Mariner Wealth Advisors and several other firms will pay $25.5 million to settle allegations that they conspired not to hire each other’s advisors to deflate employee pay.
The agreement ends a class action complaint filed by former Mariner reps Jakob Tobler and Michelle McNitt in early 2024. The complaint named Mariner, several subsidiaries, and American Century Investments.
According to the suit, Tobler and McNitt previously worked for a former Mariner subsidiary specializing in institutional asset management, which the firm sold in 2017 (the firm exited the institutional space the following year).
According to the reps, Mariner and American Century agreed to “restrict, suppress and eliminate their competition in the recruitment and hiring” of each other’s employees. Tobler and McNitt claimed they did so “for one clear and overarching reason – so they could pay these highly-skilled employees less than they would be paid in a competitive market.”
According to the complaint, the Justice Department investigated Mariner for breaking antitrust rules, with the firm eventually signing a non-prosecution agreement in 2023 to avoid charges.
In the agreement, Mariner acknowledged that between 2014 and 2018 it tried to suppress competition between the firm and American Century by each firm agreeing not to hire or recruit employees from the other.
As part of the DOJ agreement, Mariner would implement an antitrust compliance program and use $1 million to “compensate” advisors; Mariner CEO Marty Bicknell and General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer Anne Dorian were among those who signed it. According to Tobler and McNitt, American Century struck a similar NPA with the DOJ to avoid charges.
The duo turned the suit into a class action to represent the many Mariner and American Century employees between 2012 and 2020 who could have been affected by the unspoken arrangement between the firms. The class includes about 5,000 former and current employees.
Though the defendants denied the claims in the suit, the firms decided to settle to avoid “the further risk, expenses, inconvenience, and distraction of burdensome and protracted litigation, and thereby to put fully to rest this controversy” by avoiding litigation altogether.
Mariner Wealth declined to comment. An American Century spokesperson acknowledged that “civil litigation commonly follows government enforcement actions, and with this class settlement, we are glad to be in the process of resolving this matter. American Century remains committed to fair and honest competition in compliance with all laws and regulations.”
As part of the deal, Mariner and the other co-defendants will deposit the $25.5 million into a settlement fund for disbursement to class members, representing a “material partition” of the alleged underpayment. Attorneys estimated a gross per capita amount of $5,1000 for the class members.
#Mariner #Wealth #Firms #Settle #Class #Action #25.5M