Associate Advisor

Are you looking for a role that allows you to learn the financial planning business from the ground up and has a written career path in place?

The Associate Advisor role provides exposure to the foundational service components of our client relationships and access to learn from our entire team of advisors and staff.

Skill set needed to succeed in this role :

Core Competency Skills

• Fact finding- Search for data to move your process and paperwork along. Examples : Date of birth of beneficiaries on old paperwork, Socials on a tax return, Employment status on LinkedIn, contacting the CSA that executed a similar task in the past.
• Demonstrating initiative- before going to an advisor or peer with the question, have you tried to solve on your own?
• Critical thinking- the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments in order to form a judgement by the application of rational, skeptical, and unbiased analyses and evaluation.

EX : calculating an RMD, check for the RMD amount for previous years, if it is substantially different it would merit checking if the IRS changed the age factor calculation, if the client took a substantial distribution from the account, or should you go to the advisor with the question.

• Intuitiveness- when given an incomplete set of data, ability to piece together what may be expected. When learning something, the ability to interpret and internalize new information without needing to relearn it several times.
• Process and project management- oversee several projects and tasks simultaneously. Ex. One account opening, sending RMDs, DocuSign status, monitoring transfers while staying on top of expectations.
• Communication- easy to reach, obtain status reports on tasks, and clear and efficient communicator in delegating tasks to others.
• Diligence- check your work before sending anything out- to advisors or clients. Avoid careless or small mistakes by checking your work.

Ask a peer to review your work to cross check.

Technology- strong tech efficiency, ability to learn and use new software.

Soft Skills

• Service Orientation.
• Flexible work style and ability to adapt.
• Highly collaborative.
• Proactive- seeks to solve problems before they arise by asking questions ahead of time.
• Positive attitude, friendly and people oriented.
• Detail oriented, reads closely and carefully.

Role Responsibilities :

Level 1 : Client Service

• Delegate, oversee, and complete projects with the Client Queue Admin, Money Movement Queue, and Trading desk. Liaise with Client Service Associates (CSAs) or Trading team to clarify the task and follow up with the client or lead advisor as needed.
• Serve as a Client Service Associate on 8-hour per week basis as an introduction to custodians, paperwork requirements, and money movement processing.
• Liaising with the custodians- ask questions, check for status on transfers, clarify custodian rules on paperwork. This could overlap with CSA but more so collaborate with CSA.
• Complete Fiduciary Decisions reports for IRA / 401k Rollovers
• Calculating, organizing, and taking RMDs for clients. Maintaining a clean RMD list in salesforce.
• Monitor alerts for money movement failures twice a week, notifying advisors of potential insufficient funds.
• Populating data in Salesforce.
• Margin responsibilities
• Determine if margin is already set up on the account.
• Read current balances to determine how much margin is available.
• Review if all eligible holdings are current in margin sub-account for collateral

and move any holdings that are not.

• Become proficient at the applications for Schwab and Pershing and their capabilities.
• Special Projects. Ex. Custodian has a new policy requiring clients to change their accounts from receiving paper statements to e-delivery.

AA coordinates client lists with Advisors and delegates paperwork requirements to CSAs, and lastly confirms when the switch is complete.

Level 2 Responsibilities Project Based Advisor Support

Organizing data for financial planning - going through uploaded files, statements, tax return, employer benefits to organize the data book with what we know.

Follow up with advisor or directly with the client to obtain missing / needed information.

• Insurance Input- obtain illustrations from insurance companies and complete insurance application.
• Assist existing advisors in building and running reports
• Complete Fiduciary Decisions reports for IRA / 401k Rollovers
• Develop a good working knowledge in Client Relationship Management software (Salesforce), Performance Reporting software (Tamarac), and Financial Planning software (Money Guide Pro)
• Input financial plan data for Lead Advisors
• Participate in financial plan design sessions

Level 3 Responsibilities Supervised End-Client Work

• Assist Advisors with meeting preparation
• Research more complex servicing issues
• Simple end-client communication

Other

• Begin work on CFP (Certified Financial Planner)
• Participate in Advisor training meetings

Could you imagine this being your last job search? If being part of a progressive company as a key member of the team appeals to you, send us a copy of your resume along with a cover letter to Maria Cutrone at [email protected].

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER : Hightower is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital status, national origin, citizenship, veteran status, ancestry, age (over 40), physical or mental disability, medical condition (cancer-related), gender identity or expression, genetic information including sickle cell or hemoglobin C trait, or any other consideration made unlawful by applicable federal, state, or local law.

You are a U.S. citizen, U.S. permanent resident or possess other unrestricted U.S. work authorization and will not require sponsorship for U.

S. work authorization now or anytime in the future.