individuals whose personal information was allegedly compromised in the 2020 Data Breach perpetrated against Stockpile, Inc. and Stockpile Investments, Inc. There is no purchase requirement, no account-balance threshold and no class period to fall inside — membership turns on whether your information was caught up in that one incident.Because notice is being delivered by email to the addresses Stockpile provided to the administrator, the practical test for most people is whether they received a notice email about the settlement. The class is not limited to California residents even though the case is pending in Los Angeles.
Three groups are excluded: Stockpile and its employees, principals, officers, directors, agents, affiliated entities, legal representatives, successors and assigns; the judges to whom the lawsuit has been or is assigned, along with the members of their immediate families; and anyone who files a timely Request for Exclusion. If you are new to how these cases move from a breach notice to a payment, our data breach class action explainer walks through the stages.
How Much Can You Get?
There is one benefit, and it is cash. Every class member who submits a timely and valid Claim Form is eligible for an Individual Class Payment: the Net Settlement Amount divided equally among the participating class members, capped at $90 per person. There is no documented-loss tier, no credit monitoring offer and no second benefit to weigh — the whole decision is whether to file.The Net Settlement Amount is what remains of the $600,000 Gross Settlement Amount after the court approves four deductions: the Class Counsel Fees Payment, the Class Counsel Litigation Expenses Payment, the Class Representative Service Payment, and the Administration Expenses Payment. The Notice states what class counsel intend to request — fees not to exceed 33 1/3% of the fund, currently estimated at $200,000, litigation expenses of not more than $29,000, and a service payment of $5,000 for the class representative — and it caps administration expenses at $47,500. Class members are not charged directly for any of it. Every one of those figures is subject to court approval, and the court may award less.
Those numbers make the arithmetic easy to follow. If the court awards each deduction at the maximum the Notice describes, about $318,500 is left to divide. At $90 each, that pays roughly 3,540 claims before the cap starts to bite; above that number of valid claims, the per-person share falls below $90. Neither the Notice nor the preliminary approval order states how many people are in the class, so there is no way to predict which side of that line the claim count lands on. Treat $90 as the ceiling rather than the expected payment. Our glossary entry on pro rata settlement payments covers how this kind of division works.
Money that is not paid out does not return to Stockpile. Under the Notice, funds remaining after all class member claims are paid, along with any payment that is not cashed or redeemed within 180 calendar days of the Award Issuance Date, are transmitted to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse — the court-approved nonprofit dedicated to data privacy education and advocacy. That is a cy pres recipient, and it is why filing early matters less than filing at all.
What Do You Need to File?
Find the Notice ID in your notice email before you start. The printable Claim Form posted on the settlement website asks for a name, a mailing address, a payment selection, a signature, an email address and a telephone number, plus a Notice ID field that the form marks "if known." That is the paper version, which is the one the court approved and posted; we have not been able to confirm what the online claim portal asks for, and settlement portals commonly require the ID from the notice even when the printable form treats it as optional. Treat the Notice ID as something you need.If you cannot find your notice email and the portal will not let you through, download the paper Claim Form from the settlement website instead and mail it using the instructions printed on it. Either route is signed under penalty of perjury affirming class membership, so file only if your personal information was actually compromised in the 2020 Stockpile breach.
What Is the Deadline?
Claim Forms must be submitted online, or completed on paper and postmarked to the administrator, on or before October 6, 2026. The Notice gives that date without a cutoff time or timezone, so treat the full date as the deadline rather than assuming an end-of-day rule.October 6, 2026 is also the deadline to opt out and the deadline to object. Most settlements set those dates a month or more ahead of the claim deadline, so if you have followed other cases, do not assume you have extra time here — every choice this settlement offers closes on the same day. That date comes from the preliminary approval order, which set the Response Deadline at 60 days after the August 7, 2026 notice date.
The three options do different things and cannot be combined freely. A Request for Exclusion removes you from the settlement entirely: you get no payment, you are not bound by the outcome, and you keep the right to bring your own case. The Notice describes it as a letter that reasonably communicates your election to be excluded and includes your name, address and either an email address or a telephone number, sent to the administrator with a postmark no later than the deadline. Our glossary entry on opting out of a class action explains what you give up either way.
An objection is the opposite: it keeps you in the settlement and tells the court why you think it should not be approved. It must be a signed letter mailed to the administrator by the same deadline, and the Notice lists what it has to contain — your personal signature, your full name and current address, an explanation of why you are a class member, all grounds for the objection including legal authority and supporting evidence, and the name and contact information of any lawyer helping you with it. You may state whether you intend to appear at the hearing. If you or your lawyer has previously objected to a class action settlement and asked for or received a payment in exchange for dropping the objection or an appeal without any change to the settlement, the objection must identify each such case by full caption and the amount received. Objecting does not pay you anything on its own — you still have to file a Claim Form.
How Do You Take Action?
