Moving the needle on DEI

A long-standing joke among women in the financial services industry is that there’s never a line to enter the women’s restroom at an industry event.

The industry has recognized that there is a lack of diversity among the advisor force and is taking steps to bring in more women and minorities to the business. But are those efforts paying off? What progress is being made to increase diversity, equity and inclusion? Several industry leaders who are on the front lines of the fight to improve DEI told InsuranceNewsNet there are hopeful signs that financial services is moving toward becoming more inclusive.

More resources going toward DEI

More money and resources are going toward DEI initiatives, and that’s driving an effort to encourage a more diverse population to consider a financial services career.

That’s the observation from Chris Gandy, president and founder of Midwest Legacy Group in Chicago. As co-chair of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors DEI Council, Gandy has been an advocate for ensuring that Americans have a choice of advisors with whom they can relate.

Gandy pointed to The American College’s HBCU Student Scholarship Program, which was established in 2020, and offers students from historically Black colleges and universities the ability to learn about the financial services profession and get a head start in their careers.

Students who have completed their sophomore year and are enrolled and in good academic standing at any four-year, bachelor’s degree-granting HBCU are eligible to apply for an HBCU Scholarship. Full tuition scholarships are available for the Retirement Income Certified Professional designation, the Chartered Financial Consultant designation and the Certified Financial Planner certification education program.

In addition, The NAIFA Foundation for Financial Security announced in May that it is launching a program to promote and support the recruitment of diverse advisors to the industry. The foundation will award diversity scholarships to current or recently graduated college students who are members of under-represented populations in the industry. The diversity scholarship is a two-year program that will provide support and training to help launch the careers of these prospective advisors.

“We’re seeing marketing dollars that traditionally don’t go to DEI initiatives now moving to that arena,” he said. “We’re starting to see a concerted effort on the part of top-line managers and owners, the insurance companies and the investors.”

But whether these efforts bring results remains to be seen, Gandy said. “Is it going to be, ‘Hey, we’re going to throw some money at [DEI] and see what happens’ or will it be a focused and intentional effort?” he asked. “So we’re waiting to see what that’s going to look like.”

Some hopeful signs that Gandy said he sees are the efforts to increase the number of diverse candidates in the advisor pipeline and greater awareness around DEI.

“Just acknowledging that we need to do things in the DEI space is a big step,” he said.
In addition to making strides to increase DEI among the advisor force, Gandy said the industry is making progress in serving a more diverse consumer audience, although, he added, more work needs to be done.

“The companies that are going to win this game are the companies that embrace DEI and start tapping into those markets that traditionally have not been tested,” he said. “Every company wants to know how they can add revenue. They reduce expenses and grow profitability. But one of the ways to add revenue is to direct some of the assets they are already spending and use them to tap into new markets.”

‘Diverse talent is everywhere’

Companies are doing more than paying lip service to increasing DEI — they are actively seeking diverse talent and supporting the diverse employees they already have, according to Angela White.

White is northern complex recruiting director for Equitable and is based in Indianapolis. In her position, she works with 40 hiring managers to assess the company’s current recruiting strategy. She also creates training and support for recruiting diverse talent. Along with Gandy, she is co-chair of NAIFA’s DEI Council.

When it comes to finding diverse talent, “All you have to do is open your eyes and look. Diverse talent is everywhere,” she said. “Ask yourself where you would want to go to find a certain type of candidate and that’s where you go.”

As an example, she cited an organization in Indianapolis called Inclusive Network. The group holds a Women’s Equity Brunch to bring together women and discuss issues that impact women.

“It’s a lot of women sticking together, helping each other rise to the top and supporting each other,” she said.

White said she got one of Equitable’s vice presidents involved with the organization. “So now we have a presence, we’re talking about our commitment to DEI at these events, and we’re engaging in meaningful conversations with the participants,” she said.

She also became involved with the Indy Rainbow Chamber of Commerce, an LGBTQ business organization serving the Indianapolis area. “It’s all about getting company executives active and engaged in their communities, and actively seeking organizations where diverse talent can be found,” she said.

White said she sees more companies forming employee resource groups, or ERGs, which are voluntary, employee-led groups whose aim is to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace aligned with the organizations they serve.

At Equitable, she said, the company developed metrics around hiring diverse talent.

