Financial education to stoke wealth creation for diverse groups

Growing up in Washington, D.C., Keith Beverly felt he was given opportunities that others weren’t. He was recruited by the Maret School, a prestigious private school, and attended on a needs-based scholarship.

His single mother worked two jobs — as a public school teacher during the day and at a nonprofit that helped at-risk mothers and children in the evenings. Despite wanting to help out financially, he and his mother lived by a code.

“It was just an understanding,” Mr. Beverly said. “My role was to go to school and get good grades, and her job was to put a roof over my head and clothes on my back and food in my stomach.”

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Mr. Beverly, 38, became interested in the finance industry at a young age. At 15, he bought his first shares of stock — and ended up losing $800, his summer earnings from working as a groundskeeper at his school.

“At that point, I decided I wanted to be more informed,” he said.

Lots of books

After his freshman year at Carnegie Mellon University, he spent his summer reading books on investing, including Peter Lynch’s “Beating the Street” and “One Up on Wall Street.”

At Carnegie Mellon, he started an investment club for the National Society of Black Engineers. After graduating, he earned and received both his certified financial planner designation and chartered financial analyst credential and earned his MBA from the UNC​ Kenan-Flagler Business School.

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Today, having spent more than 15 years in investment management and financial planning, Mr. Beverly has discovered his purpose. He’s focused on bringing financial literacy to communities of color and helping them create, grow and transfer generational wealth.

Needed conversations about money aren’t being conducted around the dinner table, he said. So he spent the past two school years teaching financial literacy to students at the Washington Jesuit Academy, a low-income, all-boys middle school, to raise awareness and close the knowledge gap.

“When I was in 5th grade, one of my teachers would often have us memorize quotes,” Mr. Beverly said. “He would say a Malcolm X quote, 'Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.’”

Adviser network

Mr. Beverly, who joined Momentum Advisors in 2016, is planning to leave and form his own registered investment advisory firm later this year. Last year, he formed moXY Financial, a network of advisers to promote financial education, primarily for Generation X and Y clients. This year, he recruited 10 minority advisers for the network and has been speaking at professional conferences to raise client awareness.

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Mr. Beverly is working to increase the number of minority advisers in the industry. In 2017, 4.8% of financial advisers were African-American and 8.3% were Hispanic, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Given that nearly 40% of Americans are people of color, Mr. Beverly believes there will be increased demand for financial services from minorities.

Mr. Beverly also started the 20 by 2020 Initiative, a sponsorship program to help 20 minority advisers obtain the CFP credential by the end of 2020. The program offers awards of $500 to $1,000 to cover the cost of review courses and program materials and recruits financial advisers to mentor the recipients.

“Since I’ve known him, he has tirelessly, tirelessly and I will repeat, tirelessly advocated for moving the profession forward in a positive way,” said Feraud Calixte, senior financial adviser at Triad Financial Advisors Inc.

Mr. Calixte was helped by the 20 by 2020 Initiative last year. He met with Mr. Beverly for two months every Sunday morning at 6 a.m. at a Starbucks to go over calculator questions and investment analysis for the CFP exam.

“He’s really wanting to give opportunities to up-and-coming planners who’ve traditionally been underrepresented in the industry,” Mr. Calixte said. “And he’s talked about it, he’s written about it, he’s volunteered, but he also put money in it.”

Through the 20 by 2020 Initiative, Mr. Beverly sponsored two African-American advisers last year and is now working with four recipients to help them sit for the November CFP exam. He believes more diversity in the financial services industry will have a compounding effect that reverberates in diverse communities.

Retainer fees

Mr. Beverly, who currently advises 41 clients, hopes to gain 20 more in the next three years or so. He advises on more than $10 million in assets. He instituted hard asset minimums last year and charges retainer fees to some clients.

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The first few years of his practice, Mr. Beverly did not feel as though he had a clear direction on the type of client he wanted to serve. After a couple of years, he decided to work with clients who are similarly committed to service.

“Since then, my growth has been better, and I think clients are deriving more value working with me as an adviser,” he said.

And although he acknowledges he is spread thin because of his many volunteer activities, Mr. Beverly said the overarching goal for financial education and wealth creation is the same.

“Ford has several different lines of vehicles that serve different markets, but the purpose is to get people to their destination in a reliable car,” Mr. Beverly said.