Asian American advisors share hopes for the future after a season of hate

August 25, 2021 9:00 AM

Asian American wealth management professionals — From left to right, Anh Tran of SageMint Wealth, Elijah Souza of Gerber Kawasaki, Marguerita Cheng of Blue Ocean Global Wealth, Bill Tung of East West Bank and Sandra Cho of Pointwealth Capital Management discussed their hopes for the industry's future after a period marked by hate and violence directed towards Asian Americans amid the coronavirus.

Asian American financial advisors and wealth management professionals are responding in starkly different ways to a wave of hate and violence amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The spate of incidents took the form of racial slurs and thousands of physical attacks across the country, including a mass shooting in Atlanta last March. It left many Asian American advisors grappling with how to advance their own success while at the same time getting the industry to recognize their group and reflect America’s changing demographics in order to usher in a new generation of clients and planners.

But the myth that Asian Americans — or any group of tens of millions of Americans for that matter — have lockstep, monolithic views is debunked by the diverging viewpoints of the 20 professionals canvassed below as part of Financial Planning’s 36th annual IBD Elite study.

Some advisors and professionals rejected the notion that they have been subjected to any discrimination in the industry. Their achievements, they said, reflect a meritocracy in which hard work overcame any burdens added by their race, and the discussion in itself may demean those achievements.

Others expressed frustration about being stereotyped as a “model minority” while fearing for the safety of loved ones. They noted the dearth of Asian American executives in visible C-suite roles and say they don’t feel the same sense of support and opportunity as their white colleagues. Even so, many stressed the contrast between their experiences and those of Black Americans both as financial advisors and as citizens.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders represent 7.7% of the U.S. population, according to the newly released 2020 Census. That’s up from 5.6% in 2010. The group spans a range of origins and median incomes that are in some cases well above most other Americans and in others far below.

In light of the hate speech and violence of the past year and a half and the rising number of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the IBD Elite study includes a discussion of why they see unmet potential amid their accomplishments and features 20 advisors and industry professionals who shared their reflections, suggestions and views.

Scroll down for a discussion about their path into the industry and their views on the best ways to open more avenues for the next generation of advisors, professionals and clients.

Opie Opfer

Winnie Sun

Managing partner, Sun Group Wealth Partners

Sun came to wealth management as a career-changer after starting her own television production company. She and business partner Brandon Chang launched their independent practice in 2011, and since then the Taiwanese American advisor has appeared regularly on CNBC, Good Day LA and Cheddar, among other media outlets. She has accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers on

Twitter

, as well.

Sun said the industry still lacks “sufficient representation in management, leadership and executive decision-making positions,” for Asian Americans and recalled her own challenges as she entered the profession.

“I was interviewed by multiple managers — some who flat-out told me they didn’t think I had it to thrive in this industry,” Sun said in an email. “I was offered three very different salaries at three offices. I was told by a veteran financial advisor that the manager who hired me got a nice bonus for doing so, because I was what he coined a “double minority.” I was in my early 20s at the time, still naive in many ways and had never heard this term before. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. Looking back, yes, there were many events and conversations that today would be deemed discrimmination. But, like many Asian Americans, we have been referred to as the model minority, I just put my head down, cold-called, and worked. Don’t get involved in the drama, just let your work do the talking.”

Manish Khatta

President, Potomac Fund Management

Khatta’s Indian American parents taught him to knock over any barriers in his way, and he now leads the firm he joined after college. While Khatta said it’s important that discriminatory practices against Asian Americans be exposed and brought to an end, he pointed out that his group’s experience has been vastly different from that of Black Americans — a perspective Khatta experienced firsthand after he shaved his head and was mistaken for Black.

“Our generation, we have a much different viewpoint on these things,” Khatta said. “We have a future that's very bright and I don't think some of the sensationalist headlines get that. We always look at the negative, but, 40 years ago, they'd probably look down on me for even marrying a white woman.”

Lila Photo

Nandita Das

Director, Financial Planning Program, Delaware State University

Das, a professor of finance and founder and owner of RIA Das Financial Health, views herself as a “world citizen” after emigrating from India to Canada before settling in the U.S. Before that, she moved as a child with her parents to India from East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh.

The CFP and Ph.D. is now at the forefront of industry efforts to attract more young people who are members of minority groups to financial planning. She teaches personal finance and investments at Delaware State, an historically Black college.

