UMB chief executive inherits late father’s voting rights

Mariner Kemper, chief executive of UMB Financial Corp., has inherited voting control over more than 3.4 million UMB shares held by his late father, R. Crosby Kemper Jr.

In a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mariner Kemper reported that he had sole or shared voting authority over 11.6 percent of the Kansas City-based banking company’s shares.

The largest block is a bit more than 3.4 million shares held in the R. Crosby Kemper Trust.

At Friday’s closing stock price of $59.29, the 3.4 million shares Mariner Kemper gained voting control over are worth $202 million. His 11.6 percent reported beneficial ownership stake, as the SEC defines it, is worth $311 million.

Mariner Kemper became a “successor co-trustee” and gained “sole authority to vote and dispose of” the trust’s shares after his father died on Jan. 2, the filing said.

In an interview, Kemper said his father’s voting rights over UMB shares, held in various trusts including some with shared voting control, all had passed to him with the intention of maintaining family control over the shares.

“Good planning resulted in business as usual,” he said.

Kemper said he did not inherit ownership of the shares, which remain in the various trusts.

Last year, UMB had said the Kemper family’s holdings amounted to 19.4 percent of UMB’s stock. Kemper said the total has changed little since then.

R. Crosby Kemper Jr. had led UMB for 30 years after succeeding his father. Mariner Kemper became its chief executive officer in 2004.

This story was originally published January 31, 2014 at 2:55 PM with the headline "UMB chief executive inherits late father’s voting rights."