Christopher Watkins owed $60,000 after he graduated from Coker College in South Carolina. “I financed my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with credit cards that my uncle co-signed,” he says.

Watkins, 31, was fortunate because he got a $84,000-a-year job straight out of college at Tishman Construction in Manhattan. “I worked 72 hours a week and paid $4,000 a month towards my debt,” he says.

Watkins is among the 55% of African-Americans who give themselves a high grade for managing debt, according to the 2015-2016 edition of Prudential’s “African American Financial Experience” report.

“African-Americans also graded themselves the highest for managing money, managing expenses and having life insurance protection,” says Delvin Joyce, a West Palm Beach, Fla.-based financial advisor and managing director with Prudential. “The lowest grades were in the area of transferring wealth, college saving planning and investing.”

Joyce, who spent four years in the National Football League as a running back and return specialist, including three seasons with the New York Giants, notes that while some African-Americans are upwardly mobile, many of them save but don’t invest, and those who invest do so conservatively. “As African-Americans continue to gain wealth, there’s an opportunity for financial advisors across the nation to deepen relationships with this community that will close the gap between saving and investing,” he says.

The Prudential report found that among African-Americans who consider themselves very well-prepared to make wise financial decisions, 59% consider themselves to be savers while 29% label themselves spenders and 11% call themselves investors.

“The problem has been that the African-American middle class are often the first generation to gain wealth and they do not have knowledge from their ancestors on how to invest for retirement, college planning or transferring wealth,” Joyce says.

The survey found that higher-income African-Americans are more likely to engage a financial advisor, with 30% of those earning $100,000 to $149,999 and 35% earning $150,000 or more choosing to work with a financial professional.

“The study paints a picture of an increasingly financially savvy and affluent African-American community,” says Mammen Verghis, Prudential’s vice president of multicultural marketing. “We are seeing a group that is financially confident, focused on service and open to receive assistance from professionals who can help them move closer to financial security.”

Financial advisors who successfully tap into this market can expect a steady stream of customers. “There is a strong sense of community among this segment,” Joyce says. “So building trust through community engagement is an important way to drive referrals to others who have the same needs and challenges.”

One of the hot-button issues for African-American veterans involves transitioning from the military to civilian life. “If you can develop a relationship with the coordinator at a local military base, it’s a great way to penetrate that market and provide financial education to a segment of the population that will appreciate it,” Joyce says.

The Prudential study notes that 61% of African-Americans will want to engage with a financial advisor when the advisor is supported by a community leader; by faith-based organizations such as churches; by organizations such as the National Coalition of 100 Black Women or the 100 Black Men of America; by sororities and fraternities; or by college and high school alumni associations.

“These organizations have program coordinators that book speakers to lecture at their monthly meetings, and retirement is one of the more popular topics,” Joyce says.