We are an established financial planning firm that has a rich history of serving clients for over three decades from our Indianapolis office. Our team takes immense pride in how we care for our clients and each other. Our financial planning is rooted in the value of family, and we understand the importance of creating a plan including the whole family. We are also a family business, in our second generation after nearly 40 years, so that culture permeates throughout. We have a blended business and always do what is right for the client, including retirement planning, tax planning, insurance planning, business retirement plans, and more. As we continue to grow, we are looking for an experienced client service associate to work closely with our leadership.
You will support our advisors, our clients, and our continued growth, ensuring smooth firm-wide operations centered on client service including client-specific, account-specific, and general business functions. This position is responsible for facilitating and maintaining ongoing client support, answering general inquiries, handling various client matters, researching, and resolving client service issues, and preparing required documents. You're an administrative pro who wants to be more and do more. You are organized and able to work independently while thoroughly enjoy being part of a team. You love organizing paper and projects and enjoy filling out forms meticulously. You’re a go-getter when it comes to follow through and details rarely slip your grasp. You take immense pride in your work. As our firm continues to grow, this role has a clear pathway to management and leadership, including office management, vendor management, compliance, workflow management, team performance and training, tech stack optimization, marketing, events, and more. You will shield the Advisory Team from operational activities so they can focus on providing excellent advice to clients and expanding client relationships. You will strategize with leadership and bring ideas for improvement, along with the tenacity and project management capabilities to implement.
This position will support the office in in the following ways:
- Deliver exceptional customer service to clients through personalized outreach and professional communication
- Prepare investment account paperwork and manage the transfer of assets which includes preparing forms, obtaining appropriate signatures, preparing documentation to upload to home office, tracking new applications and coordinating rollovers
- Respond promptly to client service requests, troubleshoot service issues, and provide effective solutions
- Handle routine matters for client accounts to include processing name and address changes, beneficiary updates, and bank authorizations
- Assume cashiering function with custodians, ensuring accurate and efficient financial transaction processing
- Interface with custodians to complete new account applications and various account maintenance items, process cash and securities transactions, follow up as needed
- Manage death claim process, working with advisory team, custodians and beneficiaries to get new accounts structured and funds distributed appropriately and timely
- Manage periodic contribution/distribution process, leveraging an existing Excel spreadsheet to determine appropriate buys/sells
- Proactively communicate with advisory team, providing updates and addressing concerns, as well as helping them to stay current on open tasks
- Work closely with clients on outstanding items, providing support, guidance, and gentle reminders when needed
- Conduct research, prioritize issues, and follow up on incoming inquiries
- Manage Required Minimum Distribution process, beginning in the summer to ensure all client data is current and RMD’s are taken
- Update and maintain client status and information within CRM and all internal systems and reports
- Monitor and streamline workflows for client service and business operations tasks
- Assist with other duties and projects, research requests and operation follow-up items as assigned
- Contact home office and product sponsors to resolve errors as needed
The ideal candidate:
- Bachelor’s degree in business administration or related field highly preferred
- Minimum 2 years’ experience with independent registered investment advisor or broker-dealer
- Minimum 2 years’ experience in operations/client service role
- Has or willing to obtain FINRA licensing
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Superior knowledge of financial services, including industry regulations and legislative guidelines
- Technology savvy, proficient with Microsoft Office and CRM systems (Redtail preferred) and can easily learn new software
- Client-focused mindset with a commitment to delivering exceptional service and responding to clients in a timely manner
- Excellent follow-through and communication regarding status of open items
- Highly organized, with an absolute attention to detail
- Editing and writing skills to initiate, compose, format, proofread and carefully edit various professional business documents and correspondence
- Strong time management skills; Ability to prioritize and coordinate multiple work assignments and deadlines efficiently despite frequent interruptions
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; ability to communicate in a pleasant, tactful and effective manner (both orally and in writing), and to handle difficult, sensitive issues
- Ability to analyze situations, define problems and/or objectives, identify relevant factors, formulate logical conclusions and suggest alternative solutions
- Open to feedback, driven to continually learn, improve, and grow themselves and the company
- Not afraid to make decisions and learn from mistakes; empowers others to make decisions
- Accomplished communicator able to express concerns, frustrations, have tough conversations, and provide honest feedback in a respectful manner, even when it’s hard to give
- Respectful, loyal, excellent listener, honest, and inspires trust in others
- Ability to diagnose problems quickly and proactively determine creative solutions
- Organized, disciplined, excellent time management to prioritize many projects simultaneously
- Potential for leadership skills; training, delegating, and holding others accountable
