Ugly fight between Mariner and advisor grows more foul

At the start of The Tragedy of Macbeth, the Scottish play about power, murder and betrayal, three witches chant: Fair is foul, and foul is fair / Hover through the fog and filthy air.

Yes, the hags were preparing the audience for the mayhem to come. But the crones could have been describing the aftermath of some deals when a big firm buys a smaller RIA.

In other words, when large sums of money are being discussed by a buyer and a financial advisor, perhaps over fine wines and prime cuts of grilled beef, buyer and seller beware: fair turns foul to filthy pretty quickly when a deal goes bad.

It’s a ruthless competition for advisors right now, with buyers promising top dollar to advisors willing to sell.

Firms and advisors are fighting like mad for clients, and throwing mud to tarnish names and reputations of advisors, broker-dealers and registered investment advisors to get a leg up in that battle remains as prevalent as ever.

InvestmentNews over the winter reported that a financial advisor’s lawsuit in federal court in Kansas alleged that Mariner, one of the most prolific buyers of RIAs for more than a decade, allegedly defrauded the advisor out of his book of business in the months after buying his firm in April 2025. 

The advisor, James Hyre, alleged that Mariner “willfully and maliciously misappropriated the book of business through its knowing, intentional, fraudulent, and, or tortious conduct,” according to the complaint, which was filed near the end of February in federal court in Kansas.

Ever since, the dispute between Mariner and Hyre has grown nastier.  

Hyre, for example, accused Mariner Wealth of age discrimination over the summer in an updated complaint; in an industry of aging financial advisors, no firm wants to be tagged with such a claim.

Mariner Wealth responded to Hyre’s claims in a court filing in August, painting him in an unfavorable light.  

“Despite Hyre’s sophistication and the quality of his advisors, Hyre now claims that he was tricked into selling his company and seeks to enforce imagined oral statements allegedly made during the negotiation process,” Mariner Wealth claims.

“Upon closure of the acquisition, Hyre was difficult to work with, failed to grasp fairly simple details of the integration process, misled customers regarding the nature of the acquisition, disparaged Mariner to customers and others, and spent substantial time running his separate real estate business,” according to Mariner Wealth.

According to his form CRD, Mariner Wealth “discharged,” meaning fired Hyre last October for “failure to meet company expectations, unrelated to securities work.”

What does that mean? Is Mariner smearing the advisor’s reputation here, so he’ll have trouble finding work or force him to settle? Firms are loath to hire advisors with such backgrounds.

Marty Bicknell, CEO of Mariner, did not respond to a call Thursday to comment. An attorney for Hyre also did not return a call to comment.

Mariner Wealth, with $98.6 billion in assets, last year bought the Columbus, Ohio-based Hyre Personal Wealth Advisors, which at the time managed $325 million for clients.

The price was $39 million, according to the complaint, with almost two-thirds comprised of stock and the bulk of the rest tied to reaching growth targets, according to the complaint. James Hyre was to be paid $1.5 million annually in management fees, as well, after the incentive targets had been reached.

The acquisition soon became contentious, the lawsuit alleged, with James Hyre noting that Mariner was allegedly falling far short of its obligations, from issues ranging from technical support to pay to autonomy with existing clients.  

As Shakespeare’s witches today may have chanted: Fair is foul, and foul is fair, / Deals for RIAs are getting ugly out there.