Yet, old-school academic philosophy can stifle individual exploration. It tries to fit every round peg into a square hole – presenting information the same way for all learners.

I don’t believe it’s The American College of Financial Services’ place to push one learning concept in a world of many. Instead, The College is focused on driving impact and delivering outcomes – goals best suited to flexibility and optionality with an experience that puts the student in charge.

This is especially needed in today’s current financial climate. Roughly 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring every day – and have you noticed the storm they must now weather? Millennials are navigating their second recession, and many have significant student loan debt – yet they must plan for the future in the haze of the present.

Financial advice is more important than ever before. It’s no longer enough to pick stocks and bonds – technology can do that. True financial planners must provide tremendous value through their knowledge.

It’s The College’s responsibility to present that knowledge in a format that not only supports classroom success, but professional success years down the line. We don’t want you to memorize content, but retain it through text, video, audio, animation, course discussion, and instructor support – whatever you need to succeed.

That’s the impetus behind Personal Pathway®, The College’s new learning model now available through most of our Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®) and Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) education programs, as well as select courses in our Charted Life Underwriter® (CLU®) program.

I’m not here to discuss the what – you can visit our Personal Pathway® page or the ChFC®, CFP®, or CLU® program pages to understand the benefits. I’m here to explain the why – those reasons for a dramatic shift in our course development and delivery. Eventually, The College will offer every designation program course through Personal Pathway®, which demonstrates our belief in the theory and practical application behind its implementation.

The College should not micromanage when, where, and how you learn. Yet, self-study does not fit the learning needs of every student. That’s why we’ve taken the best of our self-study courses and included live and on-demand webinars, new digital textbooks integrated directly into each lesson with enhanced search capabilities and flashcard study tools, rich multimedia lesson reviews, greater instructor support, and engaging discussion forums that allow you to start or join conversations with your peers. And to show our commitment to financial professionals’ education, we’ve eliminated tiered programs within Personal Pathway® and have included all these program enhancements for the same tuition cost.

I invite you to chart your own learning path inside an inclusive learning experience with modality and flexibility, yet also the structure you may crave. Finish 10 weeks of coursework on schedule, while attending every weekly webinar, push through the coursework in seven weeks to finish faster, or put your studies on hold during a two-week crunch at work, catch up with the on-demand webinars, and finish on time.

The goal is to get you through a program faster, while providing you the tools to retain even more of the knowledge you need. We don’t lean into this goal through subjectivity – but rather through copious research, the expertise of a highly-accomplished faculty, and the best-in-practice learning concepts studied and applied for decades by our senior academic leaders. This is just another marker on our mission to becoming one of the nation’s top e-learning institutions, the educational provider for financial professionals across America focused on enhancing their expertise and making a difference in society.

Join us on your Personal Pathway®.

Scott and I have become close confidants during my 18 months leading The American College of Financial Services. As OneAmerica’s Chief Executive Officer, I lean on Scott’s perspective as the leader of a respected financial services company. As The College’s Trustee Board Chair, Scott also helps level set my thinking and serves as a valuable advisor as I make decisions that impact The College community.

We talked that evening about the fog of the present and ran through crisis planning scenarios for what was looking more and more like a global pandemic. In the weeks that followed, we checked in each Tuesday to share, strategize, and strengthen our resolve to arrive at organizational solutions.

In late April, with both of our communities staying home, we talked about ways we could share our thoughts with leaders across the financial services industry. We both know from experience that no two leaders process and navigate crises the same way, but perhaps our perspectives could make an impact as the industry navigates this great unknown.

Then, after deciding to publish a joint white paper on our leadership philosophies, racial unrest swept across the streets of our biggest cities and smallest towns. We were now seeing two crises attack our nation’s moral fabric. During times like these, leaders must fill the vacuum of panic and protest. Across all industries, we must stand up to protect our people and our organizations, while effecting sustainable, generational change where we can.

Our white paper, Leadership in Crisis, is an unfiltered look at how Scott and I view these crises, as well as the paths we must take to safely traverse today while sustaining our organizations for the future.

You can view some of our thoughts on several topics below. Thank you to Scott and his team at OneAmerica for their devotion and dedication to this project and to The College’s mission to benefit society.

On Leading With Values

“Values guide me and our organization every day, serving as a guiding light through every situation,” Davison said. “A clear understanding of our mission answers, ‘What are we doing here every day?’ It level sets expectations and frames what success looks like.”

“Each day I get up, I am providing a service to folks who are following me, and they have to know we are there to serve them, not the other way around. And that allows us to make mission-critical decisions around values,” Nichols said.

