Event replay: Building Black wealth across generations
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GREG CUNNINGHAM: Good afternoon and welcome to our LinkedIn Live event, Building Black Wealth Across Generations. I want to thank all of you for taking the opportunity, taking the time to join us for this really and vitally important discussion. I'm Greg Cunningham, Chief Diversity Officer at U.S. Bank. Today, we're here to talk about generational wealth and why that is important, the barriers that have kept Black families from creating it, and the steps that they can take to begin building wealth for themselves, for their families, and for future generations. 
Building wealth for all of our constituents is a priority here at U.S. Bank, which is why in February of 2021, we launched the Access Commitment, a bank-wide initiative to help close racial wealth disparities. Today, I'm joined by two incredible leaders here at U.S. Bank. First, Scott Ford, our president of Affluent Wealth Management and Sekou Carlin, our Head of Branch and Small Business Banking. Gentlemen, welcome. 
SEKOU KAALUND: Thank you. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: Before I it over to Scott and Sekou to provide their perspective, I want to remind all of our guests that you have the opportunity to ask questions of our esteemed panelists today by adding your questions into the comment section within LinkedIn Live. So again, thank you everyone for joining. Scott and Sekou, thank you both for being with us as well. Scott, I'm going to direct the very first question to you. Scott, can you hear me? 
SEKOU KAALUND: He's getting there. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: Sekou, I'll start with you. Why don't I start the first question for you? 
SEKOU KAALUND: OK. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: As a leader, you have an incredibly big job, an incredibly important job here at the U.S. Bank. Tell us a little bit about why DEI is important to you. 
SEKOU KAALUND: Well, this is important because I think when we tap into the best of all of our society, then we create outcomes that exceed what even we think can be possible. And so for me, that means day in and day out understanding that we have the best talent within our organization that also reflects the communities we serve. And with that talent and with that reflection of the communities we serve, we could truly power the potential of our clients and our customers. 
So for me DEI is table stakes. It's how we can reach consumers. It's how we can actually support communities. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: Thank you. Thank you, Sekou. I think one of the things that we've talked a lot about in terms of this work of DEI in particular is the notion that DEI fundamentally is about creating equal access, certainly to opportunity, but it's also about inclusive growth. And it's about bringing innovation to our business. 
One of the statistics that we're going to talk a little bit about when Scott rejoins us is a building Black wealth study we did back in September of 2021. And what was fundamentally apparent in that study not only highlighting the problem that we have in this wealth gap, which is an 8 to 1 wealth disparities between Black households and white households in terms of overall wealth, the notion that 45% of Black households own their own home versus 74% of white households. And we all know how important homeownership is, that homeownership is the number one way that wealth gets transferred in this country has always been the case. 
And so these are big and important problems. But a couple of things that came out of the study we did, and I think Scott is back with us-- 
SCOTT FORD: I am. I can hear now. For whatever reason when the music stopped, I couldn't hear anything. So sorry about that, gentleman. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: It must have-- 
SEKOU KAALUND: I've saved the best responses for you. So don't you worry. It's about to go to you. 
SCOTT FORD: My man. Thank you. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: It was good hold music. So we just had a party going for you. Scott, why don't we kick off and just have you-- Sekou answered my initial question question, which is why is that DEI important to you. And certainly leading affluent wealth management here at the bank, I know it's important to you and want you to talk a little bit about that. 
SCOTT FORD: Yeah, great. Well, thank you. And it absolutely is important to me for a couple of reasons. Number one, we all take great pride in being committed to the communities that we serve. And those communities include people who traditionally, in this industry, have been somewhat underrepresented. The second thing I would say, Greg, is it's good business. 
Everyone has wealth and assets. Everyone needs good quality financial advice to help build and grow their wealth. So it's good business. The challenge that we face as an industry, for example, women are an underrepresented segment. They currently represent more than half of the US population, but yet they only represent about 28% of all the financial advisors in the industry. The same holds true for African-Americans who represent about 14% of the US population, but only represent about 5.5% of all financial advisors. So certainly, both groups are underrepresented. 
