4th SER summit to expand only industry network of its kind

At this time three years ago, the co-founders of the only industry conference specifically focused on Latino financial advisors say they were wondering whether they could pull it off. 

Vanessa Martinez and Ana Trujillo Limón had put up thousands of dollars of their own money, knowing that they would need to find enough sponsors and register enough attendees to cover the costs of the first SER Summit for Latinos in Financial Services. But they made it happen. 

And, after achieving record attendance outside Chicago last year, the fourth annual SER conference will take place in Denver next week. That's thanks to the tireless volunteer efforts of Martinez and Trujillo Limón, an organizing team and group of "ambassadors" with a dozen other advisors and wealth management professionals and 13 sponsors that include LPL Financial, Morgan Stanley, Prudential, Hilltop Securities, Cambridge Investment Research, Allianz, Trillium Asset Management and the Financial Planning Association.

"The first time, we had no idea how it would be embraced," said Martinez, the CEO and founder of Chicago-based registered investment advisory firm Expressive Wealth. "Every single year there is someone who approaches us and lets us know how this conference has impacted their lives in a positive manner. It's not just the day of, but the relationships that they build from this has been foundational to their growth."

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A network driving change across the industry

In a field with only 3,116 certified financial planners who are Latino or Hispanic — less than 3% — the conference is serving as "an employee resource group for the entire industry," according to Trujillo Limón, the director of communications for Charles Schwab's consumer-facing research arm, the Schwab Center for Financial Research. In fact, for next year's event in Miami, she and Martinez plan to unveil a collection of professional milestones like hirings, mergers and CFP certification that attendees have racked up with the help of the conference's network.

"SER has introduced me to all these wonderful people who give advice and become my mentors," Trujillo Limón said. "It's a beautiful space to move through the profession and industry with."

And that level of connection represents the type of efforts that are "going to move the needle" on those industry demographics, said Martinez, who added that she can already tell the conference is doing so, based on attendees who have passed the CFP exam after studying for it together. 

Last year, the conference hosted a matchmaking session that paired early-career professionals with mentors. This year, the organizers will facilitate role-playing exercises that display how experienced advisors speak in meetings with clients and prospective customers. 

Other sessions will focus on marketing, behavioral finance and organic growth, and an as-yet-unidentified speaker who will lead an economic outlook session that treats "different indicators like different ingredients" in the margarita kits at every table, Martinez said. They anticipate between 120 and 140 attendees, which is roughly the same amount as last year's conference.

"The whole goal of what we do at SER is to elevate each other," Trujillo Limón said. "Every session is really designed to elevate the professional in their personal and professional lives."

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SER

Building a community for the future

For a field that must usher more young people and career changers into rewarding careers as the successors to a generation of retiring advisors, such events are integral to "making a large industry feel small and building a community," said Marci Bair, the founder of San Diego-based advisory practice Bair Financial Planning. Her firm, its independent branch network, The Wealth Consulting Group, and its brokerage in LPL are sponsors of the event. And her firm's managing partner, Victor Orozco, has been integral to the conference from the first year.

"Building community, I think, is the biggest piece — knowing that you're not alone, you're not the only one and that there's a community for you," Bair said. "That community is critical for advisors' success, because if they don't have support, they're going to be out of business."     

As the event moves into the future, the organizers "have a lot of ideas" about how it could evolve to continue meeting that need, Martinez said. She had a nascent idea for "some type of institution where it could be like a cycle of teaching" for early-career professionals and enough capital to build a full-time staff for the event, she noted. And Trujillo Limón cited a goal for more of the next-generation advisors stepping into leadership roles and greater collaboration with the FPA and other groups and companies around the industry.

"We have so much talent on our team," she said. "That's really the whole point: Who's doing that work, how can we find them and how can we work together is my vision for the future."