On Board Governance Helping Improve Leadership

“I have learned to say ‘no’ to a lot of Board opportunities,” said Nichols, who serves on the Board of City Year, a national service program focused on helping children and young adults become civic leaders in their communities. “I want to make an impact and share my wisdom, and that effectiveness leads to more opportunities, but executive leaders must be mindful of their time and narrow in on areas of synergy with their values.”

“I think a Board chair serves three roles: about five percent is managing the CEO, performance feedback and pay levels; ten percent is managing Board relationships and delivering certain messages to other Board members; and the final 85 percent is being a trusted advisor,” said Davison.

On Living a Life Rooted in Giving Back

“OneAmerica looks for two-for-ones that link causes, help more people, and align with our organizational priorities. It’s a win-win,” said Davison.

Nichols ties his idea of philanthropy to today’s racial injustice. As organizations chart a path forward, many should be wary to repeat the past. Charitable dollars are needed, but money is just one part of the equation. As Nichols points out, “A philanthropic initiative centered on dollars will eventually end when the next crisis hits. True philanthropy is marrying the funds with knowledge and know-how to create something that lasts.”

On Leading Organizations During Crises

“We accept what we cannot control and try to maximize what we can as long as it connects back to The College’s mission to benefit society,” said Nichols.

"If we step back, we see the higher purpose. It is time for us to be who we say we are. And that means making sure our service levels are outstanding,” Davison said.

On The One Piece of Advice They Want to Give

“Operate as a person first, not a CEO,” Nichols said. “I am a husband and father, so I self-reflect and think first how a person, not an executive, feels. I let all of those feelings – fear, confusion, misunderstanding, even hope – wash over me. Then I step back into the arena with my team and say, ‘Let us recognize these emotions, take them to heart, and make decisions.’ If an executive had been doing their job, absorbing the gravity of the moment should allow them to move past it long enough to execute.”

“Once I started having these consistent chats with our leaders and associates during COVID-19, it became apparent how necessary they were. We all started moving as one again. I believe clear, consistent communication will only allow organizations to move faster in the months and years ahead,” Davison said.

On August 19, we unveiled Four Steps Forward to publicly put our stake in the ground, and we sent out a press release that also announced The College's new Center for Economic Empowerment and Equality.

I grappled with these stark truths in the days following George Floyd’s tragic death, and I wrote about them in this blog post. I was interviewed about my experiences as a Black man in corporate America, and offered my immediate response to centuries-old racial inequality.

Those platforms advanced ideas around the need to act, and in the weeks since, The College has taken meaningful steps to discuss what an action plan might look like.

After many drafts incorporating the perspectives of College colleagues and industry veterans, I penned an op-ed in Barron’s about The College’s Four Steps Forward plan for upward mobility and wealth building in Black America.

Then, this week, The College unveiled the pillars of this plan to over 1,300 Black financial professionals at the Conference of African American Financial Professionals, held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can watch my keynote address and closing remarks in the videos below. This year has been fraught with many challenges, but beyond an immense wave of initial sadness, I believe the circumstances surrounding George Floyd’s death, and those that followed, have put this nation at an inflection point. The financial services industry must stand on the frontlines now to harness this moment for lasting change.

As an industry, we can repeat the efforts of the past and achieve the same insufficient outcomes, or we can find common ground around a generational cause. Please watch my remarks below, and subscribe to my blog in the upper right corner for email notifications on our progress with this plan for change that’s sustainable and generational – real impact that goes beyond nice data points to erode systemic inequalities in the Black community.

Following my thoughts on The College’s student experience, I laid out our progress on Four Steps Forward, a big, bold initiative for Black America that will serve as a model for our work with underserved and underrepresented communities through The College’s new Center for Economic Empowerment and Equality. Listen to how I and our team view the steps needed to generate the sustainable, generational change that’s been missing in Black communities for far too long.

Listen to the short interview below, and make sure to subscribe to my blog to remain on the pulse of new College initiatives.

One key step in The College’s Four Steps Forward to promote upward mobility and wealth creation for Black America is purposeful professional development, including recruiting and retention strategies and study groups that break down gender and racial boundaries to support robust dialogue in an inclusive environment.

The College’s Conference of African American Financial Professionals (CAAFP) is part of those efforts. We just held our 14 ½ annual conference – a one-day virtual event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we entered 2020, we knew that we wanted to continue the fellowship, mentorship, and networking beyond a few days each year in Atlanta.