File through the official Stockpile data settlement website, which carries the online Claim Form, the amended Class Action Settlement Agreement, the preliminary approval order, the long-form notice and the printable Claim Form. Filing on the official settlement website is free; do not file through any third-party site that offers to do it for you.The form is short. Decide before you start how you want to be paid, because the Claim Form asks you to pick one option: PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, a virtual prepaid card, or a physical check mailed to the address you give. Choose an account you will still be reading in a year — a digital payment sent to a stale email address or an old mobile number can go void unnoticed, and the payment window is 180 days.
If you prefer paper, download the Claim Form from the settlement website, complete it and mail it to the Settlement Administrator using the instructions printed on the form so that it is postmarked by October 6, 2026. If you need the administrator for anything else — a replacement form, a question about your notice — use the contact page on the official settlement website.
What Happens Next?
The next milestone is the Final Approval Hearing on November 10, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. in Department SS7 at the Spring Street Courthouse in Los Angeles. At that hearing the court will consider whether the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate, and whether to grant class counsel's application for fees and expenses and the requested service payment for the class representative. Class members do not have to attend. Anyone who does may ask the court for permission to speak, at their own expense. The Notice and the preliminary approval order both warn that the hearing date may change without further notice to class members, so confirm it on the settlement website before making plans around it.Under the implementation schedule in the preliminary approval order, class counsel's fee application was due within 30 days of the notice date, and the motion for final approval, the administrator's declaration authenticating every exclusion request and objection, and any response to objections are all due in the weeks before the hearing.
No payment date has been announced. If the court does not approve the settlement, or if the parties terminate it, the Notice states that it becomes void and the lawsuit continues. We will update this page when a final approval order or a payment schedule is entered. For everything else currently claimable in this category, our data breach settlement tracker lists the open claim windows by deadline.
Doing nothing has a cost. A class member who neither files a claim nor opts out receives no payment and is still bound by the settlement's release, which means giving up the right to start, continue or take part in any other lawsuit against the defendants over the legal issues this settlement resolves.
Sources and Verification
• Official settlement website — Winzig v. Stockpile, Inc. and Stockpile Investments, Inc.• Class Action Notice and Claim Form (long-form notice)
• Order Granting Preliminary Approval of Class Action Settlement, entered July 31, 2026
• Amended Class Action Settlement Agreement and Class Notice, executed June 10, 2026
• Claim Form — Winzig v. Stockpile, No. 21STCV45067
Questions
If I object to the settlement, do I still have to file a claim?
Yes. The Notice is explicit about this, and it is the trap most likely to cost someone money here. Objecting tells the court you disagree with something about the settlement; it is not a request for payment. A class member who objects and never submits a Claim Form receives nothing. Because the objection deadline and the claim deadline are the same day, October 6, 2026, there is no second chance to notice the mistake. If you intend to object, submit the Claim Form as well.
What happens to the money if fewer people file than the fund can pay?
It does not go back to Stockpile. The Notice caps each Individual Class Payment at $90, so once every participating class member has been paid the cap, any money left in the Net Settlement Amount is transmitted to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the court-approved nonprofit dedicated to data privacy education and advocacy. The same is true of payments that are never cashed or redeemed.
Can I object at the hearing without mailing anything first?
Yes, and that is unusual. The Notice states that a class member may appear at the Final Approval Hearing and orally object without first submitting a written objection or a notice of appearance. The preliminary approval order takes the same approach, saying objections should, but are not required to, be made in the manner the Settlement Agreement describes. Attending is at your own expense, and the court may continue the hearing without further notice to class members, so check the settlement website before travelling.
How long do I have to cash the payment once it arrives?
180 calendar days from the Award Issuance Date. The Notice states that a payment not cashed or redeemed within that window becomes void, and the money is transmitted to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse rather than reissued. That matters more than usual here because the Claim Form offers digital payment options alongside a paper check, and a digital payment sent to an email address or mobile number you no longer use can expire without you ever seeing it.
What did Stockpile say it changed after the breach?
The Notice records remedial measures that Stockpile represents it has taken since the 2020 breach to enhance its security posture: tightening role-based access protocols, resetting passwords and rotating security keys, enhancing Secure Shell connection protocols, and introducing new password rotation and reset functionality. It also says Stockpile continues to review and enhance monitoring of its environment and applicable third-party environments, along with its data security policies and procedures. These are the company's own representations recorded in the Notice, and they are not a finding by the court.
Official Settlement Notice
For more class actions keep scrolling below.
Settlement Amount
$600,000
Gross Settlement Amount · class counsel fees and litigation expenses, a class representative service payment and administration expenses capped at $47,500 are deducted before class member payments, all subject to court approval
Case Title
Winzig v. Stockpile, Inc. and Stockpile Investments, Inc.
Case Number
21STCV45067
Court
Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles
Final Approval Hearing
November 10, 2026 at 10:00 AM
Department SS7, Spring Street Courthouse, Los Angeles · Judge Samantha P. Jessner · the court may continue the hearing without further notice to class members
Administrator
Angeion Group, LLC
Official Website
Stockpile Data Settlement.com
