Recruiting top advisors—or even junior professionals who you can help grow into the role—is one of the toughest challenges in the wealth management business.

Four senior wirehouse executives tackled the subject at the annual conference of the Association of African American Financial Advisors in Washington, D.C., yesterday, offering secrets gleaned from decades of experience during a session on building and leading high-performing wealth management teams.

Alex David, CEO of Stifel; Jasmine Davis, senior vice president at Morgan Stanley; Sterling Lane, market director at J.P. Morgan; and Sylvester Thomas, vice president and branch manager at Cetera Investors, each spoke about what works for them as they build top-performing branches and teams.

Davis said she targets advisors “who have been in business awhile” and could benefit from Morgan Stanley’s product and service solutions, but also looks for career changers who are successful in other fields, such as pharmaceutical sales.

“I try to seek out people like me,” said Davis, who got her financial services start as a bank teller before being enticed into wealth management by a financial advisor she befriended in her branch.

“You don’t have to major in finance or accounting to be a great advisor,” she said, adding that she got her M.B.A. so she could have articulate product and service conversations with her advisors.

Thomas said he often targets new advisors using the sales success of his branch and the formula he has built to help new entrants in the wealth management industry get a running start.

“I took over an established team not performing at full capacity and had to increase production, so I focused on organic growth. ... In the first year we grew by 47%,  in the second year 26% and in the third year 5%. That makes it a lot easier to recruit,” Thomas said.

Lane said he looks for three characteristics in those he recruits to the five-state, 50-advisor division he oversees at J.P. Morgan: the ability to build relationships, an understanding of their vision and a process for achieving success.

“I can help advisors build relationships and help them refine their visions, although much of this is innate. Where I can really help is with process,” Lane said.

David, who is the incoming chair of the AAAA, asked the executives what challenges they’ve encountered being a leader in organizations “where most other leaders don’t look like you?”

Thomas said that over his five-decade career in wealth management, he remembers being the only African American or one of two sitting in management meetings. He also related how he sought a branch manager role for 16 years at his former broker dealer before being offered one.

“Finally, I got it, and my first full year I crushed all the goals they gave me and outperformed my guarantee. But it made me wonder what I could have achieved if I’d been given a branch earlier," he said.

“Now, I’m so optimistic about the future,” said Thomas, who has been named to Cetera’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Council, where he helps steer firm DEI initiatives.

To find the best candidates, “enlist the help of your natural community,” whether that is clients, CPAs or estate attorneys,” Thomas said. “I share my ideal candidate with them and they give me some of the best referrals.”

Davis, who worked in compliance, capital markets and the independent channel at Morgan Stanley before becoming a senior vice president and associate market manager, said she recruits sometimes say to her, “you’ve never been a financial advisor, how are you going to help me?”

She uses that as an opening “to show them all the ways I can help them grow and protect their business. Many had never encountered a Black female manager before and they become advocates for me. Seek out those people who will tell your story for you,” Davis said.

When recruiting, “you need tough skin. Unless someone tells you absolutely ‘don’t call,’ after six months of seeing my voicemails, curiosity kicks in and they want to hear what I have to say,” she added.

Sterling said he often finds the best candidates by building two-way relationships with influencers, but also challenged wealth advisors and managers to be creative.

When he worked in Minneapolis, “I wondered where all the Black people were, so I started a monthly happy hour. In the beginning it was just me and one other person, but by the fifth or sixth month, we got to 10 and it grew from there,” said Sterling, who credited his many “at bats” for his recruiting successes over the year.

“It’s a numbers game,” he added.