So we set out a couple of years ago to reach out to those particular segments to see what we could learn and see how we could best help and support them. So we started with the women in wealth insight study. And then we followed that on with a building Black wealth insight study. We actually learned quite a bit from those individuals in terms of what they thought we could do leaning on our core capabilities to help them build and grow their wealth over time. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: Thank you for the insight, Scott. I had referenced the building Black wealth study. And Sekou, I'm going to come to you, not to suggest that you're well-versed in the study as much as I know-- the three things I'm going to talk about are all things that I've talked with you about and I know are things that you are extremely well versed in. There were three really important insights that came out of that study. 
And number one was the notion that Black wealth was fundamental in terms of thinking about community-- that Black Americans disproportionately think about leaving a legacy, this notion of my success is directly tied to the success of my community. Number two is that this notion of paying it forward and the notion of tangible assets that I can pass from generation to generation. So things like real estate are incredibly important because it's a tangible asset that I can pass to the next generation. 
So legacy and community stood out for me in reading that study. And then the third thing was this notion of representation, that representation is really important. And I wonder, Sekou, in your experience and all the incredible work that you bring to the bank if you can just touch on any or all of those things and how you see this? 
SEKOU KAALUND: Yeah, great study. And the great news is that even other banks have done studies to understand the economic impact. One bank did a study that said in the last 20 years, or since the year 2000, the impact of inequity or discrimination on the economy has been $16 trillion. And so as you talk about our study, it really focuses on those areas where the impact has been most acute. 
And as you talk about legacy, leaving a legacy, I'll reference Proverbs where it says, a wise person leaves a inherited for his children's children. And so the notion that's embedded in leaving something for that next generation, and in particular your family, is a part of who we are. But at the same time, that notion isn't only restricted to those financial assets. 
It is also health as well. It is also leaving insights and how you manage and the ability to engage and connect so that you could continue to build on what was left. And part of the challenge is that we've experienced-- absolutely, if we say $16 trillion of impact since 2000, just imagine if we go a few decades before. And sadly, you talked about the homeownership rate. Well, the homeownership rate today is the same as what it was when housing discrimination was legal. 
And so if you think about the impact of having access to credit to then purchase homes or businesses, small [AUDIO OUT] 

--it's important for us generally to have all [AUDIO OUT] and the last thing I'll just quickly say is just as we talk about portfolios, again, when I think about wealth, I don't just think about financial assets. Like I said, the health is wealth. So holistically, we have to broaden our definition and recognize the mental health piece, the physical health piece, as well as the financial health piece. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: Because they all work together as social determinants of health. And Scott, I wonder how you think about it? I thought Sekou's point about $16 trillion since 2000-- you multiply that by a couple of years, and we start to have a really different conversation. But how do you think about it as the head of wealth management? 
SCOTT FORD: Greg, it's a great question. I can tell you, and many of us probably experience this in our personal lives just beyond the professional things that we do but, at almost every family gathering and you go to church on Sunday or whatever it is you do, wherever groups of us are gathered, this notion of intergenerational wealth transfer is top of mind for us. And I think that that's a really, really good thing. And the study was very, very clear. 
And you articulated it well. Our community, much more than others, are concerned with passing on a legacy to the next generation. And the most tangible of those things is a home. And we all have had relatives and friends that have been able to pass a family home on to that next generation so that generation is not starting from scratch or starting from zero because that's also one of the things that precipitated the wealth gap to begin with. Each subsequent generation is kind of starting out from scratch. 
So as you think about the type of things that have lasting and enduring value, aside from health and all those things, but home ownership is really, really important. It, in most cases for most Americans, it is the most valuable asset that families have and then certainly financial assets. So being able to buy mutual funds and things like that, things that can be passed along to your children, bank accounts when someone passes away because if it doesn't make it to the next generation, by definition it just dies with you. 
So our communities, in the work that I do every day, I feel a sense of vocation about this in terms of making sure that we can help all people, but especially our community where we've been disadvantaged for such a long period of time, make the most of what we have because everyone has wealth. It's really about how you manage what you have in such a way as to multiply it over time. And so just think about this. 
Wherever you are, you can start. And even if you save $25 a week and you get a 5% return over 20 years, that $25 per week turns into $40,000. So just being more deliberate about saving and paying yourself first, as is said, that will help you pass more wealth on to the next generation. 
