Authors: Fenaba R. Addo and Keith Beverly
Abstract: This article highlights common financial issues and concerns of affluent Black American households as they attempt to build and maintain long-term financial stability. In so doing, we shed light on the nexus of Black families seeking professional wealth management services and Black financial planners working to meet their needs while also attempting to carve out a successful business in a profession and industry within which they are woefully underrepresented. A collaboration of a wealth inequality scholar and financial planning professionals from a wealth management company, this article outlines common planning priorities and challenges raised by African-American families with their planning advisors. This article collates anecdotes from client meetings, GRID advisors’ expertise, and scholarship on racial wealth inequality, racial discrimination in lending, credit, and employment markets to paint a picture of the financial planning environment among affluent Black American households seeking wealth management services from one Black and women-led company. While many of these are universal, they also represent topics that are overwhelmingly prioritized by Black clients. When possible, we use information from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances on households located in the top quintile of the Black wealth distribution, the “affluent,” to complement the information provided by the analysts of their targeted clientele.
