But working with 'a bunch of rich white people' a reference to Greycourt's existing clientele may not be particularly appealing to a young African-American, he speculates. 'It would be great' to have an African-American as one of the firm's dozen client-facing advisors, Curtis says. In the 25-plus years since Greycourt, the Pittsburgh-based $9 billion wealth management firm focusing on ultrahigh-net-worth clients, opened its doors, no African-Americans have even applied for a job, says its chairman, Greg Curtis: 'That's how bad it is.' Modera currently has no African-American advisors. One applicant was offered a position, but decided to take a job at a wirehouse instead, he says. 'In all the years that we have put out ads for different advisor positions, we've only interviewed African-American applicants,' says Tom Orecchio, principal at Modera Wealth Management in Westwood, N.J., and former NAPFA chairman. Independent advisors who did agree to be interviewed pointed to the scarcity of African-American advisors as candidates for available positions. 'The current interest in female advisors is an outgrowth of the industry's obsession with women clients now that it's clear that women are earning, inheriting and controlling money.'

'Diversity follows wealth,' says Eleanor Blayney, the CFP Board consumer advocate and author of the board's recent report on women in the planning profession. The sluggish progress of African-Americans is all the more striking when compared with the industry's full-court press to recruit and retain women, who now make up approximately 25% to 30% of advisors, according to industry sources. (LPL Financial, Ameriprise Financial, Commonwealth Financial Network and Wells Fargo Financial Network all declined, as did RIAs Oxford Financial Group, Rockefeller, Shepherd Kaplan, Summit Rock Advisors and Creative Planning.) When Financial Planning contacted the top five independent B-Ds on its FP50 list and the top five independent firms on its RIA Leaders rankings, seeking either comments or details about any African-American advisors or diversity programs they might have, Raymond James was the only firm to respond. Indeed, Raymond James was one of the few firms that was even willing to discuss the matter. 'Raymond James is not an exception, but we are committed to making improvements.' 'The financial services industry as a whole has not done a good enough job of recruiting, training and retaining African-American financial advisors,' says Paul Reilly, chief executive of Raymond James Financial. She's also president of the 13-year-old Association of African American Financial Advisors, a regional organization that has national aspirations but just three dozen members. 'If it's even 1%, I'd be surprised,' says Lazetta Braxton, founder of Financial Fountains, an RIA based in Baltimore. Department of Commerce.)Īnd at independent financial advisory firms, African-Americans most likely make up just 1% to 2% of all advisors, according to industry executives interviewed by Financial Planning. In a 2011 report on workforce diversity, SIFMA surveyed 18 large financial services firms and found that 8% of brokers or financial advisors at those firms were 'people of color.' (Of all firms owned by African-Americans, finance and insurance businesses account for just 2.2%, according to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, minorities including Hispanic and Asian Americans make up about 8% of financial service employees, which includes all manner of jobs in all types of financial service businesses. And walk into an office of a typical independent RIA or wealth management firm, and chances are there won't be any black advisors at all. Take a look around almost any conference for financial advisors odds are there won't be more than a handful of African-Americans. Indeed, for African-Americans, the financial advisory profession can be a very very lonely place to be.

Statistics on african american finances