In its ongoing quest for growth, one of the largest RIAs is aiming to become the first in the industry to adopt AI workforce technology at scale.
Overland Park, Kansas-based registered investment advisory firm aggregator Mariner and wealth management AI technology firm Humanity Labs unveiled
While neither firm is disclosing the exact terms of the deal, the cost of $50,000 per year for one of Humanity's full-time equivalent AI "employees" multiplies to an annual outlay of at least $35 million by Mariner. But that number, unthinkable for most smaller RIAs, looks relatively tiny when compared to the multibillion-dollar technology investments made by firms like LPL Financial and Raymond James. Regardless, Humanity CEO Andrei Pop described the company's AI workforce as different from agentic tools that vendors have rolled out elsewhere in that the robots "occupy seats and roles" at a wealth management firm.
"The transformative power of operating a company like this is all about what your humans used to do — what we think of as machine work — now can be delegated to a totally new capability, and that can be done at a firm-wide level," Pop said in a webinar last week. "The story is what that allows your humans to do, and certainly in a wealth management firm, you know, it's like the perfect human business, because, at the end of the day, these are folks that are providing what I would call money therapy to other humans."
A significant bet on data
Considering how much the industry is investing in AI, the claim by Mariner and Humanity in their press release that their deal represents the "largest AI Workforce partnership in the RIA industry to date and positions Mariner as the first wealth management firm to adopt the model at enterprise scale" is difficult to verify, according to Stephen Caruso, a director of wealth management with consulting firm Cerulli Associates. He pointed out that Humanity's website includes testimonials from three other, albeit smaller, wealth management firms.
More importantly, their deal showed "a willingness to make these investments for firms that are Mariner's significance and scale," with a particular focus on unlocking greater productivity through data, he said.
"For AI at RIAs, a key element that we always think about is the data and aligning that data layer," Caruso said. "The data layer is going to be that key element for RIAs, but a lot of firms haven't pursued that yet."
Mariner's AI workforce will begin with assignments such as client onboarding, compliance reviews, reporting, billing and identification of potential sales opportunities. But everything the robot workers do will feed into what it and Humanity called "Mariner Organizational General Intelligence (OGI), a proprietary operational intelligence that becomes more valuable over time." And that data, in turn, will fuel more efficiency across the business.
The agreement between Mariner and Humanity is breaking "a ceiling" on the growth model of "serve more clients, hire more people" that nearly every wealth management firm has used, Mariner CEO Marty Bicknell said in a statement at the time of the deal's announcement. Under the collaboration with Humanity, Mariner will separate its business into an "experience layer" revolving around its client relationships and an "execution layer," where the AI workforce can handle the routine tasks.
"This partnership is a commitment to our people," Mariner Chief Operating Officer and Chief Strategy Officer Cheryl Bicknell said in a statement. "The future of our firm depends on helping our associates spend more time doing the work only people can do. By moving work to the AI workforce, we're creating more opportunities for our teams to build relationships, solve complex problems and deliver the thoughtful guidance our clients expect."
Representatives for Mariner said no executives were available for an interview and declined to discuss the specific numbers in its agreement with Humanity.
"It's our standard practice not to discuss the commercial terms of agreements with vendors or partners, consistent with the standard confidentiality provisions contained in those agreements," a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "That's true across our business. This AI workforce expands Mariner's capacity to serve a growing client base as the firm continues to grow. In parallel, we're also creating new career paths and opportunities for associates to work alongside the AI workforce. This represents a significant investment in expanding our capacity to serve clients. The agreement is a growth initiative custom-built to expand Mariner's capacity as the firm continues to grow. Growth at Mariner has always meant hiring, and that continues."
A foundational purpose from well-funded players
When asked during the webinar about the deal, Pop said the company doesn't discuss the terms of its agreements but cited the cost of $50,000 per year of each full-time equivalent AI worker.
"The way our partners experience it is, a team shows up for work," Pop said. "It's a remote team. It onboards and takes over stuff that you give it, and then as it learns and gets better, it compounds. It increases the capability of your firm and helps your humans elevate and do the human stuff. So that is the service that we're delivering to Mariner as well as to all of our partners."
The parties on both sides of the deal have attracted significant capital from experienced players in their respective fields. While Mariner agreed in April to sell the Mariner Advisor Network to LPL and Private Advisor Group, the RIA and its affiliates have nearly $630 billion in client assets under advisement after minority investments by Neuberger Berman Capital Solutions and funds managed by Neuberger Berman Private Markets in 2024 and Leonard Green & Partners in 2021. Mariner launched 20 years ago with $300 million. Humanity has received backing from Google Ventures and Vestigo Ventures, a firm co-founded by onetime LPL CEO Mark Casady.
A "founding, kind of critical thesis" that created Humanity's business stems from "this idea that none of us got educated or went to school or got into the careers that we did because we wanted to do machine work, because our our calling in life is to copy data between financial reporting system and a CRM," Pop said. "This isn't about margin expansion or replacing roles. Yes, some roles will change, but what it is about fundamentally is changing how we operate as a business, and what that means for the human skills and human talent that will never go away. No matter how good AI gets, there will always be a premium for human-to-human connection and human-to-human trust."
