Is 'DEI' over or just evolving? Here's how FP covered it in 2024

The words diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI for short, have turned into a political lightning rod that is absorbing repeated shocks in an ongoing storm.

Many of the same conservatives who view DEI and another previously noncontroversial acronym — ESG, or investing with environmental, social and governance goals — with similar skepticism toward so-called woke liberal political motivations are cheering President Donald Trump's impending return to the White House next year. Academic institutions and large corporations have already responded by pulling back in some form on both those fronts.

Financial advisors are certainly participating in those efforts by calling into question the notion that DEI brings any greater shareholder returns or long-run outcomes. On the other hand, wealth management faces a succession challenge that won't abate under a new administration, and continued investor interest in tying portfolios to principles of any persuasion. And planners aren't going to stop trying to forge more pathways into the field for aspiring professionals and investors or building networks among peers just because certain acronyms evoke some ire.

There are "a lot of systemic issues" playing into disparities such as the fact that only about 24% of certified financial planners are women, said planner Hannah Moore, the founder of training firm Amplified Planning and Richardson, Texas-based Guiding Wealth. As one of Financial Planning's "20 People Who Will Shape Wealth Management in 2025," Moore sees training programs for registered investment advisory firms as a tool "empowering firms to help solve a lot of these problems" by giving them a method to hire more people who "don't necessarily have the same network that a quoteunquote traditional financial advisor does," she said. 

"We need more firms who can give real career paths to folks where their metrics are not just, 'How many dollars of AUM did you bring in?' but their metrics are, 'How are you serving the clients?'" Moore said.

The dilemma for 2025 in the industry, though, will revolve around the degree that efforts to promote inclusion in an industry with a legacy of excluding women and minorities will run into right-wing criticism stirred up by President-elect Trump and his increasingly influential allies on social media. For example, the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom drew some advisors to its campaign calling on large companies to drop all of their DEI efforts.

"Americans have sent a powerful message at the ballot box," Jeremy Tedesco, ADF's senior counsel and senior vice president of corporate engagement, said in a statement last month. "They're tired of divisive ideologies like DEI that pit people against each other because of their skin color or deeply held beliefs. Corporate leaders need to learn this same lesson."

For many wealth management professionals, however, the need to expand access to the tools of investing and rewarding careers has never amounted to voting for one candidate or another. Somewhere in that murky picture, the struggles to boost financial literacy and representation among historically excluded groups will inevitably go on. And FP will be there to cover it.

To see more than 50 pieces from the past year that explored topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion, scroll down the slideshow. For last year's list, click here. And, to view a roundup of expert predictions on investing and wealth management for 2025, follow this link.