Mariner sells “wealth advice” like a butcher sells “animal welfare”. Clean apron, warm smile, blood right up the elbows.
Backed by private equity, linked to a no-poach settlement, tangled in advisor-poaching warfare, and running a lending arm sued by multiple US states for allegedly stuffing borrowers with add-ons they did not ask for. And yes, they hold Cummins. Of course they fucking do.

The No-Poach Cartel: Keeping Workers Boxed In

Let’s start where these people always start, behind closed doors, with a “gentleman’s agreement” that conveniently kneecaps the little guy.

Mariner Wealth Advisors was named in a class action that ended in a $25.5 million settlement over alleged no-poach collusion with other Kansas City wealth firms. The allegation is not complicated. Do not hire each other’s staff. Keep wages soft. Keep mobility dead. Keep people trapped in the same office chairs until their spine turns to dust.

A business that bangs on about “culture” does not end up here by accident. This is what happens when the moral compass is replaced with a calculator and a legal budget.

Mariner Finance: The Add-On Hustle Aimed At The Desperate

Now switch from the well-fed to the financially bleeding.

Mariner Finance has been sued by a coalition of state attorneys general in a multistate action alleging deceptive conduct in consumer lending, including allegedly pushing or adding products that inflate the cost of loans. The public regulator language is direct. This is about allegedly extracting more money from people who have less room to breathe.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania denying a motion to dismiss means this does not vanish. It grinds on. It keeps breathing. It sits there like a bad smell that will not lift.

This is not “helping people access credit”. It is monetising their panic.

Poaching Wars: A Shark Complaining About Teeth

Here’s the comedy.

The same ecosystem that gets hit with no-poach allegations then gets accused elsewhere of running an aggressive recruitment and client-move machine. One of the headline disputes is litigation involving Edelman Financial Engines and Mariner, with allegations describing advisor departures, client losses, and the messy underbelly of a growth-at-any-cost culture.

This is finance cannibalism. Sharks eating sharks. Everyone pretending it is “strategy” when it is really just hunger with a logo.

Warburg Pincus: Private Equity’s Polished Bootprint

Reuters reporting has described Mariner Finance as Warburg-owned.

Private equity does not arrive to improve ethics. It arrives to improve extraction. It does not do “values”. It does value.

And when your business model already reeks, private equity is not the alarm bell. It is the soundtrack.

Cummins In The Portfolio: Filth Recognises Filth

Mariner Wealth Advisors holds Cummins shares. Tens of millions worth, based on widely reported institutional holdings data.

So while Cummins carries the record-setting Clean Air Act penalty over its diesel emissions scandal, Mariner sits there like a well-dressed ghoul clipping coupons off the fallout.

That is the ecosystem in one picture. Finance firms with their own stink buying into an industrial polluter with a proven appetite for cheating. Everyone wins except the public. And lungs.

What This Actually Is

This is not “wealth management”. This is reputational laundering.

A no-poach settlement that reeks of cartel instincts.
A lending arm sued by states for allegedly deceptive add-on practices.
Advisor-poaching warfare that keeps dragging the brand into court.
And Cummins in the pocket because the diesel empire still prints money, even when it poisons the air.

They do not invest in good. They invest in profitable.

Last Word

Mariner is not a harmless shareholder. It is a case study in how “respectable” institutions hide ugly behaviour behind branding, lawyers, and a font that screams “trust me”.

Cummins should love them. Same energy. Same contempt for the people underneath the profit line.

And if you are holding Cummins while your own house is on fire, do not act surprised when someone starts naming names and pointing at the smoke.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

Shareholder Spotlight : Mariner LLC – Predators In Suits With Cummins In Their Pocket