SEKOU KAALUND: Just to jump in on that point about the stocks, it's spot on. The power of compounding is a beautiful thing. But to put some numbers around it and to personalize it, even, according to the Federal Reserve 31% of Black families own stocks versus 64% of white families. And so if you think about what Scott just said in terms of the ability for assets to grow, that becomes important. And then Scott I'm sure could touch on some of this retirement stats as well. 
But I'll give you a personalized story. I actually worked at the Federal Reserve coming out of graduate school. And at the time, I was coming up from North Carolina. I moved to New York. New York's expensive. Rent was expensive. 
And I was going to not put money in my 401(k) because I said, hey, I'm not retiring anytime soon. I need that money now. And then I had someone fortunately say to me, you're giving away free money. They match your contribution. I worked at the Federal Reserve for five years. 
And so as I think about where that-- I left in 2004-- where that-- I rolled it over into IRA. But what it is now compared to what I contributed, it's a 10x minimum. And so that was money that I would have left on the table because I would have been short-term focused on, hey, I need to pay my rent, which makes sense. But not thinking longer term and figuring out that, oh, wow. This match means my money is compounding faster. 
SCOTT FORD: That's right. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: It's such a powerful thing. I have a have a question from the audience I want to pose to both of you. But before I do that because we've all referenced the building Black wealth study, I wanted to give people the website address. It is, I think, scrolling across your screen. But it is usbank.com/blackwealth will take you to a landing page that includes the wealth study and lots of other information for you to reference. 
But the question from the audience says, can you talk about-- and Scott, I'm going to start with you, I'm going to direct the question to you and, Sekou, have you have chime in-- can you talk about Black wealth transfer over 25 years? I think, Sekou, you touched on it a little bit. But the importance of that, maybe it is the compounding, Scott, that you were referencing. But talk about wealth transfer over the last 25 years. 
SCOTT FORD: Well, certainly there has not been enough of it. And as you think about it traditionally, a lot of our families-- 401(k) plans and defined contribution plans like Sekou referenced have been around since like I think 1986 or so. Prior to that, most people worked at a company, the retirement plan was what we refer to as a defined benefit plan. In other words, you didn't contribute to it. And you got a certain dollar amount per month upon your retirement. 
And generally, you received that benefit up until you passed away. You think about it like an annuity or an income stream over time. So a lot of these things are relatively new. And we finally are in positions where we have access to these type of vehicles and retirement plans. So I certainly encourage us to take advantage of them. Sekou referenced some retirement planning statistics. About half of eligible-- all Americans, half of all Americans who are eligible to contribute to their 401(k) plan contribute to it. And Sekou talked about his own experience with that. 
And he fortunately had someone tell him, no, no. You need to contribute because contributing smaller amounts over a longer period of time is really, in terms of that compounding effect, will help you build wealth faster or build more wealth over time. So that's certainly one thing, making sure that you take advantage of those plans that your employer offers. The second I would say is homeownership rates. 
And as you pointed out, the home ownership rates are about the same as they were when things like redlining and housing discrimination were legally permissible activity. And again, homeownership is, generally speaking, where the vast majority of Americans have the bulk of their wealth. And it's also an asset that is fairly easy to pass along to the next generation if you've done some basic rudimentary planning, like having a will, an estate plan, and things like that. 
So I would say over the past 25 years, we've lagged in terms of intergenerational wealth transfer. My hope is that over the coming 25 years that we will absolutely see a significant increase as more people educate themselves and become more aware of the tools and the ways that you can pass on wealth to your family and your children. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: And thank you for pointing us forward, Scott, to the next 25 years because that actually was the question. And I fumbled 
it. 
SCOTT FORD: That's OK. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: OK. So thank you for that. Sekou, you how about you. As we think about the next 25 years and where we're going, how we continue to build, any thoughts from you? 
SEKOU KAALUND: Yeah, so I'll anchor on one point in terms of this Baby Boomer generation, so you have Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennials, et cetera. But they're set to pass 68 trillion in wealth over the next 25 years. And so to your point, it is an important question more broadly from a society, industry, every perspective. As it relates to Black wealth transfer, one thing I'm more optimistic about is that the progress we have been able to make-- and so if I use myself as a data point of one, as an example, it took 400-plus years for me to be in the position and have the opportunities that I have today. 
But as a result, I'm able to put away money for my three children to ensure that their college is paid for. Whereas obviously, many of us had to take loans, I had the Pell Grant. I had scholarships. And so your starting point is different, back to the compounding. So a lot of people are struggling under the weight of student loans among other things. 