“Around 2020, we decided that DEI is more of who we are and that we really want to represent the markets that we serve,” she said. “And so we put together different DEI initiatives on attracting and recruiting diverse talent. Then we put different metrics in place. Each one of our managers has recruiting goals that they have to hit every year. But we also track all of our diversity hires as well, because we want to make sure that not only are we having conversations and actively pursuing diverse talent, but we’re getting that diverse talent into our organization, and through our selection process.”

White said that Handshake, an online platform aimed at helping college students find jobs, is a popular place to recruit diverse talent. She also created a virtual recruiting event for Pride Month in June, titled “How To Be Equitable,” which is a play off the company’s name and in which she talked to LGBTQ members in the industry about how they started their careers and what their community means to them.

“It’s about more than posting jobs on job boards, but actively going out to find diverse talent,” she said. “We do a lot of training and a lot of development around how to find that diverse talent and how to have effective conversations with those folks.”

In her volunteer role with NAIFA, White said she is seeing more financial services organizations working toward increasing DEI.

“Everybody understands why bringing diversity in your organization makes sense — from a monetary standpoint, from a diversity of thought standpoint,” she said. “I think we’re rounding that corner of understanding why diversity is important. And I’m excited to see so many organizations putting together ERGs and different types of support for their diverse advisors.”

It started with a pledge

If a diverse workforce feels included in the organization, the organization will be more successful. That ideal is what led Ameritas CEO Bill Lester to sign a DEI pledge in 2020, said Lined Mason, Ameritas vice president, policy services. Mason has been at the forefront of Ameritas’ diversity efforts over the past two years.

Ameritas developed a strategy to support a diverse workforce and that strategy began with creating an Inclusion and Diversity Leadership Council, Mason said.

The council is made up of senior leaders at Ameritas. “I am one of the members on the council and I made this commitment because I want to make a change,” Mason said. “Our job is to counsel the senior leadership on DEI issues. Those issues can be anything from facilitating training, working with marketing on our branding and public image, working with human resources and with recruiting and hiring.”

Mason said Ameritas surveyed its employees and associates to determine which areas of diversity were most important. From there, four associate resource groups formed, and some of them have included the word “bison” in their group names, to reflect the bison image that is part of Ameritas’ branding.

Bison Pride is the group representing Ameritas associates from the LGBTQ community. “This group is all about creating a welcoming and safe environment and helping to facilitate a network of allies while supporting the community,” Mason said.

Bison Strong represents Black associates. This group’s activities include recording a series of “fireside chats,” where members can speak about issues such as building a personal brand and developing their individual strengths.

Ameritas associates who have disabilities are represented by their own group, People with Disabilities. Mason said this group is aimed at raising awareness of disabilities while focusing on learning and advocacy.

NextGen Bison is the group representing young associates or associates who are new to the company. “They’re trying to figure out things like: Is this a company for me? Is the role that I’m in one that I want to be in forever? What does my future look like at Ameritas?” Mason said. “It’s a place for them to mentor each other and share experiences.”

Ameritas also launched a group for its female financial professionals called Ameritas Women Elevated, or AWE. “It’s a place for empowering and mentoring women in this profession — a place where they can thrive, help each other out, explore ways to attract and retain women in the profession,” Mason said.

Another group within Ameritas is Ameritas Growth Leaders, financial professionals who have been in the industry for 10 years or less. “They meet a couple of times a year,” Mason said. “They get mentored by field advisors who have been in the industry longer and can show them ways to be successful in this industry.”

Now that these groups have been established, Mason said, the next step is to measure whether the DEI efforts are resulting in more diverse employees and advisors joining the company.

Mason said that information is incomplete but that Ameritas’ female advisor force currently makes up about 19% of its total advisor headcount. “Back when I started 30 years ago, women made up about 2% of the advisor force,” she said. “So we are making some progress. But now we can see whether we can make that percentage go higher.”

Building on a foundation

A few years ago, New York Life identified six cultural markets in which the company wanted to dedicate its resources. Those cultural markets are Chinese, African American, Korean, Latino, Vietnamese and South Asian. Those are in addition to the women's market, which New York Life also targeted as an area it wants to serve.

