PUTTING HIS MONEY WHERE HIS HOPE IS IN THE FIELD
K
enneth Royster recalled the day when, a few years into his financial career, he handled his largest case to that point — $2 million that a client gave him to invest. He and the client, who are both Black, went to the client’s bank to move the money from the client’s bank account to the investment firm. But the bank branch manager, a white man, questioned the transaction. “He started to query me about where I came from and he wanted to understand who I was because they normally don’t see African Americans doing a $2 million transaction,” Royster said. So, Royster turned the tables on the banker. “I asked him, ‘Well, tell me how you got the job here at the bank?’ And he told me he was working at Radio Shack. But he’s a really good golfer. And he was playing golf with one of the senior vice presidents at this particular bank. And so the guy liked him and offered him a position as branch manager.” That story affirmed Royster’s belief that there is a disparity in opportunities between Black and white people. “Here is a white guy who’s already in a senior position, and he has the power and authority to give a job to whoever he chooses,” Royster said. “So, what are the chances that he would have been playing golf with a Black guy that day? Probably 1,000 to one. That doesn’t mean the guy is racist. It simply means there’s a difference in culture.” Royster said that incidents such as this one inspired him to “reset the deck” for the next generation of Black advisors. He is owner, president and CEO of First Genesis of Virginia, an advisory firm based in Norfolk. He also is president and CEO of, and a wealth consultant with, Heritage Financial Partners, a management company with the following mission: 1. Increase the level of generational wealth transfer in minority communities. 2. Increase the number of financial professionals focused on serving and educating Black and Hispanic investors. 3. Increase the number of financial services firms owned by Black and Hispanic
financial professionals that survive and continue to serve their communities beyond the life of the founder. “The reality is that most advisors — whether they are in financial services or in the insurance business — they work for major firms, but they don’t own their own business,” he said. “I know of only a handful of African American advisors who own really good businesses, but it’s not widespread. And they don’t have a ‘firm’ mentality, where they have multiple locations in different cities. They’re generally a committee-of-one top producer with maybe five or six subproducers underneath the main person.” Royster said that Heritage is “trying to change that dynamic.” “We’re bringing people into the industry and teaching them first how to be a good advisor,” he said. “Then, second, how to transition from advisor to business owner, and then how to transition from business owner to CEO. Now you run an organization. Instead of everything being predicated on every sale you make, now you build other people. And that builds the organization. And that’s how you build a real brand.”
‘The Opportunity Of A Lifetime’
Royster said that kind of information hasn’t come to the Black community, so he and his business partner, Vicki Brackens, are drawing upon their decades of experience in the industry to invest in the next generation of Black advisors. Royster and Brackens have spent the past three years developing Heritage Financial Partners, and the company opened for business Feb. 23, one day before the stock market took a historic dive as COVID-19 threatened the nation. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” he said of Heritage. “When you have 75% of the profession dominated by white males with an average age of 60 years old, in 20 years they all will have aged out of the business. Some of them own tremendous books of business, and they need someone to buy those books, that business, from them. And so many of them don’t have a succession plan in place. That’s why I am now looking to develop young African American advisors into the field. They need mentorship and leadership, and that’s our focus at Heritage.”
October 2020 » InsuranceNewsNet Magazine
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