“All Black folks have a drawer.”

The comment may have gone unnoticed at an insurance gathering last year, when Sylvia Alston, managing partner of Momentum Risk Partners, tossed it out quietly as she spoke about the life experiences and career path that drove her to open her own boutique insurance and risk management firm.

“I just knew how people inside my demographic purchased insurance,” said Alston, a Black woman, speaking at the IICF Inclusion in Insurance virtual conference in October 2020, as she spoke about her struggle to convince her employer, an insurance brokerage, to do business with the Black community.