Prateek Mehrotra

There’s a marked difference between leading by authority and leading by example, and Prateek Mehrotra sees one as far superior to the other.

“Leaders who try to direct with authority more often than not end up demotivating and alienating people, which can make it difficult if not impossible to achieve your goals in a timely and efficient manner,” said Mehrotra, chief investment officer at Endowment Wealth Management Inc. “True leaders build their people up and lead by setting the example through factors like their work ethic, quality of delivery and interactions with clients. When leaders work honestly and diligently, they raise the bar and motivate everyone around them, creating a flourishing environment.”

Mehrotra and his business partner, Robert Riedl, founded Endowment Wealth Management in 2013. Mehrotra left an investment advisory firm where he had worked for the previous 10 years because he believed an investment strategy consisting solely of stocks and bonds was no longer sufficient to help investors attain their financial goals. Today, less than 10 years after starting the firm, Mehrotra oversees more than $300 million in investor assets.

The firm has launched two affiliates. ETF Model Solutions, LLC offers three-dimensional ETF Models to 401(k) retirement plans and directly to retail investors through MyRoboAdviser.com. Global Alternative Investment Management LLC is a private fund manager that facilitates private investments for high-net-worth investors into opportunistic venture capital and private equity opportunities on a global scale.

Mehrotra was born and raised in India, and his undergraduate degree is in engineering. His engineering background allows him to approach investment analysis as an engineer would, relying on reading quantitative data. Mehrotra is responsible for researching an expanse of investment opportunities including real assets, hedge strategies, private equity, venture capital, exchange-traded funds and private debt.

In the early 2010s, there was no standardized index for asset managers of multidimensional portfolios to benchmark their portfolio performances. Needing one to include on his clients’ performance reports, he set out to create one. This endeavor led to the first-of-its-kind Endowment Index, calculated by NASDAQ OMX. Today, real-time pricing information on the Endowment Index (symbol: ENDOW) is available on Bloomberg, major finance websites such as Google and Yahoo! Finance and through other financial websites and trading platforms.

Mehrotra was named one of Investopedia’s Top 100 Advisors in 2018. With more than 100,000 independent financial advisors in the U.S., the Investopedia 100 spotlights the country’s most engaged, influential and educational advisors, and recognition is awarded to advisors who make significant contributions to critical conversations about financial literacy, investing strategies, life-stage planning and wealth management.