June 2020
Dear Clients and Friends,
Over the past few weeks, I, like many of you, have been grappling with the societal issues raised by the death of George Floyd. As a nation, we are reckoning with conscious and unconscious discrimination that has existed for generations and continues to be a material component of the lives of Black Americans. Today, the discussion, the breadth of engagement and the commitment to positive action—particularly within the corporate world—appears different and potentially more impactful.
I raise these observations for two reasons. First, I believe it is important for our clients and friends to know that we are a firm based on values. Fiduciary is opposed to hatred and inequality in all of its forms. We are in the business of helping others. And, like many, we seek to be better people tomorrow than we were yesterday. As a firm, we are engaged in our own dialogue on race, unconscious biases and equity for the purpose of identifying meaningful and tangible actions.
Second, I believe as a company of conscience, Fiduciary needs to voice its support for positive change in order to address inequality and racism today, tomorrow and in the weeks and years ahead. In the absence of participating in this nationwide dialogue—and taking productive steps for change—we would be implicitly condoning values antithetical to our own.
I hope these comments resonate with your own beliefs and that together we can address the continuing wrongs of the past.
Austin
Austin V. Shapard
President and CEO