Financial Planning Associate

Description

Position Overview:  The Financial Planning Associate position includes the opportunity for career progression in financial planning through learning and developing technical financial planning expertise, including the ability to analyze confidential client financial information and integrate the financial planning philosophy and biblical principles upon which the company serves its clients into customized financial plans to help clients achieve their goals.

Principal Accountabilities:

1. Assists with client meetings, records meeting notes, follows up regarding meetings, and responds to client and outside advisor inquiries.

2. Performs investment management tasks such as trading, tax loss harvesting, re-balancing, and account reviews.

3. Assists with tax planning to estimate tax withholding settings or quarterly tax payments, plan for cash, securities or other property gifting opportunities, bonus payments, and stock option planning.

4. Seeks to continually increase knowledge of the financial planning philosophy and biblical principles upon which Blue Trust serves its client base through learning associated scripture memory verses in order to integrate Blue Trust’s philosophy into client counsel and services.

5. Develops high quality, accurate, attractive, and professional reports and presentations that integrate a biblical worldview into financial recommendations.

6. Exhibits technical knowledge and competency in education funding, debt management, income tax estimation and minimization, charitable giving, cash flow, retirement, insurance, and estate planning.

7. Demonstrates computer literacy and knowledge of specialized office programs and demonstrates competency in utilizing software applications that are company specific, e.g., eMoney, Salentica (CRM), Orion.

8. Understands and supports the counsel and biblical basis upon which Blue Trust serves its client base.

9. Approaches work, interactions, and relationships in a manner consistent with the company’s Core Values.

10. Maintains the highest Compliance standards by adhering to the company's Human Resource guidelines, Compliance policies and procedures, professional designation standards, and industry's regulatory standards to mitigate risk to the company.

Requirements

• Desire to serve clients and co-workers with excellence.
• Aptitude and passion for learning.
• Ability to exercise independent judgment as well as take direction from others.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office with a high level of expertise in MS Excel.
• Strong understanding of personal financial concepts.
• Organizational and operational efficiency.
• Ability to prioritize and complete multiple time-sensitive tasks.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, both verbal and written.
• Proven technical, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Strong organization skills and systems acumen.
• Strong business mathematical skills and keen attention to detail.
• Personal integrity and ability to discreetly handle confidential data.
• Demonstrated computer literacy and knowledge of specialized office programs.

Education, Experience & Skills:  

• Bachelor’s degree is required, preferably in a finance-related field.
• Prior experience is not required, but would be valuable if it is related to financial planning and/or financial service, taxes, or accounting

Certifications, Licenses and Registrations: 

• The ideal candidate will be interested in or already actively pursuing the Certified Financial Planner® designation.
• Additional education and credentials are a plus, such as MBA, ChFC, CPA, etc.
• If you have a license to sell securities or insurance, you will need to allow your license to expire after leaving your prior employer. Because we are not a broker-dealer nor insurance company, employees are not allowed to “park” their license(s) with Blue Trust and also cannot “park” their license(s) with another company.

Travel Requirements

• This position may require occasional travel by car or other reasonable means of transportation, to ensure clients are served in a manner consistent with Division’s client service model.
• Blue Trust offers a Career Development Plan (CDP) that implements a development program for moving from Planner to Advisor. The CDP was created to provide clarity in the process of becoming an advisor at Blue Trust.  It was designed to create a clearly defined career path roadmap, consistent messaging and conversation, and nationwide process standardization. The Planner to Advisor Track curriculum was designed to capture the role-specific learning items required for a new employee starting as a Planner at Blue Trust.

The areas of focus within the CDP: Biblical Wisdom, Leadership/Management, Technical Knowledge, Client Service, Pursuit of Designations, Business Development and People Skills. 

Blue Trust is an equal opportunity employer