Upon starting his independent advisor journey in 2015, Dasarte Yarnway quickly learned that underrepresented clients and advisors alike were overlooked and underserved.
Due to the grave statistics associated with this reality, he sought to change the landscape of the financial services industry one client and one advisor at a time.
Listen now and learn about:
- Changes in financial services over the last decade
- The importance of diversity in financial services and how to increase it
- The most important thing an advisor can do for business owners and entrepreneurs
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Show Notes
This week, I’m joined by Dasarte Yarnway founder of Yarnway Wealth Management, Head of Community at Altruist, and Co-Founder of Onyx Advisor Network.
Upon starting his independent advisor journey in 2015, Dasarte quickly learned that underrepresented clients and advisors alike were overlooked and underserved. Due to the grave statistics associated with this reality, he sought to change the landscape of the financial services industry one client and one advisor at a time.
Here are my notes from our conversation…
Where the Story Begins (1:34)
Dasarte tells his story, starting back in Liberia before he was born. Both his parents came from humble beginnings. He describes his mother as a warrior as she was born on the Firestone Plantation, a site with thousands of acres of land rich with natural rubber. Other countries purchased this land and had its natural inhabitants mine the rubber under extreme conditions.
Prior to the period of civil unrest in Liberia, Dasarte’s parents moved to America to have a family and gave him what he describes as “an opportunity to run our race” by trying to figure this system out. Dasarte’s writing and the work he has done as a finance professional reflect that background. As he describes it, “everything that I do is to impact somebody else because everything that was done for me was to impact my life.”
When I asked Dasarte about what drew him to this profession, he quickly notes that even going to college was a gift. He grew up in “a neighborhood that was super rough, hard to navigate, and unsafe.” He grew up with other Liberian refugees, all sleeping on the bed horizontally because that was the only way they could all fit.
But Dasarte earned a football scholarship at the University of California Berkley where for the first time he experienced people with privilege and access, which opened up his eyes to a world of multi-generational wealth creation. He explains how that got the gears in his mind turning about possibilities in general.
After starting his career at a very large RIA, he began to see the power of compound interest in action and learned from legacy families that had built wealth generation over generation. It was there that Dasarte realized he could break the multi-generational curse for his family – and that’s what he set out to do.
The financial services industry became the vehicle for not only giving that to himself but to give it to the people he felt were overlooked and underserved.
What Has Changed in Financial Services Over the Past Decade (6:55)
Dasarte calls out three big changes since he started his career.
- First, access and resources in the industry are far more plentiful relative to when Dasarte struck out on his own almost a decade ago. When he was 24, there were few resources for starting a business. Still, he and others did it anyway, specifically referencing Sophia Bera as the type of advisor that helped fuel demand for resource groups like XYPN.
Now, there is an abundance of resources and information about financial services – there’s a way for everybody to figure out what they want to do and what lane they want to exist in within the industry.
- Second, there is a more concerted effort to make financial services more diverse and inclusive. At the start of his career, Dasarte shares that he didn’t feel heard, feel seen, or feel known in the space.
- Third, he sees the industry moving more towards a more personal level of finance. The Behavioural Advisor, as our mutual friend Brian Portnoy calls it, in which holistic planning is truly holistic. This type of personal finance recognizes that qualitative questions are just as important as quantitative questions.
Finally, it’s hard to ignore the industry technology advancements. Our friend Michael Kitces probably has the most comprehensive list of platforms and resources.
What Financial Advisors Can Do to Make A Difference With Diversity in Financial Services (11:00)
Dasarte has been part of efforts to highlight advisors from underrepresented communities. While I truly believe firms want to increase the diversity of their service teams and clients, there’s still a lot of work to do in the financial services space.
Dasarte shares that 70% of independent financial advisors are white men, a large majority of which are over the age of 50 while our country is so diverse and talented.
From his perspective, businesses are starting to understand that a lack of diversity is a business risk.
There is research from all corners of academia showing the high value of having diversity of thought, background, and perspectives.
Onyx Advisor Network says to its members: we see you, we hear you, and we know you. Business owners and firms must do a better job of creating that same feeling within their organization. That starts with being vocal about it. Let everyone know that you want to hire diverse talent and make people feel like they are welcome.
Dasarte also notes that financial services firms also need to focus on getting proximate. There are hidden gems in all sorts of places, especially with minority candidates. It’s one thing to be vocal about these efforts, but inviting someone to join you or even sitting with them at the coffee table to let them know, “hey, this is an opportunity for you.”
He also acknowledges that diversity in the space isn’t going to happen overnight, so you must commit to the process. The efforts with diversity and inclusion might take five or ten years before they really hit.
That last comment really resonates with me because improving diversity at Plancorp took years of persistent effort. I’ve been at Plancorp for eight years, but I felt like a big shift happened when we hired Amy Jones to be our Chief Talent Officer because she does all the things Dasarte talks about.
But being part of the 70% of advisors that are white men, I asked Dasarte how I could do a better job being a champion of change.
