To truly innovate, differentiate and engage today’s changing clients, financial professionals today need to borrow more heavily from the design industry. “Design thinking” leads to more purposeful and thoughtful creation of financial services offerings based firmly on client needs.

To learn more about this “design” approach, The Institute for Innovation Development recently talked with Nick Gregory, president and CEO of the Financial Engineering Institute (FEI) and a series of sister organizations, all created to specifically design and engineer solutions for financial professionals who manage high-net-worth (HNW) family and business wealth. Nick has been hard at work retooling innovative turnkey financial solutions to some of the most complex HNW financial challenges.

Hortz: Can you explain your definition of the term “financial engineering” and why you chose it as your moniker and branding approach for your organization?

Nick Gregory: When I was in private practice as a financial advisor many years ago in the Cleveland Akron area, I was working strictly with owners of manufacturing and construction companies. I'd walk into a contractor's office and there'd be blueprints all over his floor, conference table, desk, and so on. I started to think that they might identify with “financial engineering” as a way they could look at and start understanding the entire financial ecosystem around their families and businesses.

In addition, the research I read showed, both then and now, through numerous independent studies that HNW family leaders and business owners were in search of the following—by priority: 1. Comprehensive Financial Planning, 2. Estate Planning, 3. Tax Planning, 4. Legacy Planning, 5. Asset Management. Key point is that “asset management” ranked last, but most advisory firms seem to have their “focus” upside down. We took a different approach—we listened to what our clients wanted.

So I asked myself: What if I fused advanced knowledge, experience, services and products with sound engineering principles to create a synergized financial hub around all their key areas of need for their businesses and their families? As a financial advisor, it also helped me brand, position and differentiate myself in the marketplace from the more sales intensive, commission-oriented “financial product providers.”

And so, “financial engineering” evolved from my private practice and mindset to an innovative “wealth engineering” platform I built for advisors today with a comprehensive set of client compliant, turnkey offerings—all of which are supported by mentoring, training, marketing and case design along with monthly newsletters, teleconferences and national conferences.

Bill Hortz: What types of financial professionals are gravitating to your comprehensive “wealth engineering” platform? How do you work with them?

Gregory: Our modular, consultative approach allows for the 2,200+ wealth management firms and 22 broker dealers that we currently work with to select various fee structures—retainer, special project, rate per hour, etc. with private label licensing fees of our proprietary programs baked into all.

These firms all vary in what they are up to and where they came from. But they all wish to expand their revenue silos while deepening client relationships by becoming more holistic in working with HNW families and businesses. They appreciate our ability to fine tune our proprietary programs into their respective objectives, time tables, etc.—what we call “open-option practice engineering.”

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