So, we set out to create a robust African American Advisors Community with the tools to foster engagement, open up avenues for internships and scholarships, and announce College and industry events.

I’m so proud of what our College team, spearheaded by our Advancement and Alumni Relations and IT departments, have put together. If you attended CAAFP or are a College designation or degree holder, you can quickly join the community. If you aren’t an alum, but want to connect, please email alumni@theamericancollege.edu and we’ll set up your account.

You can also learn more about The College’s African American Advisor Scholarship Program, and support the African American Advisors Fund that seeks to expand racial diversity in financial services. Also, watch many of the sessions from this year’s CAAFP, including a fantastic panel led by McKinsey Research and some comedic relief from Sinbad.

The College’s commitment to community extends beyond racial diversity, to philanthropy, veterans and women’s issues, as well as networks for all College alumni and holders of the Chartered Life Underwriter® (CLU®) designation, one of the oldest and most respected credentials in financial services.

You can visit this College communities page and choose the communities of interest to you. I ask not just for your registration, but for your participation to promote the issues important to your business and your community. And as a reminder, if you aren’t a current or former College student, email alumni@theamericancollege.edu and we’ll help you set up an account.

By joining a network of professionals who share your passions, you’ll continue to sharpen your skills and advance the cause. Together, we are stronger!

Bob and his wife Diane wanted to honor Al Hayes, the much-loved principal of Tacoma’s Stadium High School who had been forced into early retirement by a serious heart condition – and they didn’t want to wait decades for their wills to achieve this charitable giving end. With Bob in the early years of his law practice and Diane a teacher, they didn’t have the financial means to make a grand gesture of philanthropy. Was there some meaningful yet affordable way to honor Principal Hayes through planned giving before he – or they – passed away?

The answer was provided by nonprofits: specifically, the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation (GTCF), then in its infancy. With the Foundation’s help, Bob and Diane created their first planned giving venture – a scholarship fund named after Principal Hayes which would be administered through the Foundation.

Thanks to the GTCF’s financial planning savvy and commitment to helping people with modest means achieve their charitable giving goals, Bob and Diane were able to do what seemed impossible. With their initial gift of $1,000 and their promise to make annual gifts to the fund at this level, the GTCF was able to award the first scholarship within a few months and ensure it would continue to be awarded every year, meeting their highest aspirations for giving.

And so, a few months after meeting with the GTCF, and then every year until Principal Hayes passed away, Bob and Diane had the pleasure of bringing the man they had honored to Stadium High School’s annual awards assembly, where the scholarship created in his name was awarded to a student who was then able to thank the man who inspired such generosity.

This was not Bob’s only charitable giving effort. As Evelyn Ryberg, Senior Director of Philanthropic Services at the GTCF observes, Bob “makes [philanthropy] a part of everything he does” – including, for example, talk radio. Angered by scam artists selling low-grade annuities for a high profit to the elderly, Bob realized that part of this problem was the failure of attorneys and financial advisors – including himself – to help clients by educating the public about the law. The Letter to the Editor he wrote to this effect sparked multiple invitations to be an expert guest on Seattle talk radio. These appearances were so successful that Seattle powerhouse radio station and CBS affiliate KIRO offered Bob his own call-in talk show about legal issues. Through his show, Legal Line with Bob Pittman, Bob helped thousands of listeners comprehend the law relevant to whatever civil problems they were grappling with, such as landlord-tenant disputes or wrongful termination from a healthcare plan. Although Bob wouldn’t give legal advice over the air, listeners would come away from the discussion with a clearer understanding of their problem and the resources they could turn to for additional guidance.

Among the most unforgettable of the thousands of listeners who turned to Bob for help was the widowed father of an infant. Bob was broadcasting live, on location, from Seattle’s Kingdome sports arena, with the game in progress. Rather than take his chances calling in on the phone, the distraught man, clutching his baby, used some of his last few dollars to buy a ticket in the desperate hope that if he got to the stadium box Bob was broadcasting from and appealed to him in person, Bob might take his question – and Bob did. The newly widowed man, overwhelmed by his late wife’s medical bills, had fallen behind on his rent. When he returned to his apartment, he found his landlord had locked him out – an entirely illegal act that the landlord felt safe performing with the knowledge that his tenant didn’t have the money to hire an attorney and assert his rights. Bob was able to secure appropriate legal help from an area agency for this frightened and suddenly homeless father.

Bob’s efforts to educate the public about the law through his radio show were so successful the he was honored by the Washington State Supreme Court in a special Court Resolution. Bob also received the Excellence in Legal Journalism Award, conferred by the Washington State Bar Association, and the Consumer and the Law Journalism Award, presented by the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association.