He suggests that being in a position of privilege, whether or not you asked for it, gives you a huge microphone to champion things that a just right. It’s right to have other people in the same position as you. It’s right to have talented people have the same opportunities as you.
It’s important to be vocal and not just support these things in silence. When people of privilege begin to speak about their advocacy publicly, there’s a trickle-down effect that influences other people of privilege.
Onyx Advisor Network (17:20)
Dasarte has mentioned Onyx Advisor Network, which he started with Emlen Miles-Mattingly after seeing the impact that sharing resources and information had on their practices as well as others (giving specific mention to Nyle Bayer and Michael Policar).
They wanted to recreate that experience for people that are overlooked, underserved, or advocates of a better financial services industry – and that’s how the Onyx Advisor Network was born.
Today, Onyx provides the resources for financial advisors to build their best practices through two types of membership. The network membership offers independent advisors access to custodial partnerships, compliance, model portfolios, financial planning software, etc.
The community membership is designed for people that might be working at a wirehouse and don’t need the advisory tools, but want to be in a community of like-minded thinkers that advocate for underrepresented and underserved advisors.
How Business Owners and Entrepreneurs Are Different from Other Clients (21:00)
Dasarte focuses his efforts on business owners and entrepreneurs because that’s the group he relates to the most, their ambition and risk-taking ability to their strategic thinking and energy.
From my perspective, a great example of Dasarte’s alignment with this demographic is his guide: 5 Hacks to Boost Your Business in 12 Months. One of the things Dasarte shares in his guide to fellow business owners is the importance of choosing a community or demographic that you really love to serve.
In talking about this demographic, Dasarte identifies several things that make business owners and entrepreneurs different from other client types he has served in the past. For starters, they need a lot of things to run their business well – the most important thing an advisor can do is alleviate the stress of entrepreneurship through sound financial planning and investment management.
Dasarte has niched his practice further by focusing on this demographic in Sacramento, which is the #2 U.S. city in terms of growth and #3 most diverse U.S. city.
On Writing (24:00)
Dasarte’s older sister was always reading, and one day she took him to a black-owned bookstore called The Markets.
There was a lady that looked like a genie, with all the droopy clothes and pearl necklaces, that came up to him in the store and asked him, “Do you like to write?” When Dasarte says yes, she replies, “keep writing because it’s going to change your life.”
From that day on, Dasarte wrote everything in his journal. Because his mom worked the graveyard shift, he would write to her because he didn’t get a chance to communicate with her as much as he wanted.
That writing habit has carried into his career in which he has published three books to date.
Advising Business Owners (26:45)
Business is a vehicle to provide financial freedom, impact, and legacy for families. To get the most from your business, you must use your goals as your compass.
We talk about this from both the perspective of advisors building a practice as well as the business owners our firms serve. It gets back to the truly personal aspect of personal finance that Dasarte referenced earlier. We both agree that it’s essential to have a greater purpose than just portfolio growth.
We are also both big believers in advisors specializing in a specific niche. When you try to be everything to everyone, it’s easy to miss the little things that make someone that specializes truly great at serving that type of person.
A common topic across many of my interviews with colleagues in the financial services field is fees. There always seems to be a new survey of successful people that don’t hire advisors because of the fees associated with using a financial professional.
Dasarte puts it well when he says: “cost is only an issue in the absence of value.” In his view, there are tons of advisors that provide so much value that they’re probably over-providing relative to the fees they charge – I tend to agree.
Resources:
- Yarnway Wealth Management
- Onyx Advisor Network
- Subscribe to the Yarnway Wealth Management Newsletter
- Find Dasarte Yarnway on Twitter
- Find Dasarte Yarnway on LinkedIn
- Young Money: 4 Proven Actions to Design Your Wealth While You Still Can by Dasarte Yarnway
- Dating Benji: Straight Talk on Improving Your Relationship with Money by Dasarte Yarnway
- Pay Me In Equity: A Millennial Guide to Understanding Equity Compensation by Dasarte Yarnway
- Dasarte’s Free Guide “5 Hacks to Boost Your Business in 12 Months“
- Emlen Miles-Mattingly on Twitter
- Nyle Bayer on Twitter
- Michael Policar on Twitter
- Plancorp’s opening for a Diversity in Financial Planning Intern for summer 2023 in our St. Louis office
- Amy Jones on LinkedIn
- Michael Kitces’ Financial AdvisorTech Directory
- The Behavioural Advisor
- Sophia Bera’s Gen Y Planning
- XY Planning Network
- The Firestone Plantation
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Long-term investing made simple. Most people enter the markets without understanding how to grow their wealth over the long term or clearly hit their financial goals. The Long Term Investor shows you how to proactively minimize taxes, hedge against rising inflation, and ride the waves of volatility with confidence.
Hosted by the advisor, Chief Investment Officer of Plancorp, and author of “Making Money Simple,” Peter Lazaroff shares practical advice on how to make smart investment decisions your future self with thank you for. A go-to source for top media outlets like CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and CNN Money, Peter unpacks the clear, strategic, and calculated approach he uses to decisively manage over 5.5 billion in investments for clients at Plancorp.
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