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A Visit With Agents of Change
Kenneth Royster spends a great deal of his time talking to various industry groups about the need to attract more Blacks and Hispanics into the profession.
Brackens has known Royster for many years, and she described him as “all about the execution.” “He can’t talk about an issue without doing something about it,” she said. “He addresses issues not in a philosophical manner, but in an action manner. He discusses issues, but he executes strategies, and that is the foundation of what we are doing together.” Although the industry has stepped up its efforts to recruit Black advisors, Royster said he sees a disconnect. “The disconnect is that you have white advisors hiring and training African Americans, but these white advisors have no clue of the marketplace that African Americans actually come from,” he said. “The African American advisor, on the other side, tries to assimilate. But the situation really doesn’t fit them, and they end up failing. It’s because there is a real 14
difference in this country. You don’t have to like it. But the reality is that racism is real, and culturalism is real. And people gravitate to people who have like minds and do things together.” Royster said Heritage is focusing its efforts in seven East Coast metropolitan areas that have a high percentage of Black population and a high percentage of Black wealth. Those areas are New York, Syracuse, Washington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Richmond and the Tidewater area of Virginia. “These are areas with high concentrations of affluent African Americans who have a need for professional advice, as well as high concentrations of highly educated African Americans who can move into this field and get licensed,” he said. The initial goal for Heritage is to provide support for seven to 10 Black advisors in each of the seven metro areas over
InsuranceNewsNet Magazine » October 2020
the next 10 years, Royster said. In order to do that, he is asking other advisors he knows to accompany him on visits to historically Black colleges and universities as well as other East Coast universities that have a high percentage of Black students, and to conduct workshops to introduce students to the industry. Heritage wants to give aspiring Black advisors a boost by paying for them to take the SIE exam, a new, introductorylevel FINRA exam for prospective industry professionals. Its purpose is to assess a candidate’s basic knowledge of securities industry topics fundamental to working in the industry. Royster also wants to attract Black advisors who already have their own practice into the Heritage fold. Heritage is supported in its efforts by its broker-dealer LPL Financial, as well as by Stratos Wealth Partners, which offers financial advisor services in 49 states, Royster said. He hopes that eventually Heritage will become the McDonald’s of the financial services industry. “What we want to do down the road is get advisors who may have already branded themselves in different markets. They won’t have to rebrand. They only have to say they’re part of the Heritage family,” Royster said. “Now that gives scale and scope. You’re supported by the largest independent broker-dealer in the country. But you still have your independence.”
‘I Want To Be That Guy’
Royster was living in Washington in 1984 and looking for a career to transition into civilian life after having served as a noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army. “I thought I was a leader,” he said. “So I thought, ‘I’ll go out and find a management trainee job where I can grow myself into it.’ I was offered three jobs on the same day. They were all sales jobs disguised as marketing representative jobs.” One of the jobs was with Encyclopedia Britannica, one job was selling vacuum cleaners and the third was with PennCorp Financial, a consortium of insurance companies owned by American Can. “I was fortunate that the interviewing manager was an African American man, 33 years old, one of the sharpest men I ever met in my life,” Royster said. “And he was honest with me about what the