Shareholder Spotlight : Carson Wealth Management – Partners in Grime

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In the shadowy corners of America’s wealth management game, where slick suits promise the moon while emptying your pockets, sits CWM LLC – better known as Carson Wealth Management. This Omaha-based outfit, hawking “financial wisdom” to anyone rich enough to listen, has clawed its way to billions under management. But peel back the glossy veneer and you’ll find a festering pit of lawsuits, negligence, and corporate rot.

The kicker? These bastards are knee-deep in Cummins Inc., the diesel giant TCAP has been tearing apart for its emissions lies. Carson Wealth slashed its Cummins stake by 21% in Q2 2025 but still clings to 14,046 shares worth $5.8 million, according to SEC filings. Millions invested in a polluter caught gaming emissions tests. Figures – greed doesn’t care what colour the smoke is, as long as it pays dividends.

The Assault Allegation That Exposed the Cracks

Picture it: a Carson Group event in 2022 – champagne, egos, and HR nowhere to be found. Then comes an alleged sexual assault that blows the lid off the corporate fairy tale.

Mary Kate Gulick, the firm’s former Chief Marketing Officer, filed a federal suit claiming she reported the assault straight to founder Ron Carson and then-President Teri Shepherd – and they did nothing. The accused wasn’t fired or side-lined; he kept swanning around at later company events like nothing happened.

Gulick says she was “broken like a twig” by the firm’s indifference, left with depression and PTSD. Her lawsuit accuses Carson Group of sex and disability discrimination and retaliation – punishment for daring to speak up. The picture she paints is ugly: executives circling the wagons to protect an alleged predator while crushing the whistle-blower.

Carson’s team denies everything, going as far as accusing Gulick of falsifying medical evidence – a desperate smear if ever there was one. By mid-2025, they were trying to subpoena her phone and health records. The Nebraska case drags on, but even if you strip out the he-said-she-said, it screams of a culture that protects power, not people.

When your brand sells “trust”, and your leadership buries assault reports, you’re not a wealth manager – you’re a hazard in a tailored suit.

Fee Fiascos: Clients Left Bleeding Cash

Then there’s how they treat clients.

In 2018, a Carson client hauled the firm into arbitration for $500,000, accusing them of excessive fees and mishandled investments. The allegation: Carson told a third-party sponsor the client had left, losing their discounted rate and triggering inflated charges.

The case was later expunged from Carson’s record – but it wasn’t the only one. Multiple disputes between 2018 and 2021 echoed the same theme: overcharging, sloppy exits, and padded commissions. In 2020, he scrubbed another client complaint over mutual fund fees.

Sure, FINRA expungements clean the paper trail, but not the smell. These aren’t isolated misunderstandings – they’re a pattern. “Advisers” who seem more invested in asset-gathering than client protection. It’s the same playbook you see across the industry: churn the accounts, fleece the trust, and call it fiduciary duty.

If that’s financial planning, it’s the kind done with a crowbar.

A Workplace Steeped in Poison

Ask ex-employees what it’s like inside Carson Wealth, and you’ll hear the same word over and over: toxic.

When managing partner Jamie Hopkins quit in 2023, insiders said it was like cutting the last brake line on a car already rolling downhill. Gulick’s lawsuit describes “Burning Man-style meetings” – weird, cultish retreats celebrating “authentic leadership” while the rank and file drowned in stress.

Staff talk of burnout, favouritism, and an atmosphere where questioning Ron Carson’s empire is career suicide. Leadership revolved around loyalty to the brand, not competence. By the time Burt White parachuted in as CEO in 2024, the damage was deep – more rot than reform.

No regulator’s stepped in yet, but the smoke’s too thick to ignore. CWM LLC isn’t managing wealth; it’s managing a slow-motion implosion.

Ties to the Broader Filth: Cummins and Beyond

Carson Wealth’s investment in Cummins Inc. ties a neat, greasy bow around the story. Cummins – fined $1.675 billion for emissions cheating, forced to spend another $325 million on fixes – is the textbook polluter.

So what does CWM do? Keeps its millions parked there. ESG be damned. Because when you run a firm built on exploitation and excuses, backing another one just makes sense.

These aren’t isolated cases; they’re a network. The financiers, the polluters, the enablers – all part of the same machine. TCAP exists to smash that machine, gear by filthy gear.

Final Take

Carson Wealth Management isn’t an anomaly – it’s a mirror held up to a corrupt financial culture.
A founder accused of protecting predators. Clients milked through hidden fees. Staff ground down in a cult of compliance. And money still flowing to Cummins, the dirtiest of bedfellows.

Ron Carson stepped down in 2024, but his empire’s rot didn’t retire with him.
If you’re a client, question where your cash sleeps.
If you’re an employee, know what kind of gods you’re serving.
And if you’re TCAP – and we are TCAP – keep digging. There’s plenty more muck to unearth.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

Sources

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