Manager of Transitions And Data Analytics

Location: Alpharetta, GA (HQ); EST or CDT time zone (required)

The Company:

Merit is a fast-growing, pioneering financial services firm that invests heavily in the growth and development of team members. Merit seeks to establish, educate, and help individuals reach their financial goals as they transition into and experience retirement. With an unswerving commitment to excellence and reliability, Merit provides objective financial advice and believes in establishing long-lasting relationships. By offering an array of services, clients can receive tailored solutions that promote growth and help them achieve financial goals.

Merit believes in addressing the retirement challenges in America by helping clients achieve greater financial freedom and confidence. This focus on comprehensive financial wellness enables us to deliver exceptional client experience. Merit is a multi-generational firm with a foundation built around servant leadership and total team leadership. As we continue to grow and bring our relationship-driven approach to the financial industry, we are looking for the right individuals to join our team.

The Position:

The Manager of Transitions And Data Analytics will lead the coordinated transition of acquired organization’s portfolio assets.

This role will serve as a central point of coordination among acquired-firm principals, Merit teams, investment technology partners, and outside investment transition vendors. The position will focus on executing accurate, timely, and client-sensitive transitions of investments while enabling advisors and acquired-firm teams to continue serving clients throughout the onboarding process. The role will also establish data-driven measurements to evaluate transition quality, adoption of Merit’s investment platform, and post-transition outcomes. Leading data analytics to deliver the necessary information to the investment portfolio strategy and management teams to improve adoption and risk management.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the end-to-end planning and execution of investment asset transitions for newly acquired organizations into Merit’s enterprise and investment systems.
• Partner with the selling organizations principals, advisors, and operating teams of acquired firms to develop model portfolio transition plans that preserve continuity of the client’s risk and investment management and minimize disruption.
• Provide investment operational and data input into due diligence, working with Merit’s transition team and resolving open issues as it relates to transition of portfolio management.
• Serve as the investment team coordinator across internal stakeholders, including Investment, Trading, Operations,Technology, Compliance, Client Service, and integration teams.
• Engage and lead outside vendors relationships engaged to support investment operations, asset transition, and investment model assignment; establish clear responsibilities, timelines, deliverables, and escalation paths.
• Oversee the investment portfolio mapping and assignment of client accounts to Merit investment strategies and models in accordance with approved transition plans and client requirements.
• Ensure the accurate capture, validation, and transfer of critical investment data for each transitioning account for clients;including systematic distributions, capital-gains buffers, cash buffers, tax-management instructions, investment restrictions.
• Develop quality-control procedures and reconciliation checkpoints to confirm accounts are invested properly according to the asset mapping plan.
• Maintain investment operations issue logs, decision records, risk assessments, and executive status reporting; escalate material risks or delays promptly.
• Use data analytics to measure the success of each acquired firm’s portfolio models transition onto Merit’s investment platform, including progress, accuracy, exception trends, model adoption.
• Develop consistent key performance indicators and post-transition reviews to identify root causes, capture lessons learned and improve future investment asset-transition processes.
• Create repeatable playbooks, workflows, controls, and communication standards that improve the scalability,predictability, and client experience for investment operations asset transition process.
• Provide education and support to acquired-firm principals, advisors, and staff regarding Merit’s investment platform,transition processes, and ongoing operating procedures.
• Promote a collaborative, solutions-oriented approach that balances asset transition speed with fiduciary, operational,compliance, and client-service considerations.

*Please note the job responsibilities may vary, grow, and change as the organization evolves.

Salary + Benefits:

• Competitive, based on experience
• Medical Insurance  
• Dental/Vision Insurance   
• Life & Personal Accident Insurance 
• Short-term Disability Insurance   
• Long-term Disability Insurance  
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA), Health Savings Account (HSA) or Dependent Care FSA  
• 401(k) Plan with company matching
• Paid Time Off (PTO) and paid holidays 

Best Places To Work for Financial Advisors 2018-2024: Best Places to Work for Financial Advisors 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 – Recognized firms were required to be a registered investment advisor (RIA) that has been in business at least one year and having a minimum of 15 full-time/part-time employees. The assessment consisted of a questionnaire on benefits and policies completed by human resources staff along with an engagement & satisfaction survey completed by a minimum of 40% of staff. 50 firms were selected for this award from an undisclosed list of submissions. There was no charge to be included in this award listing.

Georgia Fast 40 2019 and 2022: The Georgia Fast 40 for 2019 and 2022 was awarded by the Atlanta Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. To be eligible companies must be for profit and headquartered in Georgia and the most recent year-end revenues ranging from $15 million to $500 million and have three years of verifiable revenue and employment growth.

Inc 5000 2019, 2020 & 2021: The Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index, which consists of more than 5000 companies, represents virtually all of the capitalization of the entire U.S. stock market

Compensation: Merit Financial Advisors offers competitive compensation based on experience, qualifications, location, and market data. Where required by applicable law, salary ranges will be provided during the hiring process.

Requirements:

• A minimum of 7 years of relevant experience in wealth management, investment operations, custodial transitions, M&A integration, or a related financial-services function.
• Bachelor’s degree in any of the following - Business, Finance, Data Analytics preferred.
• Excellent interpersonal and relationship-management skills, including the ability to build trust with acquired-firm principals and communicate effectively during periods of change.
• Excellent written, presentation, and communication skills, including the ability to translate complex investment asset transition issues into clear decisions and action plans.
• Highly analytical and detail oriented, with a strong control mindset and commitment to data accuracy.
• Ability to identify risks, resolve issues, make sound decisions, and escalate appropriately in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Ability to work effectively both independently and across diverse internal and external teams.
• Securities licenses or relevant professional designations are preferred but not required