In a new episode of the Financial Planning Podcast, financial advisor Harry Sherdil explains how he plans to use his newly independent firm to expand access to planning and wealth.
Sherdil, associate advisor Nestor Belmonte and virtual administrator Monique Miller
In making the move, Sherdil was determined to give more aspiring advisors and potential clients a path into the industry and access to wealth-building tools, he said in an interview with FP Chief Correspondent Tobias Salinger. The
In the podcast, Sherdil spoke of how his professional and personal lives inspired him to get involved in this initiative. Salinger asked Sherdil the following five questions about his own introduction to money and his vision for the industry’s future:
1. Can you share with our listeners the story you told me about your parents and what you learned about money growing up in India?
2. You're passionate about expanding financial advice to the underserved. How do you plan to do that through your practice?
3. You've set a goal of helping at least 100 young people into financial services professions. How do you plan to accomplish that?
4. You went independent after about 20 years in the wirehouse and bank channel and you've obviously seen the industry change a lot over the past two decades. If you could change anything about the industry over the next 20 years, what would it be?
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Transcription:
Tobias Salinger: (
Welcome back to the Financial Planning Podcast. My name is Tobias Salinger, and I am your chief correspondent of Financial Planning. We're really pleased today to have as our guest financial advisor, Harry Sherdil, the founder of humanity wealth advisors. The thank you so much for joining us today.
Harry Sherdil: (
Thank you, Toby. Thank you for having me.
Tobias Salinger: (
Thank you. And, uh, Sherdil associate advisor, Nester Belmonte and virtual administrator. Monique Miller launched the Newark in San Ramon, California based humanity wealth advisors last year. I really like that name, uh, thinking about that idea of humanity, um, and connecting it with, with wealth. And we're going to get into that today. Um, the 22 year veteran advisors practice went independent from Wells Fargo advisors where the team had managed 250 million in client assets. Humanity wealth is affiliate with LPL financial as its brokerage and the financial services network as its office of supervisory, jurisdiction, and hybrid RIA after spending nearly his entire career in the bank and warehouse channel Sherdil has ambitious plans for the practice in the industry. And we have four questions about that, uh, for you today. So I'm just going to just jump right in. I would like to ask you if you can share with our listeners a story that you told me just about growing up in India and your parents and what you learned about money out of that experience.
Harry Sherdil: (
My upbringing, my beginnings were very humble, humble to the point where calling it humble is a little bit of embellishment. I grew up with financial insecurity. I grew up with food insecurity. Uh, there were days and times where we did not know if there will be food on the table. My father was, uh, a blue collar worker. We were family of five, including me, three kids, and to make ends meet was tough. Then my father was a bodybuilder at one time and he was amazingly handsome, man, but the lack of money completely wiped out his existence. And that's what I grew up with. And I realized that you like it or not. The world sees you from the prism of money. And that was my beginning. And as I grew up, my mother who was born in a small village in India, hat is foresight that if I can give my son, my oldest, the best of the best education, If he can speak fluent English, maybe he will be successful enough That he can pull the whole family out of power. And that was the truth. And when she married my father, My mother's father had gifted
Harry Sherdil: (
Some gold jewelry to her.
Speaker 3: (
Uh,
Harry Sherdil: (
It gets me emotional, but So I, She had to sell every piece of her jewelry to put me through a good school, A good college Because of the education That she gave me here I am in America, In this noble profess, and guess what? My younger siblings, And then in their later years, my parents Life became a little easier. So money Is very personal to me, you know, In India, There's a very famous saying, just done LA Only a body that is in pain understands How bad that pain is. We all can empathize sympathize, But we will never understand How painful it is To be treated differently, treated poorly When you come from nothing, No money, no status, Not a day has gone back That I have tried to live my life To help. And because of her blessings, I'm in a profession That I think I can help. So that's my background And that's why I am starting the mission That I am on.
Speaker 3: (
So
Harry Sherdil: (
That's that sorry about all the emotions I tell my kids Emotional control is very important. And in this key podcast, the first podcast of my life, I am just swimming in emotions of, I ask for your forgiveness.
Tobias Salinger: (
Well, no apologies are necessary, sir, after you've shared such an important experience to you becoming a financial advisor. And while I, uh, have not been fortunate enough to have met your family, I am sure that wherever your mother is, she's very proud of you and all of your accomplishments, what you described is really the American dream. And we're, we're so grateful that that you've pursued it. And as you kind of mentioned how this is, uh, shaping the way you're approaching your, your job, uh, your very important professional calling as a financial advisor. I know that you're very passionate about expanding financial advice. And how do you plan to go about doing that through your, your practice, which as I mentioned, I really love that name, humanity wealth advisors. How do you plan to expand financial advice through your practice?
