This past week I was in Chicago at the Morningstar Investment Conference. Morningstar is a leading provider of investment research and I’ve been using their services since I first delved into the financial world back in 2007. This year I was invited to a be a panelist on building generational wealth for all families.
The main takeaways for me from the conference where that
- Climate collapse truly is top of mind for asset managers,
- While a lot of people know the history of the racial wealth divide, a lot more don’t, and
- Growing your identity to move into financial stability and flourishing is tough work.
On Climate Collapse
I attended two sessions were panelists said we’re not doing enough to address climate collapse and the market has taken this into consideration. The first session focused on asset managers who invest in companies doing innovative work on food shortages as well as an organization looking at projects funded by private equity to address technology solutions to this issue. Overall the outlook was grim, especially considering water shortages.
The second session had asset managers discuss what they considered Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) screening. It was interesting to learn what natural resources are key to a regenerative economy, like nickel, and what technologies are considered ESG by some, and not others – specifically nuclear energy. The panelists also mentioned a focus on companies with circular resource usage where manufacturing byproducts are re-used thus limiting waste. This reminds me of the indigenous practices of “using the whole animal”.
While it was refreshing to hear asset manager Lisa Beauvilain from Impax Asset Management say there’s no place where we can protect ourselves from climate collapse, it was also alarming. I walked away thinking that while investors may not agree on climate change, at least the stock and bond markets understand we are collectively and irreversibly choosing to decimate the planet.
On Racial Healing
I was invited to present on building generational wealth for all families along with three other people I highly respect:
- Phuong Luong, a CFP and the founder of Just Wealth, and a planner at Saltbox Financial Planning, financial planning, education and investment management firm.
- Emlen Miles-Mattingly, founder of GenNext Wealth, a comprehensive financial planning firm, and is also the founder of Onyx advisors a network for minority financial advisors.
- Sonya Dreizler, co-founder of Choir and leading financial industry consultant on gender and race inclusion.
We had the impossible task to discuss the history of the racial wealth divide and what financial advisors can do about it in just 30 minutes. You can find the list of resources we shared at Sonya’s website, including studies, infographics, and links to interviews.
Yours truly shared on the clean pain of acceptance vs the dirty pain of avoidance, blame, and denial from Resmaa Menakem’s book My Grandmother’s Hands. When it comes to systemic inequities or any type of healing we need to “stop digging” as they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, to find solid ground from which to begin the process of repair.
Pretending that individuals can solve collective problems is a perverse type of gaslighting and incredibly common in the financial services industry. It’s the old “pulling yourself up from your bootstraps myth”. At the same time, while we need to acknowledge systemic inequities and move towards repair collectively, we also individually get to own our agency and strive towards being good stewards of our resources of time, energy, and money.
Following the panel I had a powerful conversation with one of the attendees. They shared that in some ways having such a short amount of time and looking around at who was in attendance, we were basically preaching to the choir. I agree, that maybe the people who attend these sessions already know what we’re sharing and yet, that this is still an important message. As the first and only one in my family and group of close friends working in finance, conferences where my community is not mentioned and not visible feel violent – one more place where I am not fully welcome.
In past conferences, going to sessions like the one I was on gave me a place where I could at least feel seen and respected. Even if nothing is changing, even if black elders are being shot in grocery stores by white supremacy, at least here in this corner I can take part in collective visioning and collective grief. Because most spaces and most people do not give me that opportunity, in and out of the finance industry. Just like ESG asset managers, we need to be honest about where we stand today and what’s coming up.
On Being Financially Empowered
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
C.G. Jung
I had the pleasure of meeting Sarah Newcomb, Ph. D., behavioral economist at Morningstar. She has dedicated herself to studying what it takes to go from money chaos to money stability to money legacy.
Below is a brief summary of our conversation. Next week’s post will be dedicated to a review of her work and how her findings can help you grow your identity into financially empowered.
- Upward mobility is possible by changing your planning timeframe, learning set skills, and making positive choices.
- Rules of thumb (aka heuristics) are your friend!
- Strokes of good and bad luck happen to all of us, and because of systemic racism and classism the stacks are set against groups of people.
- Belonging to a group is incredibly important, and people will sometimes unconsciously sabotage themselves to stay where they’re comfortable even if unhappy.
The Joy of IRL Connection Building
Although many people see investing as an unwelcoming world full of jargon and suits, you also have a right to be part of it. For anyone who’s attended industry conferences or trainings, the usual benefits are making new connections and learning from experts. By far that’s the biggest draw for me and it was a pleasure to connect with people I’ve long admired.
For you dear reader, know that while the financial industry may focus on larger system wide trends they have heard that a change is gonna come and they’re in full alarm – hence the panel on the racial wealth divide and multiple warnings of inevitable climate catastrophes.