It’s safe to say this isn’t quite what the Guggenheims had it mind when the family began assembling a cast of Wall Street characters to capitalize on a name that rivals Carnegie and Rockefeller.

Meyer Guggenheim

Meyer Guggenheim arrived in the U.S. in 1848 and made his fortune in mining and smelting. One of his seven sons, Benjamin, went down with the Titanic. Another built the art collection that gave rise to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan.

Today, a Guggenheim descendant, Peter Lawson-Johnston II, sits on the board of Guggenheim Partners. Among Guggenheim’s key hires: Alan Schwartz, the dealmaker who headed Bear Stearns Cos. as it ran aground in 2008.

Nowadays the real money behind Guggenheim is linked to another, less famous family: Sammons. Dallas-based Sammons Enterprises, which is now owned by its employees and has $85 billion in assets, holds about one-third of Guggenheim’s voting shares. Sammons initially bought into Liberty Hampshire Co., a financial firm that Walter had founded and later folded into Guggenheim.

Despite enviable successes, the rival camps have formed. Those allied with Walter have complained they’re carrying weight for Minerd. Revenue at Minerd’s asset-management unit fell 5 percent last year, contributing to a firm-wide 4 percent loss for shareholders, according to a June 30 letter to investors seen by Bloomberg. Minerd’s camp blamed Court’s management for the revenue drop, according to current and former employees. Minerd’s three largest mutual funds have bested about 95 percent of their peers over five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Senior Management

Schwartz, for his part, has built Guggenheim Securities and snapped up M&A talent. Revenue at his investment-banking unit rose 13 percent in 2016, to $580 million, according to the shareholder letter.

But the firm’s business isn’t the only game at Guggenheim. Over the years, Walter and others have pursued side deals, sometimes bankrolled, at times controversially, by Guggenheim’s various insurance affiliates.

Under Fire