Harry Sherdil: (
One of the very famous quotes that I love by Victor Hugo, a French drama artist, it said nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. So in last 22 years for somebody to get financial guidance, to hire a financial advisor, generally speaking, not all the time, but most of the time it is assets. If you have assets, then yes, we would be able to help you. But if you have no assets, if you are just starting from the bottom, starting from the scratch, how do you get financial advice? And in my 22 years, I struggled with that. And during this pandemic, like a lot of other people, and you hear about this great resignation, and I think I am one of them that I had to come to terms with that, that I will have to do something on my own to start something of on my own and all open up different avenues, different ways that people can engage and get good financial advice.
Harry Sherdil: (
And in my practice today, I want to lead my subscription based financial planning, where you have no money, you're just starting out. Do you want to learn about money management? How do you engage me? $50 a month, $600 a year gets you two hours of advice. What put that two hours of amount to most Americans today are struggling just for basic basic financial planning, basic retirement planning, basic budgeting tools. And my goal is to be able to go to them and say for $50 a month, let's talk, let's draw out a base math and let's take baby steps towards accumulating assets. I believe subscription based advice. Hourly advice is the need of the times. And you know, today we are in midst of an infl. I don't think inflation crisis Is a crisis for people who own assets. If you own a property, your property has appreciated at a much higher rate than rate of inflation. If you have stocks while you're put FOLs have done much better return than inflation, but what about those four out of 10 Americans that don't have property? They have no assets. They live on fixed income. Well, for them, inflation is a crisis.
Harry Sherdil: (
Their assets are not appreciating. As a matter of fact, that little bit of money that they bring home after doing two jobs, three jobs, four jobs, They're finding that the worst of the money they bring home is shrinking, Right? So how, how, how do you break out? So if I learn from my mother it's education, financial education, it's not rocket science. We don't know what we don't know. And who's gonna tell us that I came from institutions where I was told if the client does not have 250,000 of investible assets, you are not to help them. And if you were to help them, we are not going to pay you. Okay? How many Americans have to $150,000 of investible assets? So if they don't have the 250,000 of investible assets, Are they not worthy of financial advice?
Speaker 3: (
I,
Harry Sherdil: (
I, I find it demeaning And that's why I get so emotional about this. I was him. People looked at me, but they couldn't see me because
Harry Sherdil: (
I had no assets because I had no assets. They denied my existence today. I am lucky. I've been in this wonderful noble industry for 22 years. I have experience. I know I can make efforts. I want to talk to as many people as possible. And my next 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years, whatever I have in me, I want to help people who need that help. I don't think I am alone. Can I say this? There are millions and millions of Americans who can improve their quality of life, little bit at a time just through proper education. But when you don't have assets, they say, oh, go online in and study, read a book. Um, now they need to lean on professionals who have been in industry who can use their experience and make that path a little bit easier for them. So very long and answer. I'm trying to change the model to a point that it is affordable. Financial advice should be like democracy for all the people by the people, for the people. That's what financial it needs to be. And financial literacy, financial empowerment can negate a lot of issues that we have in our society today.
Tobias Salinger: (
And we certainly hope that we are helping to contribute to that effort by sharing your extraordinary voice with our audience of financial advisors, who I know, uh, deeply believe in that mission as well. Listeners, we're speaking with financial advisor, Harry, she of humanity wealth advisors. We're going to take a very short break and we'll be right back after this. And we're back. We're speaking with Harry Sherdil of humanity wealth advisors. Now you have set another very ambitious goal and important goal for your practice. You have said, you'd like to help at least 100 young people into financial services professions. Now, how do you plan to accomplish that?
Harry Sherdil: (
So it's not just young, it's young and old men and women of all colors, creeds, ethnicity, but my focus is these folks have to come from underserved, economically challenged background because today as noble as our industry is, it is hard to break into the industry. It's hard to get started. And my goal is to enable at least hundred souls regardless of their age, regardless of their background. Now, how do I plan to do this? Well, all noble things to motivate, to educate, to provide upward mobility. You need the almighty dollar so I can do what I can do. And my goal is to take a third of my profits of my firm and solely dedicate in hiring and nurturing one soul at a time. Look, I may financial insecurity. I manage food insecurity. I know about it firsthand.
