Page 24 - Investment Advisor September 2021

BNY Mellon’s Pershing Rose Capital Advisors is a 100%
views diversity, equity & minority-owned business and con-
inclusion as a business strategy central to achieving high per- tinuously recruits from historically
formance, competitive advantage, innovation and growth. The black colleges and universities. This year, the company invested in
firm has created greater awareness of economic, wealth, edu- and partnered with venture capital funds whose focus is on
cation, health and criminal justice inequities in our communi- minority- and female-founded businesses that are underrepre-
ties and acknowledges progress has been made but the most sented in fundraising. The firm also launched a partnership with
critical work is ahead. The firm is working to impact society Ethic Investments to build the Rose Capital Impact Portfolios. One
through workforce development, economic empowerment of the firm’s sustainability pillars is racial injustice. Rose’s Impact
and financial literacy, and has long-term relationships with Portfolio divests from companies with poor anti-discrimination
charities and organizations. It acts on behalf of underrepre- policies, substantial revenue from weapons or tobacco, or business
sented groups through executive commitments to self-edu- activities with negative impacts on communities of color.
cate, create an inclusive culture and provide opportunities
through professional development programs and recruiting Snappy Kraken has an executive team
efforts to increase representation at all levels. and workforce made up of 50%
women, and 50% of the executive
Facet Wealth focuses on diversity in hir- team is made up of people of color. As a firm, it broke the mold
ing staff, attracting and serving clients in advisor marketing research by publishing a comprehensive
and supporting candidates who wish to study to determine best practices for advisors by analyzing
become financial professionals. In 2020, Facet Wealth changed over 30 million data points. This year’s State of Digital
compensation to be more equitable across client-facing roles, Benchmarking Study, for example, analyzed 39,000 digital
conducted unconscious-bias training, and developed Slack chan- campaigns, 13.6 million emails, 3.1 million contacts and 679,000
nels for diverse employee affinity groups. Partnering with the page views throughout the United States. The study is provid-
CFP Board, the company committed to funding the Facet Wealth ed free to advisors to help them grow their business by using
Scholarship for Increased Diversity in Financial Planning. methods proven to work rather than failing at experiments.
Additionally, Facet Wealth is a founding member of Baltimore
Tracks, a coalition of Baltimore-based leaders who are commit-
ted to increasing opportunities in technology for people of color. INDIVIDUALS – ASSET MANAGEMENT/
PORTFOLIO FIRMS
Freeman Capital is the only Black-
owned automated wealth manage- Rachel Robasciotti, the co-founder of RIA
ment platform registered with the Robasciotti & Philipson and Adasina Social
Securities and Exchange Commission. Freeman caters to those Capital, is as much a social activist as a finan-
who have until now been overlooked by the industry. Using a cial advisor. After graduating from the
simple subscription fee model, the firm removed the hurdle of University of California at Berkeley and work-
needing assets to build assets. In March, it was selected to ing briefly at a financial firm, Robasciotti opened her own
participate in the Northwestern Mutual Black Founder company to serve women, people of color and LGBTQ+ folks.
Accelerator Program and also was awarded $50,000 in funding Adasina Social Capital, which Robasciotti founded and heads
from the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. The com- as CEO, invests in public companies that advance progressive
pany also competed in the 2020 Celebrating Black Founders policies such as equity and inclusion. Her Due Diligence 2.0
Semifinals challenge and won the title of Startup of the Year. initiative is designed to increase the flow of capital to asset
managers led by Blacks and indigenous people of color.
PGIM, the asset manage-
ment arm of life insurer Barbara Fuchs, vice president of talent manage-
Prudential Financial, recently launched “Inclusion Month” — ment at PGIM, in response to social injustice
an initiative set to take place each October that includes events of 2020, coordinated 21 listening ses-
events, campaigns and resources focused on a specific topic sions with more than 450 employees globally.
related to inclusivity and is accessible to its 3,500 employees Using session insights, Fuchs helped PGIM
worldwide. This initiative aims to go beyond raising awareness launch a revised racial equity plan that included an audit of
and emphasizes ways to build the skills and mindset needed to hiring and promotion processes and new targeted inclusion
help inclusive behavior become a “way of being.” In its first training. Fuchs also worked with the Black Executive
year, PGIM put a spotlight on the need to address bias, value Leadership Team to deliver a comprehensive program for
uniqueness and prevent harmful micro-messages. Black History Month. And in March, Barbara managed the

22 INVESTMENT ADVISOR SEPTEMBER 2021 | ThinkAdvisor.com