For the industry to be more inclusive, firms and professionals should strive to understand specific groups of clients. “When we talk about racial tension, it's because we have not been socialized in each other's culture,” Das said. “I use the term ‘nudgeducate.’ Nudgeucate me, but do not insult my culture. My values are my values.”

David Li

Managing director, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management

Li emigrated from China at 5 years old and remembers taking his first steps toward his eventual profession just four years later when he began asking his parents about their household’s revenue and expenses. Li’s parents worked in food service for decades and he learned about setting aside money for rent, utilities and groceries out of their tips and about the value of compounding growth over time, Li said. As one of this year’s Financial Planning’s

Top 40 Brokers Under 40

, he leads a Boston- and Florida-based team that manages over $1 billion in client assets.

While Li said the company’s training enabled him to overcome the traditional barrier of new entrants needing to sell to their personal network, Li pointed out that the team has a partner who is a woman, another who is Hispanic and gay staff members as well.

“As I see the wealth management industry today, it's moving away from sole practitioners,” Li said. “That diversity is really important, and I think our clients appreciate that global perspective. We all share a common goal, which is to make progress.”

Anh Tran

Managing partner, SageMint Wealth

Tran’s parents started the businesses that they still own today in their 70s after fleeing Vietnam as refugees known as “boat people” following the war. After the recent violence directed at Asian Americans, Tran said she bought her mother pepper spray.

She praises her broker-dealer, LPL Financial, for launching an advisor diversity council three years ago and creating “advisor business community” groups such as one for advisors of Asian American or Pacific Islander heritage. Despite such progress, there’s plenty of room for the industry “to bring in women of color in these leadership roles” and open more paths into the profession, she said.

“People don't view us as being low income or underserved, but yet we're the demographic that's always stuck in the middle,” Tran said. “We've just been stuck in this model minority myth.”

Earl Carr

Chief global strategist, Pivotal Advisors

Born in Panama as the son of a Jamaican ambassador and a United Nations diplomat, Carr identifies as Black, Caribbean and Asian American and traces other family roots back to Ireland and Scotland. After rising hate crimes and violence targeted Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, Carr called every member of his team to check in with them.

He said that senior managers who likewise wish to support Asian American or other minority team members in times of strife should invest in mental health resources for their staff and tap into their areas of expertise such as language skills or regional understanding, Carr said.

He credits mass protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd with reminding more people to speak out against injustice. “What has been fascinating is that it really struck a nerve,” Carr said. “The whole Black Lives Matter movement has really generated a space where people in other cultures have felt comfortable to come out and have a voice. It's been an inflection point.”

Sandra Cho

CEO, Pointwealth Capital Management

The Korean American advisor has hired two LGBTQ employees to her practice, and she works with young women on a pro bono basis to help educate them about finance. Advisors of all backgrounds can make the industry more inclusive by acting as mentors and promoting firm cultures in which everyone feels included and safe, Cho said. She has become practiced at dealing with stressful situations by finding a silver lining in the challenges, she added.

“I've had to excel, whether it be on my base of knowledge and my ability to press my point and to be heard and to be seen in a room,” she said. “The biggest thing that's helped me move forward on my journey to being a successful minority female advisor has been forgetting who I am and just being me. If I can forget who I am and just go by what I'm saying and what I’m doing, then usually people are able to also look beyond my face to the words that are coming out of my mouth.”

John Eing

Partner, Abacus Wealth Partners

Eing is of Chinese and Korean heritage and grew up in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles. It was there that he first grasped the “real difference between the haves and the have-nots” as some parts of the city received more protection than others during the 1992 L.A. riots, he recalled. Growing up, Eing and his friends saw news coverage suggesting violent hostility between Black, Hispanic and Asian American residents in their neighborhood that didn’t square with their experiences at all.

The nature of the planning profession enables advisors of all backgrounds to help others, support their families and give back to their communities, and it is those qualities that have helped Asian American advisors get over the hurdle of often being one of the few minorities in the room at industry events, Eing said.

“For far too long, I think our voices have not been heard as loudly or as thoroughly as we hoped,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of role models for someone like me to even consider becoming a financial planner… The classic example of the older white male being represented and — being dominantly represented — leaves little room for other representation. If you’re looking for someone that looks like you, it's hard to come by.”