And so if it's about timing, if I'm able to save sooner, if I'm able to invest sooner, if I'm able to purchase a home sooner or inherit a home, these aspects will, I believe, over time just create greater opportunity and shorten the duration upon which people can build and grow wealth. And so it's almost the tale of two cities. We've had tremendous progress in some respects. But still some of the persistent issues and sticky issues remain. 
And so that's why I'm proud of being at U.S. Bank where some of the things we're trying to do to address, whether it's around lending, the Black wealth initiative, wealth management, to really provide the tools, the insights to help people navigate. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: I'm going to-- your responses made me think about something that was really curious for me when we completed the study because one of the things the study highlighted was a couple of facts. And one of them I found really important. But it actually highlighted four really important things. 
Number one is that our Black respondents have clearly defined financial goals that typically Blacks have strong financial plans and guidelines and aspirations. They have a very clear idea of where they're trying to go, that they believe they are better managing their dollars than their parents ever did. Sekou, to your point, the starting point is now different. And we're having more conversations about money and financing than we ever had. 
And it does provide a great deal of optimism. But are there still fundamentally, as we've talked a lot about some of them today, and Sekou, I was hoping you would spend a few minutes talking about the new diversity lending program that we just launched. And congratulations to you and the team for the tremendous leadership. But these are the kinds of systemic things that we have to put in place in order to make progress. I wonder if you'd spend just a few minutes talking about that. 
SEKOU KAALUND: Absolutely. And congratulations to you and all the others that worked on that even before I arrived. But it's an incredible program really to get access to capital or lending to small businesses-- diverse, veteran, et cetera, businesses. And why that's important-- if you think about the wealth spectrum and wealth opportunity, long before I could have been here in this job as head of branch of small banking, the opportunity for us would have been, 50 years ago, to be entrepreneurs. 
So if you look at the Black wealth from the even early 1900s, and yes, even it existed in small portions, it was from entrepreneurship. And if you think about businesses in general, so this is just more broadly speaking, according to the SBA, if you think about over the last 25 years small businesses created 12.7 million jobs, or big corporations only created 6.2 million jobs. And so if you think about that, two out of every three jobs period being created in the country are by small businesses. Or 99.9% of businesses in the country are small businesses. 
Why do I give you that litany of statistics? Because then if you're providing capital, too many diverse and underinvested businesses have been starved of capital. And so by investing, by understanding, adjusting parameters whether it's around cash flow and credit scoring, but being more intentional to provide access, consulting, advisory, as well as capital and lending means that we can help businesses scale. And when they're scaling, what did I just talk about? Job creation. 
They're hiring more people. It's creating more vibrant communities. And so for me, that's why I'm excited that U.S. Bank is really going long on our diversity business access lending because it's a way that we've seen over time that we can surely grow wealth and also grow the economy. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: One of our partners we talk a lot about this notion that the best social program ever created is a job. And I just love that phrase and that notion of, as you said, most people work in small businesses are the backbone of our economy. And Scott, I was curious, too, get your thoughts on-- there's so much work under way within your business line to continue to close wealth disparities. 
And one of the things that struck me from the study, too, was this notion of how Black respondents feel disproportionately, 79% of the respondents to that survey felt that there were institutional roadblocks to wealth discrimination. And despite all of that, despite that, they were very positive about the industry and about their prospects for building wealth. And I wonder if you have thoughts or can just share some thoughts on what that statistic means to you and how you think about that within the work you do every day? 
SCOTT FORD: Oh, Greg, so it is super encouraging. We do know that historically, there has been certainly systemic roadblocks to the ability of Black people in this country to build wealth. We referenced some of those things-- discriminatory job and hiring practices, redlining, and all those things that made it very, very difficult for African-Americans in this country to build wealth historically. And I think that we have passed an inflection point where I think there is just such a can-do spirit among us now. 
And we've learned to be able to overcome the many challenges that we face that we know that we have access to the same tools, access to the same work and job opportunities, and taking advantage of all the financial resources that we have. I'm often struck by the fact that our ancestors did so much with so little. And we have so much more than they had now. 
