Exploring Diverse Perspectives on Wealth with Myah Moore Irick

In her work as a private wealth manager, Myah Moore Irick is devoted to shedding light on the psychology of money. As she tells us, our financial journey is directly related to our upbringing, our beliefs, and the way we view wealth. “If we take it a step further,” says Irick, “how can we realign our wealth with our values and use money as a tool for broader impact?”

Irick deeply explores these questions with her team at The Irick Group, the private wealth advisory practice she founded at Merrill Private Wealth Management. Recently, Merrill commissioned three in-depth studies exploring the financial experiences among people in the Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and LGBTQ+ communities. We asked Irick about what the research unveiled, and her further insights on how diverse populations view building wealth and giving back.

A Q&A with Myah Moore Irick

You’ve long been interested in the psychology of money and wealth and how it impacts people. How does this inform your work today?

I strive to deeply understand where my clients are coming from—their relationship with money, their personal goals, and their unique journey to realizing wealth. I am devoted to learning about my client’s life, their family, their business, their purpose, and how they would like to act as a steward of their wealth. 

So much of our wealth journey is directly related to our own understanding of our upbringing and how it influences the way we think about money. If we take it a step further, how can we realign our wealth with our values and use money as a tool for broader impact? I have the privilege to partner with families and help them to come up with an investment plan and a wealth plan to achieve their personal goals, and most importantly, to realize their purpose and impact.

What I have learned through my academic and professional career is that before we create a wealth plan or investment strategy, we need to understand the impact we want to make in life. Intention and purpose are fundamental to a sound plan.

You serve a range of diverse communities including Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and LGBTQ+. Merrill recently commissioned three studies to explore the financial experiences and nuances within these communities. What was the goal in conducting these?

We serve a diverse client base that requires a deep understanding of their personal experiences and unique financial life paths. This research in particular seeks to understand the beliefs, motivations and priorities that influence wealth and investment decisions among the affluent Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino and LGBTQ+ communities. Through these findings we hope to spark meaningful dialogue that furthers our ability to meet the financial needs of all people and communities.

Money is so personal; from the way we approach it to the way we communicate around it—and so much of our narratives around it is shaped by our upbringing and our communities. What did this research unveil to you about how personal experiences shape financial success?

Everyone’s relationship with money is different–unique life experiences shape desires and motivations that impact how we view and relate to money. Our data shares high level insights into how some diverse populations interact with and build wealth. We view these findings as a guide, a starting point, for an in-depth conversation to learn more about personal situations and goals.

For example, our study found that members of the LGBTQ+ community have structurally different life journeys than members of the general population. One-third of those surveyed do not feel accepted by their family, and as a result, 58 percent say they’ve had to chart their own path to financial independence. Members of this community view financial independence as their ticket to living an authentic life and pursuing the activities they love. This clearly impacts their financial situation and can cause many to prioritize near-term goals, over long-term financial security. 

The LGBTQ+ community also has a strong desire to give back and help their community. They are more than twice as likely to cite helping their community as a top financial goal and 35 percent more likely to view giving back to and supporting their community as a top priority.

In your research on LGBTQ+ communities also showed the fear of being homeless to be an issue. Can you talk about this and how this creates other obstacles?

According to our study, the fear of homelessness for members of the LGBTQ+ community stems from not being accepted by their family and fear of being kicked out of a family home–after coming out and before being financially independent. This fear may cause some individuals to postpone coming out until later in life or suppressing who they are until they feel they can afford to financially support themselves.

This creates many personal obstacles and on the financial side, delay certain milestones, which can have long-term consequences for future financial stability.

What most surprised you about the findings?

It wasn’t necessarily a surprise, but more of a confirmation. Through the findings, we learned that many communities, even if they haven’t achieved significant wealth yet, have a strong commitment to positively impacting their communities.

Building a legacy means more than having enough money–for individuals within the community, their legacy includes reaching back as they move forward. Success and affluence create opportunities to support, uplift, and empower others, including the next generation.

Through those deep conversations and in this research, we uncovered many nuanced insights on how gender, race, sexual identity and cultural heritage can shape financial experiences and priorities. We also uncovered some common threads that underscore the humanity in us all: the power of resilience, a belief in the value of hard work and a drive to provide financial security for those we love.

How has the pandemic morphed or exacerbated the issues that were researched?

The pandemic and events of last year and a half changed a lot for many people–regardless of wealth–and we anticipate it likely compounded some challenges for the groups we surveyed. For example, in our research exploring the Hispanic/Latino affluent community, we found a common theme of willingness to sacrifice aspects of their financial future to support the current needs of their children and aging parents, which in some cases were exacerbated by the pandemic.

Additionally, it has been well-reported that diverse communities have been particularly impacted by the pandemic. Our research looked at the financial stressors of these diverse communities, which are likely to be amplified by the pandemic:

·  Looking to the Black/African American community, our report revealed that this community is 25 percent more likely to be supporting their family financially. As the pandemic has had a devastating impact on Americans, leading to many layoffs and newfound financial hardships, this community may find themselves supporting more family members financially.

·  For the LGBTQ+ community, our research found that many forged their own unique path to financial independence, being self-employed, freelancing, working in the arts, types of work that were greatly impacted by the pandemic.

Are there any learnings from the research that you feel would help to positively shape people’s financial journeys, even for those outside of these communities?  

We partner with a broad range of clients across the communities mentioned in these studies and others. Our goal is to work with clients that want help to be purposeful with their wealth. As you can imagine, these findings were not just about these respective communities, but were more about human beings hoping to thrive and flourish just as we all hope to do.

One clear learning that would be applicable to us all: Is the ability to align our wealth with our values and the ability to realize purpose and profits.

We partner with many of our clients on impact investing. As you know through your work at The Conscious Investor, impact investing is investing for the potential to make a financial return as well as generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact. More investors are driven to align their wealth with their values.

Specifically, we see this playing out in four key areas: to contribute to climate and environmental sustainability (Planet); to support human dignity through inclusion, health and developing communities that are life-giving (People); to drive employment, economic vitality and sustainable communities (Prosperity); and a commitment to ethics and societal benefits (Principles of Governance).

Impact investing is an area that resonated with all the communities in the study, in particular the areas of gender lens investing and investing in diversity and inclusion funds. This is an area in which I am particularly excited to see growth.

Myah Moore Irick is a private wealth manager and senior vice president at Merrill Private Wealth Management. She joined Merrill and founded the Irick Group where she and her team focus on providing wealth planning strategies to successful executives, individuals, and families navigating sudden wealth, and a growing list of professional athletes. Learn more about Irick and her work here.


 

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