Our industry is not reading the room

Here are 5 steps financial advisers can take to promote diversity, inclusion and belonging.

Lonbaye Dasarte Yarnway. This was the name at the top of the resume I submitted for entry-level positions in the financial services industry. Although the PDF was decorated with accomplishments — a solid grade-point average, recognition as a Division I student athlete, president of a campus social club — it wasn’t enough to catch the attention of a firm, no matter how hard I tried.

My natural instinct was simply to try harder. This is America, right? If there was a goal to be achieved, the best way to reach it was to do everything that helped opportunity, hard work and faith to collide. It didn’t take long for me to see that my efforts would continually be in vain due to forces that I, an ambitious soon-to-be college graduate, could not control.

IT’S TIME TO ACT

We in the financial industry do a great job of acknowledging the need for diversity, inclusion and belonging. But when it’s time to act, other matters take precedence. Less than 2% of all certified financial planners identify as African American or Black, while 2.7% identify as Latinx and 3.9% as Asian or Pacific Islander. Meanwhile, the U.S. population is 12.4% African American or Black, 18.5% Hispanic or Latinx, and 6.1% Asian or Pacific Islander, according to 2021 Census Bureau data. To change our industry for the better, we must change the room.

Here are five steps financial advisers can take to be part of the change that would destigmatize our industry and create space for all:

1. Seek out diverse talent. It’s easy to skip over underrepresented candidates if you aren’t looking for them. Often, ideal candidates are hiding in plain sight, but they may not look like the associate you imagined. Expand your mind. A person of color or member of the LGBTQ-plus community is likely hoping for the opportunity to prove themselves, and would do so with grace and a strong work ethic. But they may never get that chance if you don’t seek them out.

2. Get proximate. The advisers of the future are sitting in classrooms somewhere. They probably have all the soft skills to be an adviser but may not know the career is a viable option due to the lack of representation. Get proximate to these students. Sponsor a student at a conference. Become a mentor. Go to your child’s career day. Every effort counts.

3. Be vocal about your support. Now that you’ve committed to supporting underrepresented advisers, be vocal about it. Tell underrepresented employees they belong at your firm. Ask your team to recommend talented people in their networks who might fit your latest job posting. By being vocal about your intentions and support for underrepresented financial professionals, you build a culture of inclusivity that will permeate through the firm and broader industry.

4. Promote and amplify underrepresented professionals. People cannot be what they cannot see. Every time an underrepresented candidate gets passed over for a raise or promotion for no reason other than their race, gender or ethnicity, a downstream effect occurs. A child sees one less woman president, Latinx CEO or member of the LGBTQ-plus community on stage. By promoting and amplifying these talents, a new image becomes ingrained in the minds of future professionals who identify with those role models, and a fresh perspective is introduced to the room.

5. Push-pull. “Push-pull” charges every financial professional to push those ahead of them to success, while pulling those coming after them through the same doors. This is a communal model that dispels the myth of a zero-sum game within our space and enables us to progress further than competition ever can.

If there was ever a time to change the complexion of the wealth management industry, it’s now. By implementing these steps, we will build longer tables and more seats in our industry, rather than higher fences. This is the way.

Dasarte Yarnway is founder of Berknell Financial Group and co-founder of Onyx Advisor Network.