Ep #30: Transitioning from Engineering to Financial Planning with Aaron Grey

Aaron Grey is a wealth advisor and the Director of Planning Integration for Buckingham Strategic Wealth Advisors in Denver, CO. He joins the show today to share how he first learned about financial planning and what excited him about the profession—and why he initially chose to pursue an engineering career instead. He also discusses what it was like to join his father's firm, some of the major changes they made to pivot from a heavy investment management offering to a more financial planning-focused service model, and why he ultimately pursued his CFP certification.

Listen in to hear what Aaron thinks a financial planner’s role is and why financial planning is the greatest profession and the right fit for him. You’ll learn when his firm began to look for firms to partner with, how they settled on Buckingham, and how Aaron uses his engineering background to thrive in his current position.

What You'll Learn In Today's Episode:

Why Aaron transitioned from engineering to financial planning. (2:18)
The similarities between engineering and financial planning. (3:13)
How Aaron and his father worked together to move the business forward. (5:00)
Why he decided to pursue a CFP certification. (10:19)
What the growth phase looked like and why they brought on help. (12:34)
What it takes to join a family business as a non-family member. (14:21)
Why they decided to look for firms to partner with and how they decided on one. (18:17)
Advice for engineers (or anyone) interested in moving to a financial planning career. (25:43)

Ideas Worth Sharing:

“The muscles I developed in earning an engineering degree—I still get to use them all the time in financial planning because I get to sit down, think critically, do design, and solve real-world problems for clients.” - Aaron Grey Share on X “My planning software is talking with my aggregation software, and my tax analysis software is bringing information into my CRM software so that we have all that client data in-house.'” - Aaron Grey Share on X “Not only do you need the number skills, but you need the people skills as well.” - Aaron Grey Share on X

Resources In Today's Episode:

Download your free copy of the New Planner Career Roadmap!

In this roadmap, you'll be guided through the details of various stages of your financial planner career, including position descriptions, licensing, skill and experience level requirements, and compensation ranges.