Everyone seems to be striving to add diversity to the financial planning field, but not all programs that are being launched actually yield results, according to Frank Dobbin, researcher and professor of sociology at Harvard University.

“Most [homogenous] minority networks that are designed to move blacks and Latinos to higher levels in a firm do not work,” said Dobbin. “Groups that bring employees who are alike together, supposedly to support each other, do not work for blacks and Latinos. You need to bring different types of employees together” to exchange ideas.

Dobbin added that he wishes the financial planning field, which famously lacks diversity, would listen to researchers “because we know a lot about what works” to promote diversity.

Dobbin was a member of a panel discussion at the CFP Board’s Center for Financial Planning Diversity Summit in New York City earlier this month. The center released its report, “Racial Diversity in Financial Planning: Where We Are and Where We Must Go,” in conjunction with the summit.

“The odds of a black man or Latino man getting into management in a company have not changed since 1987” when some of the first studies were done, Dobbin said. “For women, the odds have improved a little. We have a national problem.”

Programs started by firms that are designed to bring minorities into management positions often backfire. “Hiring professionals will find a way to hire the person they wanted in the first place” instead of a minority candidate, Dobbin said.

In addition, “employees do not pay attention to diversity training,” he added.

In order to create a more diverse workforce, “decision makers have to own the problem. You need a task forced [of different kinds of employees] to lay a plan. You need a formal mentoring program, and mentors have to change the way they think about people,“ the professor said.

Plans have to be translated into action, said Catalina Camoscio, vice president of recruiting and development at Prudential. The Prudential board of directors has set a standard for senior leaders to increase diversity and pay increases are tied to success. “That’s a powerful message,” she said.

Frank Pare, president of the Financial Planning Association, who is black, said advisors need to make students in colleges and universities aware of the profession so there will be young, minority advisors in the pipeline.

“I’ve been in this position for almost a year and people are still surprised the FPA has a black president,” he added.

One of the organizations that is trying to increase awareness of financial planning as a career within minority communities is the Association of African American Financial Advisors, noted Lazetta Rainey Braxton, who chairs the organization.

“We see ourselves as the bridge between the public and the financial planning profession because we are living it,” she explained.