So what's next with the company's DEI efforts? Eric B. Jackson, New York Life vice president of agency diversity, equity and inclusion, said the next step is to take the DEI programs that have been developed on the corporate side and adapt them to the company's agencies.

"We also are creating and identifying some specific activities that agents and managers can use in their offices," Jackson said. "For example, we are conducting e-learning on diversity issues and assigning diversity ambassadors who will help make sure we're doing the right things."

Jackson said New York Life also is focusing on messaging - both from the home office and from the local agencies - "that will help us to build and develop cultural competency."

"We're looking to connect our agents as some of the local faces of New York Life and create opportunities for them," he said. "We're not only providing support for our agents but we're also helping them connect with their communities."

Singing with many voices

The industry field force is not the only place that has lacked diversity. Look at any industry conference agenda. Where are the women? Where are the people of color? Why are their voices not being heard from the conference stage?

Earlier this year, Sonya Dreizler and Liv Gagnon launched Choir, a diversity certification program for financial services conferences. Dreizler has spent 20 years in the industry, including serving as a broker-dealer and RIA executive. She has been a longtime advocate for greater racial and gender equity in the industry. Gagnon is a media relations specialist who focuses on social values.

Choir’s mission is to make industry events more representative of the U.S. population, Gagnon told InsuranceNewsNet. Choir’s proprietary algorithm uses hundreds of data points to assess the prominence and visibility of women, nonbinary people, and people of color on conference stages — setting the first industry benchmark for conference diversity, the Choir Certification. Choir then uses this data to provide leadership teams and event organizers with actionable guidance to maintain diverse and increasingly representative speaker lineups year over year.

Choir conducts an assessment of an organization’s most recent conference and calculates a score based on how well that conference represents women and people of color — and specifically women of color — on stage in comparison to their representation in the U.S. population.

In addition, event sponsors, attendees and speakers can go to the Choir website and sign the pledge to attend only conferences that meet the following standards:

1. At least one of every three keynote speakers is a woman or person of color.

2. Every panel with four or more people includes at least one woman or person of color as a non-moderator expert.

3. Women of color are represented throughout the agenda in expert sessions, not only sessions about diversity, equity and inclusion.

4. There is an enforced policy against harassment of all kinds.

“It has been lovely to work with conferences that are trying to acknowledge how important representation on stage is, and are looking for more resources, and are actively working on that,” Dreizler said. “And then reviewing those conferences after they’re completed to see how they’ve done and give feedback on opportunities for increasing representation the next year. And to know where they’ve done well — all of this has been great and successful.”

The next step, which will launch later this year, is Choir Voices. This will be a listing of diverse speakers who are available to present at conferences, so that conference organizers can find them and learn about their areas of expertise.

“We wanted to create a place to remove the excuse of ‘I can’t find anyone diverse to speak at my conference,’” Gagnon said. “We want to connect with organizers and speakers at all levels to bring them into Voices.”

The next step: accountability

More people in the industry are aware of DEI but the next step in the journey is accountability, said the founder of a community made up of women in financial services as well as the male allies who support their efforts.

Sheryl Hickerson is CEO of Females and Finance, which was founded in 2018 with the goal of providing a support network to hire, mentor, train and advance 100,000 women in the profession by Jan. 1, 2025.

“I think the awareness part [of DEI] is there,” she said. “And I do think the next step is the accountability part of it, where people are starting to stress themselves against diversity, equity and inclusion metrics.”

Diversity is about more than race or gender, Hickerson said. “Diversity is about all the other little subtleties as well: where someone comes from, the specific talent that they have, their education, what specialty market they work in. Diversity tends to be something that people tend to silo into things that are so obvious, like skin color and such. But there is such a wide array of being diverse.”

During the time of unrest following the death of George Floyd in 2020, Females and Finance sponsored a number of online talks focusing on economic and social issues facing the Black community and what those in the finance industry needed to understand.

“This was a chance to offer more opportunities for people to actually learn human skills, language skills — you know, understand those kinds of soft skill things because they really do matter,” Hickerson said.

DEI efforts are ongoing, Hickerson said, adding, “I think all of us are still learning. We need to get into spaces that feel inviting because everybody needs an invitation to the party. And they need to be invited to dance. It’s not just the invitation to show up; it’s the invitation to participate.”

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].