Sathya Chey

Managing partner, Arise Private Wealth

Chey’s parents escaped Cambodia’s genocidal Khmer Rouge regime and came to the U.S. by way of a refugee camp in Thailand. They worked in sweatshops before becoming entrepreneurs. Chey credits them with teaching her the importance of living within your means and that “of course money doesn't buy you happiness but it can buy you peace of mind and security for your family, and that allows you to expand your capabilities.”

Chey decided as an undergraduate to pursue a career in planning. “Once I really understood wealth management and what it meant to help people achieve their goals, that was when the passion behind it came,” she said. “If I can help someone enjoy their life more because we're just so lucky to be here, then that is such an amazing and fulfilling career for me.”

Manish Dave

Senior vice president of business development for experienced advisor recruiting, Ameriprise

Dave grew up in Ohio and South Carolina idolizing Michael J. Fox’s entrepreneurial Alex P. Keaton on the sitcom “Family Ties.”

It’s incumbent upon wealth management professionals to boost awareness among young people of all backgrounds about getting a job helping others as a financial advisor, Dave said. He’s encouraging his three teenage daughters in that direction. The more openness and transparency around discussions of difficult topics relating to race in the industry, the more wealth managers will succeed in getting young people into the profession, Dave said.

As one of the most visible high-ranking Asian American wealth management executives, Dave said he is “a big believer of turning headwinds to tailwinds.”

Regarding bias in the industry, “Certainly that is on your mind, but I’ve never let that really define a situation for me or take over a prevailing thought,” he said. “There are situations where you're treated differently. It's all about perseverance and how do you turn a challenge into an opportunity.”

Jill Sung

CEO, Abacus Federal Savings Bank

Sung was born into a banking family: Abacus Federal Savings Bank launched in 1984 to serve the Asian American community in the Chinatown area of New York, The bank survived being one of the few financial institutions to face any charges in court related to the 2008-2009 financial crisis, which was

the subject of the 2017 PBS “Frontline” documentary

.

As a Minority Depository Institution, the bank remained open throughout the pandemic to serve immigrants and older clients who still prefer services such as in-person tellers and passbook savings accounts. The community bank views wealth management as part of clients’ overall financial health and a means of teaching that money is an investment, not just a transaction, Sung said.

“That is our primary concern, is to be mission-based,” Sung said. “I don't expect that the larger banks can be mission-based.”

Palash Islam

Founder, Synergy Financial Group

Islam launched

his independent RIA last year

after about two decades with broker-dealers. The Bangladeshi American financial advisor points out that “you can do so much in the U.S. that you can't do it in other parts of the world,” from the perspective of innovation, connecting with people and the ability “to build things the way you want to build things.” Advisors of any background can attract clients if they “embrace who they are” and remove themselves from bad work environments, Islam said.

“If you look at successful people, they all have a chip on their shoulder,” he said. “My last name is ‘Islam’ and I got into the business 10 days before 9/11, so you could say that would be a barrier entry to me. But it wasn’t. The majority of people are good people. If you're out there doing what you need to be doing, you will be successful no matter what you look like.”

Michelle Wong

Founder, Nifty Advisor Support

RIA virtual assistant entrepreneur Michelle Wong and financial advisor John Eing launched an Asian-American and Pacific Islander Knowledge Circle for FPA members this spring “to create a safe space and also to give Asian American Pacific Islander professionals a voice in the industry,” according to Wong.

The Chinese American wealth management marketing, client servicing and paraplanning expert said firms and industry professionals “need to look deeper” than thinking of the idea of inclusion in terms of new potential revenue streams. Such a myopic view adds to the risk that they’ll lose out on the next generation in the long term, anyway, she says.

“A lot of people of color actually decide to start their own businesses because they feel limited by a traditional role that might be provided by an employer,” Wong said. “I felt the desire to start my own business so I could excel so much more than I could in a traditional role.”

Phuc Quang “P.Q.” Le

Managing partner, Providential Legacy Group

Le

opened a new Atlanta office of Securian Financial

last year after more than three decades in the industry. The Vietnamese American financial advisor arrived in the U.S. shortly before the fall of Saigon in 1975. The industry should “just have open doors and encourage” young people entering the profession, he said.

“I know this is not a job; this is an opportunity,” Le said. “Let's remove the invisible glass ceiling.”

