<font color=red>FPA Convention</font> FPA panelists: Don't always go with the safe bet when hiring

The Financial Planning Association is beefing up efforts to get its members to embrace diversity. The group held its fourth annual diversity summit yesterday at its annual convention in San Diego. The group is bringing in outside experts and has landed its first corporate sponsor, MetLife. A panel of diversity consultants and managers urged FPA members to go beyond their comfort zone in recruiting different types of employees and picking suppliers. Diversity efforts will pay off in landing new business and driving innovation, they said. Diversity concerns have moved beyond just race, sex, sexual orientation, disabilities and uneasiness about veterans, and firms must address broader accommodation of divergent views in the workplace, according to the panelists. "The hot spot is diversity of thought," said Lisa Horuczi Markus, co-founder of Catalyst9 Inc., a consulting firm, and one of the panelists. Driving change is the fact that employers today are dealing with an unprecedented four generations of employees, and soon five when older workers stay in the workplace instead of retiring. Each group has different needs and expectations, the panelists said. Embracing change isn't easy, said Alan Hiss, executive diversity recruiter for Wells Fargo & Co.'s wealth management unit. "You have to be willing to be uncomfortable" in making some hiring decisions, he said. New hires won't look like the managers hiring them, Mr. Hiss said. "I still consistently find the challenge is [that branch managers want] to go with the safe bet," he said. In terms of attracting emerging clients who have diverse backgrounds, it comes down to, “Who's going to be the frontrunner in getting them?'” said Lazetta Rainey Braxton, founder of Financial Fountains LLC and a recipient of a 2011 FPA diversity scholarship. Minority investors still may not trust traditional financial firms after the banking crisis, she told InvestmentNews, so planners need to network with different groups and build trust. The FPA plans to build up its educational offerings to members on how to promote diversity, said Trudy Turner, 2011 chair of the FPA diversity committee.