Edelman Financial Engines has filed additional allegations against rival Mariner Wealth Advisors in an ongoing suit over alleged poaching of advisors, trade secrets and at least 851 clients representing more than $621 million in assets under management.
The amended complaint, which adds to allegations first brought in November 2023, specifies that 11 advisors were lured away between June 2021 and December 2024, and names Mariner CEO Marty Bicknell as being personally responsible for at least one of the poachings.
“We have filed this amended complaint to address the ongoing and unlawful actions by the defendant, which recently resumed its yearslong campaign of luring away our planners,” said Joe Loparco, an Edelman spokesperson, in a prepared statement.
Bicknell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Loparco went on to say that “some competitors” employ “deceptive and illegal tactics to take our people and our clients.” He added that Edelman is committed to protecting the security and privacy of its clients and maintaining client trust.
Edelman, a Boston-based RIA formed in 2018 with the merger of Financial Engines and Edelman Financial Services, has 1.3 million clients nationwide representing some $250 billion in AUM. Mariner Wealth Advisors, launched in 2006, has more than $81 billion in AUM and is headquartered in Overland Park, Kan. In the legal documents, Edelman called the company a “direct competitor.”
The amended complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court in Kansas.
Edelman accuses Mariner of misappropriating trade secrets, interfering with business, and stealing “the fruits of Edelman’s multimillion-dollar investments in marketing and client goodwill.”
Edelman claims to have a unique business model in that it spends millions of dollars on marketing to bring in clients rather than making its advisors generate their own leads to find clients. That, in part, is why its client information is so vital to its business, according to the legal documents, and why client confidentiality is crucially important.
The suit seeks damages and “injunctive relief to prevent further harm.”
The 11 advisors named are (in order of their resigning from Edelman): Michael Horne, Joseph Azzopardi, Kevin Garvey, Brian McGuire, John Geilfuss, Seth Kelly, Jacob Mercer, Michael Borgatti and Ronald Newton, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint says that Mariner is “continuing to approach multiple other Edelman employees as part of the same unlawful campaign.”
Mariner aggressively incentivized financial planners to not only jump ship but disclose proprietary client information that “Edelman has spent decades curating,” in violation of their employment agreements, the lawsuit says.
Edelman is seeking the “full amount of damages available by law, including compensatory, consequential and punitive damages.”