It’s tough to build an advice practice around those who need it most

Transcript:

Liz Skinner [00:00:03] With me today is Marcus Rather, a financial adviser with Cetera Investors and importantly a 2021 rising star as part of the InvestmentNews, Excellence and Diversity Equity and Inclusion Awards. Thank you for joining us today, Marcus.

Marcus Rather [00:00:21] Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

Liz Skinner [00:00:23] Tell us a little bit about what some of the challenges were for you having a career in the financial services and financial advice business.

Marcus Rather [00:00:35] One of the larger challenges, I’d say starting out is very similar to maybe anyone else starting in the industry is building your practice. Building your book of business to finding clients is always a major challenge. What made my challenge very significant is I always aspired to help people that felt they needed the help and needed the service, but felt they could not afford the service. There was a big disconnect, especially in the African-American community, that they had this stigma, the impression that financial service was in a very expensive service. So having those open conversation and talking about their money, their behavior, so on and so forth, was a very large challenge. So much so that when I first started, I had this list of people that I was going to call that I expected to immediately answer the phone, immediately be ready to do business immediately, ready to invest. And it actually turned out to be the opposite. You know, they didn’t answer the call if I called and it wasn’t the right time or they swore up and down that they did not have money to invest. So that was one of the largest challenges that I had starting out, was, you know, meeting people and building the book of business, partially because, again, the mentality of working with a financial professional was not very affluent and specific, specifically the African-American community.

Liz Skinner [00:01:49] But in fact, you were able to create a successful advisory business. So what does that signify about the financial advice industry? And what can what does your success really, really show about the business?

Marcus Rather [00:02:04] I believe it speaks to a lot of things. I believe a lot of the success that I found is is one for the community that I work with. You know, I have to give a huge shout out to my office manager, Michael Austin, my business partners, and one in the boy and leaders in my office, such as people like Robert Casanovas, James Kmetz and Joshua Fisher, shared. I can go down a list of all the professionals in my office where they’ve had a major impact on me staying in the business because they motivated me to keep pushing. Right. And this business is all about persistence. Not accepting a no other flat no, but a no possibly being a not right now. I mean, the great thing about life is that things change, people’s situations change, their mentality changes, their financial situation change. Having that persistence of being in front of them and constantly reaching out creates those opportunities. So growing my advisory practice, it’s just spoken to volumes of you never know what someone’s going to go through. You never know what things may change in their life. Being present in their lives and having a good relationship and developing that trust goes a long way because they’re, so often you’re the first person that they think of when they have those types of monumental changes. So that’s what I’ve seen so far in growing my practice and the value of having a strong community that I work with.

Liz Skinner [00:03:29] Marcus is one of the challenges that the industry as a whole is facing is attracting young people to become professionals, to become financial advisors.

Any thoughts on how firms might do a better job of reaching out or hiring or retaining young talent?

Marcus Rather [00:03:48] I have a very long winded answer for that, and I believe it really starts from the presence that we have. I believe in schools. Truth be told, my opportunity mainly came from my college education, my college experience. But my story truly starts in high school. My junior year of high school. I went to this program called Boys State. I was nominated by my precalculus teacher, my junior year. And during my week in that program, one of the city sponsors, he was a school for financial planning. And through the relationship that he and I developed in that short week, I realized that that type of career path was suitable for my characteristics. I’m a very outgoing person. I did not want to be behind a computer all day. And aside from covid, financial planning didn’t really have much to do with being behind a computer all day. But I have the ability to impact and educate individuals and develop relationships, and I felt that those characteristics are those responsibilities. So it’s my characteristics. But as I have an opportunity to get back and speak into high school settings and even some elementary middle school, I recall that a career in financial services was not something that I saw in career day in school. You know, I was pushed towards engineering, I was pushed towards being a lawyer, a doctor, all those high paying, affluent careers, but not once did I ever meet a financial adviser, you know, not one career day in middle school and high school. And I believe that’s where we can really start to have that impact as showing that these careers as financial representatives, that financial advisers are, one, a growing need in our industry, but also very profitable from a professional standpoint. And I think if we introduce that career from middle school and high school, it jump starts the career possibility when people go into college and further study at post colleges as well.

Liz Skinner [00:05:39] I think that’s a great suggestion. Thank you very much for sharing some of your story with us. And you can read more about Marcus and our other winners at DandIIN.com.