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Ron Carson & Mary Kate Gulick

Industry Spotlight > RIAs

Carson Group Turmoil Raises Big Questions

By Dinah Wisenberg Brin

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A lawsuit just filed by former Carson Group Chief Marketing Officer Mary Kate Gulick over the handling of an alleged sexual assault by an employee and over Gulick’s firing presents a troubling picture of the firm’s current and former CEOs and of its corporate culture — which the fired ex-marketing chief called “toxic.” 

As Carson Group prepares to defend itself in court, crisis communications experts and industry executives are speaking out on what it and other firms can learn from this complicated situation, in terms of better protecting women in the industry, their employees and their reputations. 

First and foremost, it’s important to grasp the limits of messaging.

“In my opinion, Carson Group does not have a messaging or PR problem. The company has a reality problem,” said a wealth management marketing, branding and communications veteran who spoke on condition of anonymity. “When messaging and reality collide, reality wins — sometimes, brutally so.”

Gulick is suing the firm in federal court in Omaha, alleging that it retaliated against her after she complained about how the firm handled a report of a sexual assault at a conference in late 2022. She also says that then-CEO Ron Carson decided not to fire the alleged assailant. 

The complicated issues and timeline of events are, of course, raising many questions. Here’s what communications professionals and other industry players are saying about several of them. 

What should Carson Group say publicly?

“In general, it is always good to come out with a strong statement that explains more about the situation,” Kara Valentine, a marketing strategist at the Rudin Group, said in an email to ThinkAdvisor. ”However, now that it is a legal case, they may not be allowed to comment on the circumstances publicly.” 

On Tuesday, after news of the lawsuit broke, Carson Group issued the following statement:

“While we are limited in our ability to comment on active litigation, we unequivocally dispute these allegations, and we will vigorously defend ourselves against these claims. The people of Carson Group are its most important asset, and the organization remains dedicated to ensuring their continued well-being and helping them to achieve their professional goals.”

Others experts, like Ray Hennessey, head of the communications firm Vocatus, agreed with Valentine.

“From a communications standpoint, navigating around lawsuits is very tricky. Legal filings are by their very nature one-sided,” Hennessey explained via email. Attorneys typically want any responses kept in legal filings, “so it often takes time for the facts to really emerge in cases like this.”

Still, these complicated factors don’t “minimize the allegations or counter-arguments, it’s just part of the legal process and there is very often context missing that it is difficult to communicate to the outside world outside of motions and filings,” he said.

Hennessey noted that Carson Group was a client of his when he worked at another communications firm and Gulick was his main point of contact.

Communications professionals can help attorneys make sure that their firm’s key messaging is delivered, but these messages must take a back seat to what’s in the best interest of each side legally, Hennessey said.  

 “That’s likely where Carson is now,” he said. “They are responding to Mary Kate’s very serious claims in a blanket way because, frankly, they have to at this point, until they at least make their own legal response.”

He added: “For Mary Kate, these issues were important enough to bring to light, knowing that she was subjecting herself to scrutiny. At the same time, Carson now has to show forcefully that it takes these matters seriously, which it has said in its statement, and then let the legal process take hold.”

What should Carson Group have told its staff about the alleged assault?

“First of all, I never believe that doing the right thing is ever the wrong thing,” said Joe Anthony, head of the communications group Gregory FCA. “We’re living in a day and age where daylight and transparency about these issues matters a great deal.”

Firms “have to be prepared to act assertively,” he said. “One of the things that could be a third rail for a firm’s reputation is an issue like this where there’s accusations around a coverup of sexual assault on top of the actual sexual assault that … allegedly happened at their event.”

Where assaults or violence are alleged, whether it seems fair or not, firms “can quickly and immediately put an individual on administrative leave,” not necessarily conferring guilt upon them, “but just to give space for the organization to investigate and follow the process in due course,” Anthony said.

Plus, the firm should, at the very least, inform its staff that allegations stemming from an alleged assault at an industry event have emerged, that the organization takes them very seriously and that someone will be asked to take leave during the investigation, he adds.

While it may cast a negative light on the individual, it’s the safest path, according to Anthony. If the person’s innocent, they’re still getting paid, but if they’re potentially guilty, “they’re not necessarily interacting with peers. And I think that sets a tone upfront,” he said. ”The organization’s taking the claim seriously.” 

What should Carson Group have done for Gulick and others with knowledge of the alleged assault?

In her lawsuit, Gulick contends she “was deeply troubled by Carson Group’s complete lack of concern about having an alleged sexual predator working there, where he was interacting and traveling with Carson Group’s female employees.”

This led her to seek treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, the suit claims.

If someone at a firm is distressed over how an incident is handled, leadership should make sure there’s a “management ambassador or advocate” to let the staff know the firm will protect everyone’s well-being, Anthony said.

How can rapidly growing firms like Carson Group better implement effective policies?

Incidents are more likely to arise at firms that have expanded in size as much as Carson has in recent years, Anthony said. For an organization that emphasizes the great things it’s doing for its advisors and the industry, the lawsuit “takes that narrative off course.”

Firms need to be vigilant as they expand, since the likelihood of volatile incidents increases; plus, they’ll be held to a higher standard and such occurrences become more newsworthy, he said.

What should firms do before a crisis occurs?

What’s going on at Carson Group clearly demonstrates “the importance of having a prepared crisis communications strategy in case something arises,” said Valentine. 

This way — when a crisis hits — a firm can cite its protocol and say, “‘This [step being taken] is not against A, B or C [individual]. It’s just what we always do according to our game plan,’ should this [situation] ever arise,” Anthony explained. “And it can go for a lot of allegations. It could be for fraud or theft or violence or assault.”

Overall, how can the industry better protect women at public events?

Members of the industry have talked about doing more to support women for some time, but so far are failing to deliver on that commitment, Alan Moore, CEO of turnkey advice and planning platform XY Planning Network, told ThinkAdvisor by email earlier this week.

“Until companies and conference organizers are willing to implement policies that are unwavering in their support of women, nothing is going to change,” Moore said.

XYPN, which serves fee-only financial planners, doesn’t allow anyone who is reported for harassment to return to its events, Moore said.

While some conference organizers have pledged to keep their venues free of harassment, that doesn’t necessarily make the gatherings immune from one or two bad actors, according to Anthony.

Leaders at Gregory FCA, Anthony says, remind team members that “their behavior reflects the company no matter where they are, even if they’re not actually at the conference or at the client office.” 

Conferences can be very tricky, he noted: “There is a subtext for a lot of industry events, whether very splashy locations — Las Vegas, Southern California, Miami — where staffers, colleagues, industry friends can go from being in a conference room or a board room room to a nightlife situation or a casino situation fairly quickly.”

Janet Levaux contributed to this report.

Pictured: Ron Carson and Mary Kate Gulick

We welcome your views on the issues highlighted here and, specifically, on the financial services industry’s approach to preventing and reporting sexual harassment in the workplace and at public events. Write to [email protected].

Dinah Wisenberg Brin

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