Building A More Inclusive Practice: It’s All About Service

By Susan Rupe

How do advisors serve a diverse clientele? By being authentic and helping people solve problems.

That was the theme of a session during Tuesday’s Diversity Symposium held as part of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors’ Impact Week. The online Impact Week takes the place of the 2020 NAIFA Congressional Conference, which had been scheduled to begin Tuesday but was moved to a virtual event as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Three advisors who serve diverse communities drew from their experiences as they gave tips on how to build a more inclusive practice.

“If you can get the tide to rise, everyone’s ship will sail – including yours,” said Brian Haney, founder of The Haney Co. in Silver Spring, Md. Haney’s practice serves a diverse population in the Washington area, with special emphasis on the LGBT community and Spanish-speaking clients.

“I don’t think there was any magic to building cultural competence,” Haney said. “I made it about the community. I didn’t go in with a business mindset. I wanted to find out what the community needed.”

Lee Bethel is president of Comprehensive Benefits Services in Washington. He moved to the Washington area a number of years ago and found a market that needed to be served.

“I saw lots of black-owned businesses but no one was serving their insurance and benefit needs, so I decided I would be the one to fill that void,” he said. He built his knowledge base and also built centers of influence with accountants, attorneys and human resource professionals that helped increase his practice and expand his clientele.

Bethel also noted that black communities typically have a low level of financial literacy. He made it his mission to help change that and to build a practice that would fill the gap for minority-owned businesses.

Multicultural is mainstream and Main Street is ever-changing, said Silvia Tergas, a Prudential advisor in Bethesda, Md.

Tergas cited her family background as the reason she intentionally seeks to serve a diverse clientele. “The more I learned about this business, the more I was aware of how families like mine are underserved,” she said.

Serving a Spanish-speaking market is about more than speaking the language, she added. “I’m not only bilingual, I’m also bicultural,” she said.

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @INNsusan.