As a senior leader with an investment firm, Trevor Rozier-Byrd was a rare Black Wall Street executive. In fact, he held that position at one of the world’s largest investment firms: State Street Corp.
With 20 years of experience in the asset management industry under his belt, Rozier-Byrd is now bringing his business and investment expertise to Stackwell, his robo-investing app specifically targeted to African-American investors in the U.S. The app is slated to launch in early 2022.
A Robo-Advisor Explained
A computer program that picks stocks for investors to add to their portfolios, a robo-advisor often charges less than 1 percent of a client’s portfolio every year, and that’s less than the 3 percent charged by traditional brokerage firms — while a computer program picks stocks, financial advisors and wealth managers, and many of the robo-advisor apps are from white-owned brokerage firms.
How Stackwell Caters to Black Investors
“Stackwell has an entirely Black management team that personally knows and has experienced many of the social, emotional and cultural barriers that have resulted in underinvestment in the Black community,” Rozier-Byrd told Finurah. What makes Stackwell different, said the app’s creator, is that it was specifically designed to “address and remove those barriers to entry to promote greater market participation by members of the Black community.”
He added, “Stackwell’s portfolios were selected and will be managed by members of our management team. Over time, we will look to tailor investment solutions that focus on supporting Black-owned companies, founders and fund managers.”
Rozier-Byrd wants Stackwell to be the go-to app for Black investors. “Our aspiration is to be the preferred partner for the end-to-end banking and financial services needs of people in the Black community. Following the release of our robo-advisor offering, we will look to integrate other financial products and services that enable our users to meet their long-term wealth-building goals and objectives, delivered in honest, transparent and fair ways,” said Rozier-Byrd.
Read more about Stackwell here.