Paul Simcock

Sonya Thadhani Mughal

CEO, Bailard

Mughal took over the lead role at Bailard in April after working at the major RIA and asset manager for nearly three decades, before which she left her birth country of India to attend Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Bailard has fewer than 70 employees but more than 10 countries represented in its professional ranks, according to Mughal. Noting that the firm’s open compensation system has confirmed that there’s no gender pay gap at Bailard, Mughal said it’s possible for firms to achieve a balance between including underrepresented groups without others feeling excluded by the effort.

“We get a lot of data on how firms are ranked,” she said. “If you look at a lot of firms which have poor employee practices, you end up with a lot of turnover and a lot of churn, which is very bad for the company. And it's bad for clients.”

Jimmy Lee

CEO, The Wealth Consulting Group

The head of a significant hybrid RIA and office of supervisory jurisdiction with LPL, Lee said he worried about his Korean American daughter’s safety last spring as she attended college in New York amid the surge of violence against Asian Americans in the city.

Lee said he thinks he may have been subjected to discrimination just once earlier in his career, when he was passed over for a company award. Firms should work together to create more avenues into the profession for people with the language skills to expand the client base, according to Lee.

“Senior advisors need to be more aware — they should be out recruiting someone that's younger and mentoring them,” he said. “Where advisors fail is, they try to bring in an advisor and make them a commission-based advisor… For most newer people, they should be put on a salary and mentored.”

T.J. Kirkpatrick

Marguerita Cheng

CEO, Blue Ocean Global Wealth

When Cheng’s father, an immigrant who was born in China and educated in Taiwan, would travel frequently for business, he’d remind her where to find the family’s life insurance policies in case anything happened to him.

Cheng changed careers to become an advisor, overcoming the doubts of a sales manager who was frustrated that she brought no friends and family along as prospective clients. She recalls that at least 31 out of her first 33 clients were strangers — and that one of them was her dad.

Practitioners and recruiters in the industry should keep a more open mind, Cheng said. “It might be hard for them to understand that the next person who enters the profession, their story is going to be different; it's not better, it's just different,” she said. “It’s hard for people to recognize that the way they became successful may not resonate with what people want to do.”

Elijah Souza

Investment advisor representative, Gerber Kawasaki

Souza became the newly independent Gerber Kawasaki’s first employee after the firm left a regional broker-dealer in 2010. Souza was born and raised in Hawaii to a Portuguese father and a Filipino mother. To expand the base of diverse prospective clients and advisors, the industry should promote events like one Gerber Kawasaki held for the firm’s customers and their friends at famed West Hollywood gay bar The Abbey, instead of setting up so many formal prospect meetings all the time, Souza suggested.

“I think that is a great way to be introduced to the industry,” Souza said. “At least it's a somewhat soft introduction to the world of finances, rather than just going directly to an advisor which, to some people, can be overwhelming.”

Peggy Ho

General counsel, Commonwealth Financial Network

The head legal executive for one of the largest wealth managers recalls once receiving a text message from an executive telling her that she needed “to sit up straighter and look more engaged” when she was presenting in a meeting alongside a white man who was 6 feet, five inches tall. The Taiwanese American wealth management professional said the industry discussion around inclusiveness should center on being “more sensitive to each other” and ensuring that fair promotion practices are in place at companies, Ho said.

“Everyone wants to be seen and everyone wants to be heard and everyone wants to be appreciated for what they bring to the table,” she said. “Depending on what you look like, you might not be taken seriously. It's taken a lot of unfortunate events to drive these conversations, but I'm encouraged that these conversations are happening.”

Bill Tung

Head of wealth management, East West Bank

Tung “can confidently attribute part of my success as an advisor” to his Chinese American heritage and the fact that he’s bilingual, Tung said in an email. Many of East West’s team members are immigrants themselves, so they’re able to cater to cross-border clients and those who have moved to the U.S. permanently.

“The nuance of serving the Asian American community is, if you are able to speak that particular prospect’s mother tongue, then you will be more likely to develop a trusting relationship with the prospective client more seamlessly,” Tung said. “So when I work with Chinese Americans clients, they have a natural ease to converse with me and are more comfortable conducting business with me. Moreover, because we share the same heritage, we also have similar cultural understanding and awareness which increases our level of trust for each other.”