Michael Farrell refers to himself as “old and experienced enough” to remember the financial calamity of 1987. It was Black Monday, Oct. 19, when stock markets around the world went into a free fall. The crash began in Hong Kong, and by the time it had rolled across the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had shed 508 points, or 22.6 percent of its value.

“I thought that was pretty scary,” says Farrell, a 33-year veteran of the wealth advisory business.

Then came the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, and Farrell got a firsthand experience of just how steep an economic precipice could be. Wan-faced financial vanguards Bernard Bernanke, Tim Geithner and Hank Paulson marched into the Oval Office warning of economic Armageddon if immediate and massive government intervention was not enacted.

At that time SEI Private Wealth Management was, and still is, a relatively small unit of the large financial services company known simply as SEI, a pro