I think it's incumbent upon all of us to really take it to the next level. And I think that that's what that study-- I think that that's what that ethos, that's what people were feeling in the study. Yes, there have been challenges over time. But I feel very, very positive about my future because I think that people feel like they have more control over what they can accomplish in their financial lives. I think that that's what that is speaking to. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: I agree with you 100%. And we got a really interesting question from someone in the audience that said, what's U.S. Bank's strategic plan to support Black startups and small businesses? Sekou, as we talked about, a lot underway to support small businesses. I'll start with you. 
SEKOU KAALUND: Yeah, so as we think about our business access advisors, sometimes what we have found that it's not just the capital piece. So you may have a creative, an entrepreneur, restaurant-- you pick the industry. And understanding the answers to the test, coaching on what is it that the bank is looking at? What should I have in terms of reserves? How much should I think about my supply chain? 
So really understanding key aspects to operating your business is equally important as you think about capital. And so part of what we're trying to do-- and we have business access advisors that we've hired now and we continue to hire across the country-- but it's to understand that advisory piece, particularly for startups and understanding where they are in their evolution. Now, sometimes it's different types of funding vary. 
There may be instances where you want to take equity or instances where you have cash flow and you could really borrow and have debt. And so the bigger job to be done is helping to educate businesses now on, as they think about their vision and their plan, what are some of the things we could do to support them along that journey? And that's what I really love about U.S. Bank. I've been here about four months now. 
But we have a very simple mission. We invest our hearts and minds to power human potential. And if you think about it from that lens, that we're powering human potential, then it means I have to understand what it is that I can do to help power the potential of this small business, to help power the potential of this consumer. And so part of that is having those candid dialogues in a way that we're comfortable. I think my parents had a small business. I'm particularly passionate about small business. 
And it did fail because of access to capital, among other issues. And I often think, now being in the seat that I'm in, what could I have done to have helped my family? And where would they have been if they had had the access to capital and the banking relationships? And it was a fairly decent sized business. And so for me, it's a permanent reminder that by supporting small businesses, we are actually creating wealth opportunities and creating jobs. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: Scott, anything you'd like to add? Go ahead. 
SCOTT FORD: I was going to say that just fundamentally thinking about this, and I think about what Sekou was saying, I know when I did certified financial planner curriculum, the instructor had been a tax professional for many, many years. And he talked about how there is a leverage and a multiplier effect for those who are running successful businesses because this country really is designed to support businesses. Sekou shared those statistics. 
The vast majority of all job creation and workers work for small businesses as defined by companies with fewer than 100 employees. But if you look at the tax policies of this country-- and I'm not talking about recently, I'm talking about over time-- there are incentives to go out and build a business and grow that business. And one of the things we know for sure, the median net worth for Black business owners is 12 times higher than for the rest of the general Black population. So business ownership is really, really important. 
And I think we see in the generations of folks, like my youngest is 25. I have one that is 25, one is 33. Many of their friends have that entrepreneurial mindset. And so that certainly is a key contributor to really the stability of our communities and the ability to generate intergenerational wealth. And think about, Sekou, the example you gave. Had your parents been able to have had access to capital, had access to technical expertise and information, they could have passed that business down to you or someone else in your family. So I think it is a critical part of this equation as we think about building Black wealth and intergenerational wealth transfer for sure. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: Yeah, it's incredibly insightful from both of you. And I would add for the person, first of all, thank you for asking the question. And I would add that some of this is highlighted on the website that we mentioned earlier. But certainly, U.S. Bank continues, through our impact finance group, direct support, financial support to CDFIs, Community Development Financial Institutions, millions of dollars that we provide to CDFIs to provide technical assistance not only to them but to small businesses so that small businesses can, not only as Sekou said, have access to capital, but they also need access to networks. 
They need access to networks within themselves. And they need access to customers. And our funding directly goes to helping support that. And then we also make direct investments in private equity firms who are also investing in minority-owned and specifically Black-owned businesses. So I wanted to add that and thank the person for asking that question. 
I have maybe two other questions before we go to questions from the audience. As we talked about, some of the takeaways from our building Black wealth study, we talked about the three really important things of community, we talked about legacy, and we talked about representation in the industry. And so I do want to talk briefly about representation because, Scott, you mentioned this at the very top. 
