Angie Ribuffo, president of Raion Financial Strategies, a financial services firm based in Anchorage, Alaska, takes clients back to their earliest memories about money in order to gain insight into how they deal with it as adults.

The manner in which a client was first introduced to the concepts of saving and spending, even if it is as child with an allowance, can often set a pattern that carries into adult life, and that pattern can be good or bad, Ribuffo told an audience at the Conference of African American Financial Professionals yesterday.

Ribuffo was a panelist at the three-day conference in Atlanta this week sponsored by the American College of Financial Services. Since its founding in 2004, the conference has been the one of the largest gatherings of Black, African American, and DE&I-committed financial professionals.

The conference included panels and guest speakers who discussed issues of importance to and in support of African-American financial professionals. 

According to the Association of African American Financial Professionals, while there are about 700,000 financial advisors, there are only 60,000 African Americans advisors, or 8% of the total advisor population. The most recent U.S. Census data suggested the Black and African-American communities represent about 14.6% of the U.S. population.

Ribuffo and the members of the panel she was part of, “Transforming Client Experiences: Empowering Clients for Tomorrow,” explored how advisors can more actively engage their clients.

Terry Parham, founder and wealth advisor at Innovative Wealth Building, a national financial services firm, told the audience that some clients have not learned how to deal with money as they grew up. It is important for advisors to make sure they address people in language they understand and can use, he said in an interview following the panel discussion.

Parham said he works with a lot of business owners who are looking for advice on how to handle their wealth and understand their financial options.

“We show our value on the tax side of finances because that is something everyone cares about and is a way the clients can relate to us. Then we build into retirement planning and other services,” he said.

Parham also related how he uses technology to automatically take notes of meetings, highlight key points and keep clients informed.

“Technology should help create a repeatable process that let’s clients know what they are trying to accomplish,” he added.

Ribuffo’s technique of taking clients back to their earliest dealings with money was an approach she used with a client who learned to save as a youth, but who frequently had her savings taken from her to be given to siblings who were not good savers. She repeated the pattern as an adult by giving her money away to others, leaving little for herself for planning a future. The client made good money but was worried about her retirement.

“Once she realized what her relationship with money was, she was able to change her behavior. Part of my method is in the way that I ask questions to elicit information,” said Ribuffo, who works with a lot of single women, including those who have been divorced at a late age and may have had little experience with handling finances.

“Women are not comfortable unless they know everything about an issue,” so the advisor has to get that information to the client in actionable form, she said. “Also, the advisor has to be comfortable in his or her role in order for the client to be comfortable,” she said.