When Dasarte Yarnway and Emlen Miles-Mattingly attended an industry conference in October, they noticed that out of nearly 1,000 advisors, they were about the only two Black men in the audience.
That’s because, despite initiatives industrywide, the wealth management profession remains overwhelmingly white and male. Only 2.9% of advisors identify as Black or African American and women represent 18.1% of financial advisors,
To help change that, Yarnway, founder of Berknell Financial Group, and Miles-Mattingly, founder and CEO of Gen Next Wealth, created the Onyx Advisor Network, a community for people of color, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community and other groups who have been historically largely excluded from the financial services industry. Onyx will provide members discounted access to compliance tools, asset custody services, business development resources and technology.
“That feeling of belonging is one that is not present within the industry, and it’s one we want to change,” Yarnway said. “It’s been like that since I’ve been in the industry and I’m sure well before that. We don’t want an advisor to walk into a conference and feel like an anomaly or feel like they can’t speak about their experiences.”
The network will officially launch in January and will charge a flat membership fee, though the founders aren’t yet disclosing how much it will cost.
Onyx has partnerships with Envestnet MoneyGuide and RightCapital for financial planning software, MessageWatcher and Synergy RIA Compliance Solutions for compliance, and Wealthbox for CRM. Yarnway and Miles-Mattingly selected technology they already use in working with their own clients, Miles-Mattingly said.
The advisor network is working with Altruist for custody services without a minimum asset requirement. “When I came into the industry, you had to have a minimum of $10 million before you got on TD Ameritrade’s platform,” Yarnway said.
The network is also working with Vanguard on a set of model portfolios. Though details are still being worked out, Miles-Mattingly said that in conjunction with no-asset minimums and discounted technology, the products are aimed at lowering the barrier to entry for advisors to start managing money and offer financial planning.
In addition to helping women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ advisors to build businesses, the discounts can help them better serve communities traditionally ignored by the financial services industry.
"The wealth gap in America has never been wider. To change the face of wealth, the financial services industry must better reflect the makeup of our country,” said Miles-Mattingly in a statement. “In creating the Onyx platform, we will provide access to millions of individuals and families in minority communities who want to build generational wealth but lack the knowledge, relationships and tools that have traditionally been difficult to access.”
Onyx could compete with the XY Planning Network, which similarly offers access to custodial services, discounted technology and business coaching for new advisors. But while XYPN has advocated for greater diversity in financial services, it will be core to Onyx’s business, said Yarnway.
“There’s no other platform specifically speaking to underrepresented advisors,” he said.
XYPN co-founder and CEO Alan Moore said he’s supportive of Onyx’s mission and that his network is evidence of the need for support networks and communities of entrepreneurs.
“We have always believed that the turnkey advice and planning platform model would expand to serve more types of advisors with their own varied needs over time,” Moore said in an email. “We wish Emlen and Dasarte nothing but the best as they focus their time and energy and talents to increase the number of minority-led financial advisor firms bringing advice to a wider range of consumers."
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