After recently holding its ninth annual Black Financial Advisors Network Symposium, Raymond James diversity leaders pointed to the progress BFAN has made over the past nine years.
But, as the firm gears up for the 10th BFAN Symposium next year, company leaders made it clear they're still working toward new diversity milestones throughout the year, with career fairs, internships and other programs to build a diverse talent pipeline.
The goal of these programs is to expose students of various majors, career changers and others who may not have considered a career in financial services to the opportunities available, according to Renée Baker, head of the Private Client Group's Advisor Inclusion Networks at Raymond James.
"We recognize that there's only a limited pool of individuals that are currently Black experienced financial advisors," she told ThinkAdvisor during a recent interview.
Therefore, the work that the BFAN Advisory Council is doing is "really about creating a pipeline [for] talent development," said Baker. "So we recognize that, in order to move the needle, we have to get into colleges and universities."
That is why they're "working to attract the next generation of leaders through our various training programs that we offer, career fairs and internships and other opportunities where we can share more about this profession and help the next generation see the opportunity that we have here at Raymond James," she explained.
'Cultivating Progress'
The ninth BFAN Symposium, held in Palm Harbor, Florida, was the best-attended one yet, with more than 160 attendees, said Baker, who noted there were only about 35-40 advisors at the first BFAN Symposium.
The event's theme this year was "cultivating progress," noted Chris Fils, complex manager and BFAN Advisory Council member.
"Cultivating progress is really our goal here at Raymond James: to provide an opportunity for Black financial advisors to network, learn, share and really collaborate on best practices of growing their businesses," explained Baker, who serves as a judge for ThinkAdvisor's LUMINARIES industry recognition program.
Pointing out that the firm has four advisor inclusion networks, she said Raymond James is focused on "providing opportunities to shift and disrupt the status quo when it comes to increasing representation in this industry and profession."
She added: "It is about progress and we know that we want to be part of the change of what it looks like to grow representation in this industry, and there's so many ways that we're doing that here at the firm."
For example, this year, BFAN worked in partnership with the University of South Florida Diversity Initiatives Black Leadership Network to host a student track during the BFAN Symposium, Fils pointed out.