But we started this journey with a study of women and wealth. And we cannot have a conversation about Black wealth without talking about our sisters, our mothers, and the head of so many Black households being the women. And so I want to talk about how so many of the things that we've talked about that Black women in particular experience with even greater depth, with a greater sense of, at least certainly according to the study that we did, that they have even more anxiety around conversations of wealth. 
And so Scott I'll start with you. And talk a little bit about maybe some of the insights from the women in wealth study, the Black wealth study, and how we are working hard and thinking about the nuance, the gender nuance, of these conversations around wealth. 
SCOTT FORD: Yeah, Greg, it's a great question. So for one thing, they do experience a lot-- well, one of the learnings from the study was Black women in particular experience higher levels of anxiety when it comes to financial planning. It seems overly complex. I think as an industry, we've made it overly complex. 
We should probably just start referring it referring to it as one's roadmap to financial success. And you can start wherever you are. And some of the folks in the study also are single mothers. So think about the implications of that. At the same time, Black women in particular are graduating from college at higher rates than any other segment of the population. 
So I think that we as an industry just need to do a better job in terms of how we approach them and how we deliver financial advice. There's a lot of great work that's happening in terms of behavioral economics and finance in terms of how people make decisions. Simple things like the way you frame a question could have different implications for how people receive and process that information. And then, again, representation is really important. 
I think that the fact that women are so underrepresented in this industry that that is also part of the challenge. And women, generally speaking, feel less confident in their ability. Men, generally speaking, are overly confident in their ability. And so I think there's an opportunity there as we have more women enter this industry and just have a different approach from an emotional intelligence and an EQ perspective, I think we can make up more ground. 
But the future for them is bright because they are, again, graduating at really, really high rates. They have fantastic jobs. Many of them are the breadwinners in their households. And so we certainly have to change the way we support them in order to put it within reach. 
SEKOU KAALUND: Yeah, I'll just add on briefly. Scott hit it out of the park. The education rate, one of the highest demographics. And business formation rates, one of the highest of all. But at the same time, VC funding, Black women receive 0.34%. Now, you're saying the fastest growing business owners actually have the smallest access to capital. 
And so to your point, if we just are creating better parity and equity in terms of access to capital, you're going to make a tremendous difference with the number of businesses being formed, with the number of employees and jobs being created, and ultimately, the wealth being created. And so there is a mismatch between what we're seeing in terms of the educational attainment, the small business formation with the actual funding and actual opportunity. And then I think one statistic said it best. 
I think it's that for every dollar a white male makes, a Black woman make $0.58. So I'm no mathematician, I am pretty good at math, but if you're making $0.58 compared to $1, back to our compounding situation, there's more you could do. You can invest more. You can save more for a house, et cetera, et cetera. So a lot of these issues become compounded. 
And it's true for women, too. In terms of the dollar, I forgot off the hand-- white women, I think, it was $0.64 or something or it may be higher. But it's same thing. And so you look at what is lost here in terms of opportunity costs for people not having true equity, whether it's compensation, or funding, or financing for their businesses. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: Yep. OK, gentlemen. We've got about five minutes left. 
SEKOU KAALUND: Time flies when you're having fun. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: Time flies when you're having fun. 
SEKOU KAALUND: I guess I have to go back to doing some work. But 
[INTERPOSING VOICES] 
And thanks to everyone else for even being here, tuning in. They may need to be working now. But they say, I'm going to get this knowledge really quickly. 
SCOTT FORD: That's right. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: But we're going to get this knowledge out here. And we're going to do it in a concise way. And we've got a couple of questions from the audience. And I want to make sure we get to their questions. So first question is from Jalen. I'm going to take first one. And others feel free to chime in. 
Jalen's question-- and I'm paraphrasing, so I apologize, Jalen. But thank you for your question. Jalen's question is essentially about measurement. How are we measuring all this? Jalen, we're partnering with the Urban Institute, a national research institute out of Washington DC who is helping us develop a whole theory of change and a metrics framework around all the work that we're doing under access commitment because, Jalen, our fundamental belief is all of the things that you're hearing us talk about today, all of the big dollar commitments that we made with access commitment, we are meeting all of those and exceeding all of those financial goals that we came out and we talked about. 
But this isn't about big dollar, millions of dollars and hundreds of million dollar pronouncements. What we're really interested in, Jalen, is what are the outcomes that are happening as a result of these investments? Are the dollars that we're investing in these communities, with small businesses, with individuals and families, our commitments that we're making to our employees to help grow their careers, are any of those things working? 
