Carson Group is suing a former advisor who left Sweet Financial Partners, which Carson Group acquired in September 2024, for soliciting business from his former Sweet clients to join him at Raymond James.
As part of the acquisition, Carson acquired Sweet Financial’s rights under its employment agreements, including those employment agreements that had been terminated but contained rights surviving termination, according to the suit, filed in district court in Minnesota.
The former advisor, Jacob Hartke, executed an employment agreement with Minnesota-based Sweet Financial on Dec. 8, 2023, and resigned from Sweet Financial on July 31, 2024.
"In the course of Hartke’s employment with Sweet Financial, Hartke was provided access to Sweet Financial’s Confidential Information and trade secrets as well as access to Sweet Financial’s customers and clients," the suit states. "Hartke was thus in a position to unfairly compete with Sweet Financial by appropriating Sweet Financial’s customer goodwill."
Sweet Financial had about $1 billion in assets under administration when it was acquired, ThinkAdvisor reported at the time.
Subsequent to his departure, "Sweet Financial and Carson discovered that in October of 2024 (post-closing), Hartke had sent at least one letter to a former client regarding his employment with Raymond James wherein Hartke attempted to solicit the former client," according to the suit.
On Aug. 1, 2025, Carson, according to the suit, discovered that Hartke was again attempting to solicit business from former clients of Sweet Financial. That day, the suit states, Hartke sent letters to at least four clients.
"At least one of these clients had not previously worked with Harke," the suit continues. "In other words, Hartke may have taken a confidential client list with him upon his departure from Sweet Financial and was now utilizing that confidential client list to solicit Sweet Financial clients."
Upon information and belief, and based on the identical content of the letters sent Aug. 1, "Hartke sent similar solicitations to some or all of his prior clients which he had served at Sweet Financial," the suit contends.
Carson, the suit states, "has not been paid for any of the business which Hartke has solicited" in violation of the employment agreement. "As a result of Hartke’s actions, significant business has been moved from Carson which has caused significant damages to Carson."
As of year end 2024, Carson had been deprived of $122,580 in annualized revenue arising from accounts that had been unlawfully transferred to Hartke at Raymond James due to Hartke’s wrongful solicitation, according to the suit.
Further, as a result of Hartke’s continued violation of the employment agreement in 2025, "Carson has been damaged in the amount of at least $66,927.12 from the end of 2024 through the end of August 31, 2025, plus prejudgment interest, attorneys fees, and costs," the suit states.
Additionally, since Aug. 1, Carson has had at least one former client of Hartke request to have her assets transferred to Hartke at Raymond James.
As a result of Hartke’s continued violations of the employment agreement, Carson states that it "will continue to suffer damages in an amount to be determined at trial."
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