Harry Sherdil: (
Thus, when I talk to somebody who is going through financial insecurity, I can relate to them. I can relate to their pain. So my goal is just one person at a time using the resources that my practice brings to the table and start building. But again, I know I can do it alone. One of the reasons I joined LPL, a great firm, L P also has pro programs that I can leverage and hopefully use programs like foundation equity scholars, program advisor, inclusion council, where people from diverse background are there, right? Because I don't think the passion I I have about this is limited to just me. I believe there are millions out there. I believe my tears resonate with a lot of people out there, right? My suffering is not be all. And all there are people who have suffered a lot more than me.
Harry Sherdil: (
So using my firm, leveraging assets from LPO financial, and now, Hey, I'm, I'm hoping this podcast is going to work up ears of somebody who thinks like me and has resources, ideas that maybe I can piggyback on. You know, my kids like everybody's kids are big fan of Avengers. How about creating a team of Avengers? Who purpose is to bring young and old men and women of all colors, creed, ethnicity, into this beautiful industry, nurture them so they can go back to their own communities and replicate their success. Beautiful. I, I don't think there could be anything more, more beautiful than that. And I am sure there are a lot of people in your audience where whatever I'm saying resonates, they agree, but not one person can execute all of this. So my whole goal is to stand on the per is stand on the terrace and just scream out the message and put that team together. Now I could be delusional, but I know this message is powerful. And if we have a good cuttable plan, we can change lot of lives. Think about this because of me getting education through sacrifices of my mother, my kids don't have to deal with food insecurity. My sister's kids don't have to deal with food insecurity, right? So that's why I want to bring people from these communities really help them grow, educate, nurture, and then go back and pull hundred other outs. That's the only way we can help the society
Tobias Salinger: (
And listeners. Uh, you heard it there. Uh, we have, uh, uh, a financial advisor on a great mission, uh, who is looking to collaborate with you if you share in that mission. Um, we have just one more question for you today. Um, before we let you get back, uh, to putting that into action, um, and we're so excited, uh, watch that develop over the next couple of years and, and moving forward after that, um, I just wanted to ask you to kind of think into that future. You brought it up a little bit before, um, cuz you want independent. After about 20 years in the warehouse and bank channel, you've obviously seen the industry change a lot over the past couple of decades. Um, if you could change anything about the industry over the next 20 years, what would it be?
Harry Sherdil: (
You know, I, I have given this a lot of thought and because of that, I went independent. When I look at our industry and I, again, I'm repeating myself because I truly and sincerely mean it. Big majority of the people in our industry have the best in intentions and want to go and help people. But my, maybe it's naive. Maybe it's delusional. But my belief being in this industry for 22 years is we lack the infrastructure to be able to help people in a fashion that they deserve, right? Our compensation models, our recognition models, our promotion models. Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me. I don't intend to make anybody upset, but it's based on what, bring more money, bring more assets, bring more revenue. Oh my God, you are a rockstar. Well, how about helping people? How about you will be worthy of this recognition.
Harry Sherdil: (
If you have help nurture mentor 1, 2, 3 individuals. I believe mentorship programs have to be revamped where the message should be. You are lucky to be in this profession. You're making a great living now earn go help other people, educate them, hire them, mentor them, coach them. Look, I have no problem with people making unseemly amount of money. That's what the world is all about, but let's not forget people who really need help in our pursuit of happiness. Right? If your house is the most beautiful house in a trashed neighborhood, well you live in a trashed neighborhood. So I believe we have to go start from ground up and look at our industry from a very different prism. We have the intentions. I want to sincerely believe big, big majority of people in our industry have, have great intentions, but on day to day, we lack the infrastructure to be able to execute on this. I had to leave a firm because they told me I am not allowed to talk to anybody less than 250,000. No, no, you're not gonna tell me that if I go and help people who need help and you are going to put hurdles in front of me, well, I got to create something of my own. So I hope this makes sense, but that's where my mind is.
Tobias Salinger: (
Excellent. And Harry Sherdil of humanity, you wealth advisors, you've reminded us of our humanity today, which we can lose sight of sometimes in the busy, uh, world out there in this important field. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Harry Sherdil: (
It's my pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you.
Tobias Salinger: (
And thank you for listening to the Financial Planning podcast. This episode was produced by Arizent with audio production, by Wen-Wyst Jeanmary and Kellie Malone. Special thanks this week to Harry Sherdil of humanity wealth advisors. Rate us, review us and subscribe to our content www.financial-planning.com/subscribe from financial planning, I'm Tobias Salinger. Thanks for listening.