Well, the Access Institute serves as a third party organization to help us hold ourselves and for the public to hold us accountable to making progress. The Urban Institute wrote a blog. So you can go on their website and learn more about the work that we are doing along with them and how they've talked about our work. And we'll be issuing a report along with them later this year. 
The second question is from Assad. And I'm going to pose this maybe to you, Scott, first and then, Sekou, go to you. Assad wants to know, how can he-- we, he says we. So I'm assuming Assad might be an employee or someone who is part of the U.S. Bank family in some way. How can we support access differently? How can we get more involved to create that differential starting point that we talked about earlier? 
SCOTT FORD: Yeah, Assad, thank you for the question. It's a great question. I think that all of us has a part to play. And like any team, everyone has what they contribute. As I think about what my job is, my job is to make sure, number one, that we're addressing the issue of representation and making sure that we create a diverse workforce that is more reflective of the changing demographics of this country. 
My job is also to make sure that all of our client-facing teammates have the training and the resources that they need to be successful and to be highly competent and confident in their ability to deliver fantastic goal-based value-added advice. As I think about what we each can do at the individual level is just be culturally aware that there are differences in the way people process information. So I'll give you a very basic example. 
Elder abuse has been a challenge in this industry. And there are things that you can do, like not having lunch and learn seminars at night over dinner, but rather having them earlier in the morning where people's ability to process information is a bit more acute. It's the same thing around the language that we use when we speak to people and educate people about the different choices and options that they have and how are they going to meet their goals. And then I'm just a fundamental believer that everyone should have a plan and a roadmap of how they're going to manage their financial resources to be all that and reach the fullest potential that they have as human beings. 
So I just think that those are some things. But if there are other things that you think that we could be doing, please drop us a note and let us know. 
SEKOU KAALUND: I'll just pick up one piece of that. One, I think it's small steps. I don't want any individual to feel that they need to do the one thing that's going to change the world. If it were that easy, it would be changed by now. But it's, how can you be intentional about supporting a small business? Just that simple-- if you want to, for your coffee shop, stop by a small business. Or how can you support some of your neighborhood or community businesses? 
So I think there are steps that we can take as individual consumers that help power the potential of some of these underinvested and underserved entrepreneurs. The other notion is we often will get to a point-- remember, I'll speak for myself, but if it applies to you, take it-- that as you start to earn more income, that immediately solves everything. And it doesn't. 
Money matters in the extremes-- and I correct myself. It was $0.79 for every dollar that a white female versus white male. So money does matter in an extreme. But it's not what you make. It's what you keep and grow. So again, we get hung up in this notion by only making more. Well, that's great so long as you're not spending more. Right? 
So if we're intentional and then having those conversations with the banker and understanding, what is my plan? What am I trying to do? What are my financial goals? And then how do I make sure that my spending and everything I'm doing is consistent with those goals that I've set for myself? That's where, as an individual, we can begin to help. And then share information. 
One of the things I would say, and it's generational, but my parents didn't have money discussions around the table. Whereas, my son probably knows more and my daughters, too, about money than I did 20 years ago. And they're all under 20. And so again, part of the responsibility that we have is to pass on that information and point people to where they can get information. 
So sharing, hey, this is how I got my mortgage. Here's some of the things that I thought about. Or here's a seminar that I attended around financial health that really gave me insights. I think that's one way we can help by being active promoters of the information that's out there to encourage people to engage in opportunities to learn. 
GREG CUNNINGHAM: Well, gentlemen, I could not thank you both enough. As I said at the very beginning, two extraordinary, extraordinary leaders who we are so fortunate to have at U.S. Bank. I want to thank you both. Scott Ford, president of affluent wealth management, Sekou Kaalund, our head of branch and small business banking. Thank you both. 
I want to end. There were two questions we didn't get to. Michelle, thank you for your question. I would direct you to usbank.com and access an answer to your question. Michael had a question about what podcasts we're listening to that can continue. Michael, there's this incredible podcast called U.S. Bank, real good podcast. It's on Apple, Spotify. Check us out. You won't be disappointed. 
So thank you everyone for joining us. Again, please, we can carry on the conversation at the website usbank.com/blackwealth. Thank you all for joining us. 
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