While employed as the manager of 94 small Kroger Grocery & Baking Company stores in Illinois, Michael Cullen wrote a letter to a Kroger vice president describing his ideas that would eventually revolutionize the grocery industry. His letter was never answered, but steadfast in his vision, Cullen resigned and moved his family to Long Island.

King Kullen opened its doors August 4, 1930 on Jamaica Avenue in Queens, New York. Success was immediate. Shopping became convenient, and King Kullen supermarkets meant affordable food. No less than the Smithsonian Institute recognizes King Kullen as America’s first supermarket, according to an official history on the King Kullen website.

Today, about 20 miles from that first King Kullen location is another man with a vision. By combining real estate savvy with wealth management expertise and an entrepreneurial flair, Eric R. Nirenberg just might be drafting the next business-model blueprint for boutique financial advisory firms.

A boutique is a small financial firm that provides specialized services for a particular segment of the market, as defined by Investopedia. “Although they may lack some of the resources of larger firms, boutique firms aim to offer more individualized services and tailor their offerings to the needs of their clients,” Investopedia notes.

As president, chief vision officer, and owner of ClearVision Wealth Management Inc., Nirenberg was encouraged by his wife to purchase a building in Bellmore, New York, which he’d long had his eye on. And by so doing, he seems to have navigated the resource limitations of many boutique firms, by providing a range of professional financial services under one roof.

Competition is fierce in the financial advice arena. Market size of the financial planning and advice sector in the United States is projected to be $52.9 billion in 2021, measured by total revenue, according to industry research company Ibisworld.com. That represents growth of 3.5 percent over an average of 2.1 percent per year between 2016-2020.

Driving growth is the number of households in the U.S. earning more than $100,000. “But the primary negative factor affecting this industry is high competition,” Ibisworld noted.

That building represented far more than just a home for Nirenberg’s practice; he long envisioned it as the springboard for leapfrogging the competition and the foundation for a new business model. He has since run with his idea to lease space to other professionals whose common bond is servicing clients’ financial needs, and transformed the location into a one-stop financial center.

While ClearVision Wealth Management serves a range of clients, most of Nirenberg’s business comes from people in the construction, architectural and building trades. He says most clients are a stone’s throw away. And they now have access to specialists in financial planning, insurance, investing, healthcare, eldercare, estate planning, taxation, money management and more.

Nirenberg told Advisors Magazine in a recent interview that his ideal client is the person who gets in there and does the things it takes to become wealthy. The type of client who is able to tell themselves ‘No’, and demonstrates discipline in order to build wealth. And, in a metaphorical nod to his mainly construction-related base, he likes to say, “The callouses you create building wealth today are the foundation for you keeping it tomorrow.”

Always good with numbers and a self-described supersaver, Nirenberg got into financial planning in 1996. With more than 25 years of seeing what clients wanted, he was able to leverage certain synergies.
“There’s an elder law attorney in our office; I met her through a client,” Nirenberg recalled. “A client was organizing his estate with her and she called me and said, ‘I’m working for this individual and he told me you’re his financial advisor.’” The attorney needed information and the two initiated a dialogue.

“Gradually, she started to see what we were doing here and how we separate ourselves from all the other people in this business,” Nirenberg said. “She liked our approach and was obviously a perfect fit for us.”
After he bought the building, Nirenberg made an office suite for her, and the collaboration started in earnest.

“She has clients that aren’t mine and we have clients that may not be hers, but there is obvious synergy there,” Nirenberg explained. “It feeds into this real estate investment that I made and the scalability of the business. And clients love it, they gravitate here because we can handle all their affairs.”

In fact, a recent Deloitte study recommended that financial advisors should adjust their offerings and service delivery models “to win the battle” for the investor of the future. It’s a lesson and an analogy that resonates with Nirenberg.

“When you’re building wealth, every single day your money is in the trenches and it needs to be tended to,” Nirenberg said. “In some way, shape or form — whether it’s the debt management side, the asset creation side, the upside to the market, reallocating the funds — every little thing requires the right team of people handling your money — because your money’s at war.”

And Nirenberg wants to bolster wartime troops by scaling up and opening more of his one-stop shops. Franchising the concept is being considered.

“I’d like to do one in 2021 out east somewhere, maybe have one covering the south shore of Long Island, maybe one on the north shore,” Nirenberg said.

He recognizes, however, that it can’t be done alone and Nirenberg is quick to credit his team for their passion and dedication. “I owe a great deal of my success to the people that I surround myself with — one of whom is Andrew Heyman our managing director — as well as my wife and family at home.”

While the plan is to grow the brand by opening up more offices like the one in Bellmore, the difference is these won’t revolve around Nirenberg. Another advisor will bring in their attorney, their tax specialist other professionals they work with, and he or she will be able to curate and maintain their own relationships, leveraging the model pioneered by ClearVision Wealth Management. Nirenberg will serve as a mentor for that process.

Similar to Michael Cullen some 90 years ago, Nirenberg is determined to realize his own dream — that of a financial services superstore.

For more information on ClearVision Wealth Management, visit: clearvisionwm.com