FPA NexGen President's Goal: Help Women Succeed as Planners

“Young women have reached out to me to learn more about the financial planning profession, and they said specifically that ‘Rianka, I have never seen anyone who looks like you be successful in this profession but because of you, I think I can,’” Dorsainvil says. “These young women are going to be career changers and this is why I believe it is so important for young professional women of color to step out because other folk in the community need to see you being there. I am very optimistic about our profession – we have more and more next generation and millennial planners entering, and even if it still isn’t enough, we are making headway.”

That is something that Lazetta Rainey Braxton, founder of Financial Fountains in Baltimore, agrees with wholeheartedly.

The number of young people from minority backgrounds entering the profession is extremely encouraging, she says, and a far cry from her early days, when women, minorities and women from minority backgrounds were few and far between. “Our earlier conversations were always about ‘Where is everyone?’ but now, we’re getting the breadth and depth that we need as demographics in America change,” Rainey Braxton says.

The younger generation of advisors from different minority backgrounds not only understand the cultural context of serving people from those communities, but they are also going to be instrumental in teaching their peers that they need to plan for themselves, Dorsainvil says.

“It’s ingrained in us that we need to take care of family,” she says, “and many millennial financial planners from minority backgrounds may well be the first in their families to have a white collar job. If family is a priority, it’s important to make that a part of your financial plan, but you need to learn to pay yourself, too. You have to be clear about all your goals, because it’s always easier to say ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ when you have a plan in place.”

For Rainey Braxton, both younger and older planners have much to learn from each other. Advisors like herself can serve as “dialogue partners” to younger entrants, she says, and they can help their older peers to better understand the millennial generation.

“I am sandwiched between the Baby Boomers and the millennials, and in my practice I am tempted to follow what was done with the Baby Boomers, but that won’t allow me to keep my business sustainable, so I have to follow the mindset of the millennials,” Rainey Braxton says.