Bob’s passion for philanthropy is also reflected in his law practice, which focuses on estate planning. Bob enjoys helping his clients find active ways for parents and grandparents to teach children about wealth management and philanthropy. “How else can you have so much fun for so little money?” he jokes. One such client – we’ll call her “Grandma Jane” – created a charitable giving learning experience Bob took part in which he found especially moving. Grandma Jane had given each of her three grandchildren $100. “You’re each the CEO of your own philanthropy,” she explained to them. “Find a charity where you’d like to spend that money.” The next time she got together with her grandchildren, she asked each child to tell the story of the charity the grandchild had chosen, explaining why they chose those nonprofits and what they would be doing with the $100.

What especially touched Bob was the field trip the family took to a clothing bank one child had chosen as the recipient of their planned giving. After leading Bob and Grandma Jane on a tour of the facility, the young donor announced, “Now [my classmate] doesn’t have to come to school in the same shirt every day.”

Bob is optimistic that Grandma Jane’s strategy will have lasting results, imagining warmly, “When Jane’s grandchildren are 50, what will they be like?”

In response to Bob’s account of this venture into philanthropy, Dien Yuen, J.D., Blunt-Nickel Professor at The American College of Financial Services and CAP® program faculty member, observed, “Never underestimate the power of the small planned giving gesture!”

In 2015, while serving as a Board Member for the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, Bob learned about The College's CAP® program from Evelyn Ryberg, the GTCF’s Senior Director of Philanthropic Services. Evelyn had heard about the CAP® designation from colleagues at other community foundations and recognized how its unique curriculum could enhance her organization’s ability to serve their community. When Evelyn described the program to Bob and asked if he’d like to join her as part of the Foundation’s first cohort of students to pursue this continuing education designation, his response was an enthusiastic “Yes!” Both Bob and Evelyn were awarded their CAP® designation in 2016.

For Bob Pittman, what drives effective philanthropy isn’t wealth management or connections or technical expertise: it’s respect – respect for donors, for clients, and for the communities their charitable giving uplifts. Bob has become a champion of the CAP® designation program because the coursework reflects and promotes such respect among professionals across different segments of the philanthropic space. By breaking down the silos that traditionally separate financial, legal, and nonprofit professionals, the CAP® designation program creates the conditions that enhance philanthropic uplift. “There’s nothing like it,” Bob asserts.

When Bob worked with the GTCF to set up the Al Hayes scholarship decades ago, little did he know that his generosity would someday come full circle. In gratitude for Bob’s service on their Board and for the Pittmans’ unflagging service to their community, the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation has created a scholarship in their name to assist students enrolled in the CAP® designation program with tuition costs. Because of Bob and Diane’s special commitment to helping individuals and communities of color, the scholarship is designed to help advisors of color and nonprofit professionals who serve diverse communities.

On the wall of his office, Bob has a beautiful watercolor of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Marshall’s reflection on philanthropy – like Bob Pittman’s life – reflects the spirit that informs the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® program and inspires those who hold this designation to make philanthropy a more responsive and more respectful enterprise: “None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.”

Yet the debate over shareholder primacy versus the stakeholder theory of business in the financial industry persists among analysts and professionals.

This week marks 50 years since publication by The New York Times of the Milton Friedman essay “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.” Reference to this essay has become tantamount to the position that “shareholder primacy” is the cornerstone of American capitalism. The anniversary provides an occasion to reflect on the purpose of business, as well as business ethics in financial services, and how leadership mindsets can impact outcomes for all stakeholders.

I first learned about the Friedman essay when I started teaching at the NYU Stern School of Business in 2015. I was familiar with Friedman the economist, but not Friedman the essayist. At law school, we learned the “business judgment rule,” the principle that the law will defer to the reasonable judgments of the board and management as they make decisions that inevitably require a trade-off between various stakeholders, and these decisions are not considered conflicts of interest. When you ask lawyers about corporate duties, you’ll hear about principles like Duty of Loyalty and Duty of Care, but not about the primacy of a shareholder. Later, studying public policy and economics at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), we learned about market failures, not perfect markets. Developing policy rooted in financial ethics requires a focus on how markets fail to deliver to all stakeholders, which enables policymakers to judge appropriate and timely government intervention.

My takeaway was that managers have a duty to shareholders, but it’s not their only or primary duty. One look at the litigation and enforcement dockets against corporations demonstrates how stakeholders can and do advocate for their own recompense in the face of unethical behavior or unlawful corporate action.

