Jocelyn Wright: Strengthening Financial Services Though Diversity

The Female Insight Zone is a series of 15-minute podcasts sharing insights from women who have made an indelible mark in business and the path they took to soar. Host Dr. Maribeth Kuzmeski, PhD, interviews inspiring female business leaders to reveal insights into successes, failures, and how they have overcome.

Jocelyn Wright: Strengthening Financial Services Though Diversity

Jocelyn D. Wright serves as both The American College State Farm Chair for Women and Financial Services and Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies. In these roles, she functions as the Center’s director and chief ambassador in leveraging research and education to create broad awareness of the challenges and opportunities as they pertain to women in financial services.

In addition, Wright is the Founder and Managing Partner of The Ascension Group where she serves as a financial advisor, partnering with clients to design a personalized strategy to help them reach their financial goals. Wright has 20-plus years of experience in the field, and she holds the Certified Financial Planner designation.

Passionate about educating the community, Wright enjoys speaking at conferences and conducting seminars on economic empowerment, debt reduction and investing. InvestmentNews Magazine recently recognized her as one of the 20 Women to Watch in 2016. On this episode of the podcast, Wright discusses her work to change the face of the financial services industry via outreach programs and scholarship initiatives that will attract young women and African Americans to the profession.

Key Interview Takeaways

Financial planners must recognize the unique needs of women and market their services differently to female clients. Wright created the course FA 204: Marketing Financial Services to Women, which provides students with data regarding areas that are uniquely important to women.

Everyone should have a clear understanding of where they are financially. Even in 2017, we raise our daughters differently from our sons, and some women continue to be intimidated by money matters. Wright stresses the importance of knowing your net worth as well as what you owe in order to understand how to operate on a day-to-day basis.

Education and awareness are key components of building diversity in the financial services sector. Wright is currently working to “forcefully change the face of the industry” by exposing African American students to opportunities in financial services with the moonshot goal of doubling the number of African American advisors in the next decade.

Diversity in the financial services sector functions both to strengthen the industry itself as well as help close the wealth gap in our country. Wright contends that an industry workforce including women and minorities will have a positive impact on individuals, families and communities as heretofore underserved groups gain financial literacy.