A few years ago, financial advisors Lazetta Rainey Braxton and Rianka Dorsainvil connected at a financial industry event. They hit it off.

At the time, both women were solopreneurs. Braxton headed Financial Fountains, a fee-only financial planning and registered investment advisory firm she founded in 2008 that served clients from around the country. And Dorsainvil owned Your Greatest Contribution, a fee-only virtual firm she founded 2015 in Lanham, Md.

“We just became really good colleagues and friends, and realized that our passion for serving people overlooked by Wall Street was something that we both shared and really wanted to serve people who were like-minded, represented our communities,” Braxton said.

The women recently joined forces to create 2050 Wealth Partners, a virtual fee-only financial planning and wealth management firm seeking to create an alternative financial planning experience that honors the mosaic of the American population. 

“It’s pretty cool to have a business partner that you really enjoy being around. It’s kind of like a marriage,” Braxton said.

Dorsainvil said the two feed off of each other’s energy. “As you are building a practice any type of a business can have its ups and downs, but to have a partner who cares about financial planning and serving clients comprehensively is amazing,” she said.

Braxton said what’s important to them as partners is creating a sense of diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging. She explained that with the changing demographics in the U.S. and globally, it’s not either or, it’s both.

The firm’s name, 2050 Wealth Partners, was chosen to reflect the year that the minority population will become the majority in the U.S. “And if we want to continue to grow and strive as a financial planning profession, we have to start serving and start looking like the mosaic that America is transitioning into,” she said. “And Lazetta and I are a pure representation of the mosaic that America is transitioning into.” 

Braxton is African American and Dorsainvil is African American and Hispanic. The women are among the less than 2% diversity of the more than 80,000 certified financial planners in the U.S.

Both Braxton and Dorsainvil are proponents of diversity and inclusion and providing access to financial planning. Braxton has served as chair of the Association of African American Financial Advisors, and as a board member of the Foundation of Financial Planning.

Dorsainvil, an advocate for young professionals, served as president of the Financial Planning Association’s NexGen community, where she focused on the cultivation of the next generation of financial planners. In 2018, she launched 2050 Trailblazers, a podcast focusing on diversity and inclusion in the financial planning profession.

Launching their new business venture in February, which is Black History month, is significant for both.

But the pair stressed their approach is not restricted to any one segment of the population. “It’s really speaking to those who want to be served, who want to be valued for what they bring to the financial planning partnership,” Braxton said. “And that’s what we are striving for. Obviously being women of color, there is a special place for us because of our own journey in the space as well. But we don’t want to be boxed in.”

Braxton explained the firm’s approach is to first attract clients who are interested in financial planning, and then attract those who may or may not have had access to financial planning and, if they did, were not served in a holistic manner. “And when you look at the commonalities of these clients that we are serving, oftentimes you do find people who are overlooked by Wall Street and that would include communities of color as well as those who are high-net-worth who are overlooked just because of gender issues,” she said.  

Braxton gives credit to Dorsainvil for having the vision for 2050 Wealth Partners. In fact, she said when they shared best practices there was a lot she, as a GenXer, had to learn in terms of technology from her millennial partner.

Because Dorsainvil started out by running a virtual practice, she already had the technology in place and was able to teach and share with Braxton how to use the technology to work with clients. “It’s an opportunity to meet clients where they are, understanding that we don’t want location to be a barrier for us to work with clients,” Dorsainvil said, noting that she is located in the DC Metro area while Braxton is in the New York area.

Dorsainvil said they have clients across the U.S. as well as internationally. “We are still able to nurture our relationships via video,” she explained. 

Dorsainvil noted the firm’s mission of meeting clients where they are not only refers to its convenience of location, but also to where clients are financially in their life and their journey.

“Understanding that 20-, 30- or 40-year-olds may not have had enough time to amass wealth … we are the alternative to the traditional financial planning model where typically they charge 1% assets under management, and if you don’t have $1 million in investable assets they turn you away,” she said.

2050 Wealth Partners' approach is to work with clients on a retainer-based model with an annual starting fee of $4,500, paid on a quarterly basis. That fee increases with the level of complexity, Dorsainvil noted.

“We wanted to make sure that we are accessible to those who may not have amassed enough wealth. We fully embrace them,” she said.