Advisors Serving Minorities Need to Network With 'Like-Minded' Advisors

Braxton recently joined the Association of African American Financial Advisors, which celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2011 and continues to make strong strides in bringing together financial advisors from across the country.

Although more and more advisors–many are minorities themselves–across the country are dedicating themselves to serving underserved communities (even if it’s just because they’re astute enough to see the direction that the advisory business is going in, since “today’s minorities are going to be tomorrow’s majority”), there is no well-known template for this, Braxton says.

While there no doubt are some successful templates out there, they are not well-shared, she says, and this is a shame for advisors like herself.

The financial advisory industry has matured enough to recognize the need to work with diverse communities, but those advisors who are doing this often must operate on their own. In many communities, there is no cohesive effort to bring these advisors together, Braxton says, although many of them would welcome a movement to unify their efforts and create a forum of reference.

“What we need is a more collaborative approach that would support the increase in minority advisors and in advisors who want to serve minorities,” Braxton says. “We need to know who each other is so we can become advocates of each other’s efforts. This in turn will translate into serving clients better and creating greater client confidence.”

Braxton’s desire to serve middle income minority communities comes from her own modest background. Unfortunately, middle income people are still not the most attractive business segment for most financial advisors, but although Braxton, like any other advisor, would want her business to be profitable, she also feels a strong need to give back to her community and to help people achieve their financial goals by giving them the advice they need.