The enduring appeal of the theory of shareholder primacy, however, signals that the mindset of business leaders is an important element in their decision-making. How a company balances the interests of their stakeholders while still practicing financial ethics reflects upon their unique governance and leadership structure.

For many business decisions, there are no clear rules or codes of ethics set in stone. On the margins, for certain specific and boundary-setting circumstances, there may be guidance on ethical issues to help us identify the right thing to do – for example, during a merger, many lawyers will likely advise that the board’s role is to manage a process that will yield the highest price for shareholders; or, in the event of bankruptcy, there is a clear waterfall of payments requiring that certain stakeholders (employees, lenders, etc.) be paid before the shareholders, who retain only residual interests. These rules provide a clear hierarchy of order in decision-making. For the large number of day-to-day challenges, however, leaders have the hard job of finding the right balance in the absence of clear ethical standards.

How leaders resolve these inherent ethical issues signals to the financial markets their approach to governance. Viewed through this lens, the rising interest in ESG investing can be seen as an indication that capital markets find financial value in these signals of non-financial behaviors. For instance, in our current economic downturn, how are managers to decide whether to cut dividends to their investors or to lay off workers while weathering the COVID-19 financial crisis? Investors are paying attention to these trade-offs and their long-term impacts.

Friedman’s 1970 essay should be viewed in the context of the times for which he wrote it. As Kurt Andersen of The New York Times writes, Friedman was responding to the surge of support for social justice movements in the late 1960s, and a fear of “big government” controlling business through a socialist agenda.

Similarly, we need to look through the lens of modern-day business and social settings to find opportunities for corporate leadership. While the financial services industry continues to rebuild from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, it is faced with new social, economic, and ethical issues unfolding from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the lack of trust in financial services among the general population is an enduring challenge. According to the 2019 Edelman Trust survey, “financial services remains the least trusted sector” they measure. While trust has been improving since 2008, the survey finds that 70% of respondents “expect their financial services leaders to lead on social issues…that make the world a better place.” Income inequality and financial security top the list.

Put in context, the public perception is that growing economic inequality casts a shadow on the reputation of the financial services industry—calling leaders to action. As the current financial crisis unfolds, these questions become particularly critical. The racial economic wealth gap remains persistent. The middle class is shrinking. And extreme weather and natural disaster risks are climbing to the top of the global economic agenda.

The silver lining is that the mindset of business ethics has shifted, and opportunities to embrace stakeholder value as synonymous with shareholder value abound.

Azish Filabi, JD, is Executive Director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics in Financial Services.

“What The American College of Financial Services does is very important. It’s (helping) people that bring a very attractive set of experiences, expertise, values, leadership capabilities – just total backgrounds very well suited to employment in the financial world.” - General David Petraeus (Ret.) 2018 Soldier-Citizen Award Recipient

As General Petraeus highlighted, veterans have a unique set of experiences, expertise, values, and leadership traits that make them a great fit for a transition into a rewarding second career in financial services. Yet, far too often, they return home from active service without the educational and career support they need.

The American College Penn Mutual Center for Veterans Affairs does its part to aide these heroes’ transition to the civilian workforce by educating and empowering them through scholarship and applied knowledge.

These veterans receive knowledge in financial services, leadership, and philanthropic planning – an education that can help jumpstart a valuable, and valued, career in the profession.

Since 2012, The College has awarded over 500 scholarships to veterans and their spouses across 46 states, two territories, five countries, and three continents. Moving forward, The College intends to award 200 scholarships each year.

It’s important to measure our impact in raw numbers, but the most important measure of our mission to benefit society is the stories of gratitude and success extended by our scholarship recipients to the donors who supported their education. We’ve received 100s of letters expressing thanks for the financial support and the applied knowledge that has given them a leg up in their second career of service.

This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has required us to think differently about fundraising for this worthy cause. Campaign Gratitude helps humanize this mission – so you can hear how a gift and the education it offers has impacted real veterans, their spouses, their families, and their communities.

Below, you can hear Wayne Mai’s story, a 20-year U.S. Marine with a mission to bring financial education to our nation’s children. It’s a powerful illustration of the hope, passion, and purpose that a donation to Campaign Gratitude provides.

As my mother once told me, “Only what you do for others will last.” The service of our men and women in uniform will always be a part of our nation’s story. Now, I ask all of you, what will you do for them?

Learn more about Campaign Gratitude, and know that we award a full scholarship to heroes like Wayne with every $5,000 gift.