Building a Network for All Advisors

The welcome mat is out at Onyx Advisor Network, where the goal is “to change the complexion of wealth.”

Indeed, its two African American financial advisor founders believe they’re up to the challenge.

They were motivated to form Onyx, a platform providing advisors with tech tools, model portfolios and more, because of the struggles they had breaking into financial services.

“In this industry, it’s tough being a person of color … you’re considered less-than. I had to fight to get ahead. That’s what you’re seeing now with … advisors of color starting their own practices where they can control their future,” Emlen Miles-Mattingly, Onyx co-founder and founder of Gen Next Wealth, tells ThinkAdvisor.

An advisor for 11 years now, Miles-Mattingly opened his own shop in 2017 after four years in insurance with Principal Financial Group and more than six as a bank branch manager and vice president at Citi.

In the interview, he relates how, despite all that related experience, and having three different securities licenses, he was turned away by large firms, including two wirehouses, when he tried to transition to financial advisor.

With empathy, he and co-founder Dasarte Yarnway, founder of Yarnway Wealth Management, started Onyx to provide a hospitable environment for advisors who feel marginalized by the industry.

Launched in May 2022, Onyx has enlarged its focus: It’s an inclusive network to help any advisor start, scale or sustain their business.

For a $549-a-month subscription (which can be billed annually), Onyx offers a tech stack, custodian access and model portfolios, among other products and services, from companies including Alpha Architect, Altruist, Carson Coaching, Envestnet/MoneyGuide and Snappy Kraken.

Webinars featuring industry thought leaders, like Carl Richards and Jason Wenk, give members tips on how to build and run a practice.

Miles-Mattingly, 42, who hosts the “Minority Money” podcast, is focused on reaching his “dream” goal of 500 Onyx advisors, each serving 75 households.

“Having advisors that look like the families they’re helping is going to have a huge impact,” he says in the interview.

Busy with Onyx, he’s also in the process of pivoting his own advisory from a focus on minority clients to retirement planning.

ThinkAdvisor recently interviewed Miles-Mattingly, speaking by phone from his base in Madera, California, where he was born and brought up by a single mother working as a construction worker and his grandparents.

About Gen Next’s move to retirement planning, he says: “I get the most enjoyment helping retired clients, maybe because they remind me of my grandparents.”

Here are highlights of our conversation:

THINKADVISOR: African American advisors are starting financial planning practices and speaking up about what they call wirehouse inhospitableness toward them. What actually led to the trend of going out on their own?

EMLEN MILES-MATTINGLY: It was socially acceptable not to have Black people in positions like [financial advisor] where you could see them.

In this industry, it’s tough being a person of color — you’re underrepresented. You’re considered less-than.

I had to fight to get ahead. That’s what you’re seeing happening now with Black people.

You’re seeing not just Black financial advisors but other advisors of color starting to build their own practices where they can get control of their future instead of worrying about what a company’s agenda is.

I always say that I’m a financial advisor, and I happen to be Black. I’m not a Black financial advisor.

Why was there a need for you and Dasarte Yarnway to co-found Onyx Advisor Network, officially launched in May 2022?

The need came out of how difficult it was for me and my business partner to get into the industry.

Is membership in Onyx only for people of color and others who are underrepresented in financial services?

We started Onyx for underrepresented advisors because they’ve historically had a harder time getting into the industry.

But it’s an inclusive network. Since I personally had to go through not being accepted into the industry, I’d never create a space that was exclusive.

We wanted to provide a place where advisors could come and grow their practices unencumbered. We wanted to remove all the barriers to entry of getting into the wonderful career of financial advisor.

Is Onyx for advisors who want to start their own registered investment advisory firm?

Yes. But right now, only 15% of our advisors are starting practices. We help advisors in three ways: starting their own business, scaling their business and sustaining their business by running it more efficiently.

Forming Onyx was a big undertaking, I’m sure. Tell me about it.